We’re back from Savannah. It really is a beautiful place, and I’m sure we will visit again. The gracious architecture, the charming little squares that break up the urban density, and the fragrant, luxurious flora all provide the unforgettable aesthetic effect of a high civilization in a kind of sated languor. It was perfect for an April getaway, although for someone like me it would be completely uninhabitable in the summer heat — to us Northern types there is something horrifying about the unchecked fecundity and biological profusion of the warm, humid latitudes. (Cold, on the other hand, provides a bracing hormetic stress. It challenges the body and focuses the mind.)
Anyway, it was fun, but I’m glad to be back in the chilly Spring of maritime New England. Happy Easter!
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Please don’t spoil our wonderful secret. By the way, don’t you agree that Savannah is more civilized than Charleston?
If you feel so inclined, please compare and contrast Charleston or Savannah. I’ve only been to Charleston, and I found it to be the most beautiful city in the eastern USA (with San Francisco’s holding the spot of honor in the west). My nephew lives in Augusta (Georgia), and he has promised to show me around Sherman’s old town soon.
Epaminondas, funny that we were posting at the same time. I got sidetracked reading about the march to the sea online — I thought that William T. reached Savannah, but I wanted to make sure. Dreadful time. Anyway, once I posted, I saw yours. And I await MP’s answer.
Summer time in Ga. and parts of SC sees a divide between what is called the ‘gnat line’. It isn’t just the humidity.
https://melissamerkel.blogspot.com/2006/09/below-gnat-line.html
Epimanondas, I’m sorry if I’ve let the cat out of the bag, but magna est veritas, they say, and now and then it must prevail, a bit. (Or something like that.) Facts are facts, and the fact is that Savannah is a beautiful place. (And yes, having now been to both Charleston and Savannah, I’ll take Savannah, though they are both very special.)
(I wonder about a Southerner’s choosing as a nom de plume the name of a famous liberator of slaves. Is there more you’d like to say about that?)
Joseph A,
It hardly seems fair for me to attempt to compare in any depth these two places after such brief visits (and of course Charleston was two years ago, and so Savannah is much fresher in my mind). Both really are gracious, welcoming, charming places.
That said, I’ll say that Charleston felt bigger, somehow, than Savannah, and more urban; perhaps that’s because of its situation on that dramatic harbor, whereas Savannah just feels more like a town along a river (which it is, although the port of Savannah does more shipping than Charleston, and is second only to New York on the Eastern Seaboard).
The most striking difference, I think, is that Savannah is so full of beautiful trees, all draped with Spanish moss, and that the historic district is peppered with more than twenty little square parks, each of which is surrounded by fine old houses, each architecturally unique. Every little square becomes its own little neighborhood, shaded and sheltered by the great spreading trees, and the placement of the squares is such that they are centered on the intersections of the streets, so that the sight-lines of the urban grid are intentionally broken up by these green spaces every couple of blocks in all directions. There are very few tall modern buildings anywhere downtown, and so even the heart of the city always feels that it is built on an accessible, human scale.
What’s more, even though we were in Savannah during the middle of an April work-week, there was never the least sense of hustle and bustle; nobody ever seemed to be in any sort of hurry. (And one curious thing, which I hadn’t noticed until the lovely Nina pointed it out, was that the whole time we were wandering around that charming district we never saw a single policeman! I hardly know what to make of that.)
The architecture in both cities was beautiful, really very much so — but if I had to pick a winner on that score I’d give the nod to Savannah.
The food was wonderful in both places; I’ll be going to bed hungry for the next several days just to try to get back to where I was before we left.
We were also very impressed by Savannah’s premier art museum, the Telfair Academy, which has a first-rate collection of paintings in a magnificent setting. Likewise, the Catholic Cathedral there — the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist — is one of the most beautiful churches I’ve seen in America.
Above all, there was a feeling about Savannah, something rich and languorous, and at the same time sort of mysterious and otherworldly, that I’m finding hard to capture in words. They say the place is haunted by a great many ghosts of its complex and richly flavored history, and I find that easy to believe. (On our next trip we’ll pay a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery.)
Anyway, that’s the best I can do off the top of my head! I hope that helps.
P.S. I’m not sure how the locals would feel about calling it “Sherman’s Town”!
“I wonder about a Southerner’s choosing as a nom de plume the name of a famous liberator of slaves. Is there more you’d like to say about that?”
Well, Malcolm, I would say that Epaminondas’ decision to liberate the Spartan helots had about as much moral conviction as did Sherman’s efforts. Neither man had any qualms about slavery, per se. Liberation was a tactic, not a moral crusade. There was no place for slavery in an industrialized society since the factory owners had as much power over their labor as any plantation owner had over slaves. With one difference: slaves were treated better.
Epaminondas,
Thanks for the reply, and I won’t disagree with any of what you said. Most people today have no idea about any of this, and cannot possibly imagine that “free” people can be slaves in ways that are every bit as pernicious, and often worse, than the literal variety.
As with everything, the truth is far more complex than most people are inclined to bother with. Simple, Manichaean ideas are far less demanding.
I beg to demur, to a degree:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/04/maskaholics-anonymous.php
But on a brighter note!
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/04/saved-by-the-bunny.php