Sailing the Mediterranean the old-fashioned way
As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need scientists prying into DNA samples to prove that Columbus was no gentleman from Verona. All you need is a day with Joan Santolaria, a geographer from Barcelona who captains the antique Catalan fishing vessel El Rafael out of the port of Palamós. The man possesses precisely the sly charm, curious intellect, quick step, and wildly curly red hair one would expect from a Catalan pirate of Columbus’s magnitude. (more…)
