Original subtitles

THUNDER CRACKS

FRANCESCO: I've been at sea for eight weeks aboard the Black Swan,

sailing from Venice to Istanbul

following the trading routes of my ancestors.

We're heading for Crete,

but before we get there

I want to visit the little sad island of Spinolonga.

Spinolonga is now a ghostly and forgotten place.

The storm has cleared and there is an uneasy calm.

Once, this was a great Venetian fortress,

but Spinolonga was turned into a leper colony.

People from Crete with this incurable and disfiguring disease

were exiled here for the rest of their lives.

Ciao, Francesco!

Hundreds of lepers were brought here,

and even though they were ill

they made the island as pleasant a place to live as possible.

Over the years the lepers formed a community.

They had four tavernas where they could meet in the evening,

shops where they could buy things,

they put on plays, they had a church,

they even had a hairdresser.

But for everyone here,

this was bound to be their last resting place.

This was the cemetery.

They kept the graves easy to open -

you see, you were only buried here for four years,

because in Spinolonga there were always new bodies to be buried.

It's incredible to think Spinolonga was a leper colony

until as recently as 1957.

Now we're approaching Heraklion, the capital of Crete.

Heraklion port authority, Heraklion port authority,

this is the Black Swan, reply.

For 500 years, the island of Crete

was one of Venice's most prized conquests.

Before us, there were the Minoans, then the Romans.

After us, the Turks and the Egyptians.

Crete has seen many civilisations come and go.

Kalimera! Kalimera!

Can you show me around Crete? Yes.

This is the biggest Greek island of all,

so I've got a local guide for the next two days.

What's your name?

My name is Mamas. Mamas.

Yes. Nice.

Nice, OK.

SPEAKS GREEK

And are you from Crete?

Yes, of course, from Krete.

Crete was home to the oldest civilisation in Europe, the Minoans,

so I'm going to start at the very beginning of time.

Kalimera! Kalimera!

Zeus's cave? Yes. Ah!

Perfecto!

Katarina. Ah, Katarina.

This deep cavern is said to have been home to the infant Zeus.

It doesn't look like such a comfortable place

for a god to start life.

But things were not so good for Zeus at the beginning.

Zeus's father, a very jealous god,

wanted him killed at birth,

so his mother hid him in this cave.

Only later did he escape,

defeat the old gods

and become master of the universe.

Looking up through this chasm,

Zeus got his first view of life above ground.

Soon he would become the god of thunder and the sky.

EAGLE CRIES

Crete is an island full of fantastic legends,

and one of its most incredible stories is about the Minotaur.

No-one believed it

until an English archaeologist called Arthur Evans

started to investigate.

He believed that outside Heraklion

lay the ruins of a great civilisation.

He bought this land in 1900

and started digging,

and what they found surpassed his wildest dream.

These are the remains of the Palace of Knossos,

built by King Minos for his magnificent court.

Legend says the king kept a hideous beast -

half-bull, half-man, the Minotaur -

imprisoned in a great labyrinth or maze.

Evans didn't find the labyrinth here.

He found instead a palace of more than a thousand rooms.

As for the crazy stories about the Minotaur and its labirinto,

Evans said that this palace was the labirinto.

Far greater than anything in the world at the time,

it must have seemed like a maze to most visitors.

Dotted all over Knossos are these big ceramic pots.

Making them is a tradition that continues to this day.

The Kavkalakis family has been making pots for generations.

Kalimera! Kalimera!

Me lene Niko. Me lene Francesco.

They are incredible.

How long have you been doing these?

Oh, little.

Can I try? Yes.

Can I?

Yes. Yes?

Kalo. Nice.

NIKO SPEAKS GREEK

This OK?

But not like yours.

This, hmm.

Efkaristo.

Francesco Da Mosto.

It's our second day on Crete,

and Mamas has a surprise for me.

Kalimera, Mamas.

Kalimera, Francesco.

THEY SPEAK IN GREEK

# Ap to parathiro mou stelno Ena dio ke tria ke tessera filia

# Pou ftanoun sto limani

# Ena ke dio ke tria ke tessera poulia. #

Francesco, do you want to see a Cretan wedding?

Oh, great! Yes, we'd like to!

# Pou otan vradiazi

# Tragudia... #

Traditional Cretan weddings can be incredible.

Preparations often last days.

Mamas is taking me to meet the bride,

Maria Skoula.

Are you a little nervous?

A little.

All the women are helping prepare for the wedding feast.

They're making decorations in dough for a special wedding bread.

How many guests for your wedding?

1,500, about.

Mamma mia! It's a lot!

Mamma mia!

May I try? Ah, you? Yeah, me. Can I try?

Nice!

Kalo!

It's pretty good, no?

I like it.

In a nearby kitchen, the main wedding feast is being prepared.

Wow!

There's so much to do.

SHE SPEAKS GREEK

Everybody seems a little crazy.

Spaghetti?

Spaghetti!

Italiano!

Italiano! Italiano.

Ah!

This is lamb too. This is a food that traditional to the wedding.

How many sheeps? A lot of many. 100, 150.

Mamma mia!

The wedding isn't until evening, so maybe I get out of everybody's way.

Since we Venetians left, Crete was ruled by the Ottoman Turks.

But after centuries of foreign rule, the islanders decided to fight back.

This is the monastery of Arkadi.

It is a fine religious building.

But to Cretans, it means even more.

This monastery holds a special place in every Cretan heart -

not because it is a beautiful example of Venetian baroque architecture,

but because it became the symbol of Crete's struggle for independence.

In 1866, the people of Crete rose up against their Turkish oppressors.

Arkadi became a stronghold, harbouring hundreds of rebels and their families.

Turkish soldiers surrounded the monastery.

For two days the rebels held them off.

At last the walls were breached.

Then, something extraordinary happened.

This room, now open to the sky, was where the rebels kept their dynamite.

Instead of giving in to the Turks,

the abbot of the monastery ignited the explosives.

In the blast, hundreds died, martyrs to the Cretan cause.

The skulls of the dead were collected

and placed here, in an ossuary.

It's impossible to say which belonged to martyrs or oppressors.

Death is the great leveller.

Here, both Cretans and Turks rest together.

I've just got time to change before Maria's wedding.

HE LAUGHS

OK, now I'm ready.

THEY WOLF-WHISTLE

The whole of Maria's village

has turned out to see her get married.

The bride arrives with her father.

She's gorgeous.

This is the nervous bridegroom, Yiorgos.

In a few minutes, he and Maria will be man and wife.

Oh, I love weddings!

And now we go to party.

It's certainly the largest wedding reception I've ever been to.

Is there anyone who hasn't been invited?

At Cretan weddings, guests give money as gifts.

Around Maria's neck are ribbons with nuggets of gold on the end.

And now the food is served -

the meat of 150 sheep, and a whole lot more.

Maria and Yiorgos's first dance as man and wife includes all their close family.

Cretan weddings are famous for lasting the whole night.

I don't think any of us will be going home much before sunrise.

I'm destroyed.

Really!

KNOCKS DOOR Francesco.

Eh...

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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