Whaddiz Cádiz?

If you didn’t get my joke in the title, it means you’re normal. Over 99.9999 % of Americans mispronounce the name of this place as “ka-DIZZ.” Remember the oil spill? Remember the Exxon kah-DIZZ.

My title has two words that rhyme exactly. The name is KAH-diz. It rhymes with WHAT-is. The accent is on the first syllable. It comes from the Roman name for this place, but we won’t go into all of that now.

I have long said that if for some reason we were not able to continue living in the U. S., I would come to Cádiz. An afternoon of walking slowly around this small town reinforced my opinion.

This city only has about 100,000 people, and it is located on a little peninsula that once hosted a Phoenician town 3000 years ago. But there were people here long before that. It may be the oldest town in the Western world. Although many European towns will tell you that their churches are built on the site of Roman or Greek temples, this is one of the few towns where the churches are built on top of old Phoenician temples.

Cádiz does not have any attractions like an Eiffel Tower or a Taj Mahal, but it has the special charm of a quiet town that is not trying to be anything other than what it is. There’s a beach here. There is also a twelfth-century cathedral, called the “old cathedral,” and one from the renaissance called the “new cathedral.” In the crypt of the new cathedral I saw the tomb of one of my musical heroes, the Spanish composer, Manuel de Falla. There are markets selling fish that were swimming in the ocean an hour ago. And other markets selling the delicious jamon iberico, a ham that comes from hogs grown nowhere else in the world. There is fresh produce everywhere, and more people walk to the markets than drive to them.

In Cádiz there is time for two old guys just to sit around at the local garage and talk about mañana. But, of course if you know your town has been around for 6000 years, you don’t need to be in a hurry. In Cádiz you can take your dog into a bar. Nobody minds.

Cádiz is an old girl. She has seen everything come and go several times—Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Moors, kingdoms, emperors, and republics. For too many millennia to count. And she doesn’t get too excited about any of that stuff anymore. She just enjoys sipping a glass of wine in an afternoon garden and smelling the delicious orange trees. She loves to spend an evening just watching the ocean waves crash on her beach. She enjoys taking her time.

All things considered, not a bad way to live.

What is Cádiz? It’s not heaven. That doesn’t exist in this world. But Cádiz is a place of uncommon beauty, with people of uncommon kindness who have learned it is the simple gifts that make life worth living. And they have learned that there is really no good reason ever to be in a hurry. Czytaj więcej