The White Villages Route [antikvár]

THE WHITE VILLAGES ROUTE BEFORE even leaving home, the enlightened traveler knows that the name of this itinerary is, at the very least, arbitrary. At any rate it is fitting. The custom of whitewashing walls (covering the slightest trace of darker tones) is a deeply-rooted tradition in Cadiz. The villages stand out against the hillsides like patches of snow. But it is also true that white architecture is characteristic of many societies, in and outside of Andalusia, and such a distinctive region (both for its landscapes and its history) cannot be defined by its color alone. The "border" towns of the Cadiz Sierra and the Ronda Serrania (small mountain range) share a past immortalized in Spanish ballads, filled with Christian warriors and Moorish princesses as well as daring bandits outfitted in elegant clothes. Bordered by the Mediterranean on one side and the Atlantic on the other, the White Villages Route runs through a mountain landscape that gives the impression of being far from the sea. But, nonetheless, on clear days, from the highest peaks, the visitor can see as far as the plains of Castile on side and the