Fear and loathing in Meteora (October 28, 2022)

I went yesterday with my 9 ys old son to visit the Meteora monasteries, promising him a spectacular natural environment but also a sacred place for its ancient monasteries.

I am an Italian citizen (therefore a Catholic) who has lived in Greece for over ten years. I have visited many holy places in Greece, Italy, Spain, Israel, Egypt, some experiences were very spiritual, others unfortunately way too commercial. I know very well the political and economic mechanisms that see our sacred places of Christianity reduced to monuments, museums and archaeological sites open to mass tourism, but what I saw with my own eyes yesterday in Meteora was exceptional and deeply shameful.

Arriving at Agia Triada, on the access pavement to the monastery, there were two families having a picnic - ok, maybe children were starving and couldn't make it back to their cars... No big deal.

Outside the toilet of the monastery (which by the way was free at the time), one mother preferred to have her 3-4 year old daughter urinate in the adjacent bushes - ok, still children, come on, perhaps the toilet wasn't spotless...

A few meters from the toilet, on a rock in the monastery's precinct, other families had seen fit to unleash their children and let them climb screaming - ok ok, children again, one needs to be patient with kids... however it was also dangerous, if some of them had fallen and got hurt, then probably the caring mom and dad would sue the monastery for not having put the rock in safety...

But in the end, now out of the rudeness of bad mannered children, on the pavement of access to the monastery again, there were two adult males who start pissing on the side of the path, while everyone was passing by saying nothing. Only I scolded them, but finding myself alone and in the company of my son, I did not insult them as I would have liked to, in order to avoid physical confrontation. It wouldn't be the first time that violence erupts from scolding idiots.

Since yesterday was a national holiday, I certainly did not expect to find deserted monasteries, but this type of tourism is demeaning, unmotivated and even desecrating. If there must be a secular tourism indifferent to the sacredness of the holy places, at the very least it should be limited and controlled, to avoid behaviours that people would not allow themselves to keep either in their countries of origin (some of the aforementioned episodes were due to Greeks, others to foreigners) or in any other public space.

We are now at the paroxysm that a playground, Disneyland or McDonald's are more cared and respected than a monastery. I draw my own conclusions easily, as for you, I don't know. But if you don't take any containment measures, no one will do it for you.