I’ve often s
aid Tbilisi is a city of contrasts. One doesn’t have to walk too long to move from the city’s oldest churches and buildings to its modern architecture.
Some of my favorite neighborhoods around the city are those that came to be in the 1800s, the ornate buildings that stand as a testament to the city’s onetime wealth.
As I mentioned last week, we’ve been getting quite a bit of rain lately–much more than this desert dweller is used to–so I decided to spend some time inside some of these marvelous buildings.
Like many exteriors from this era, there’s a range of restoration and upkeep in many of the interiors. Even where the paint is cracked and faded and the plasterwork is damaged, it’s easy to imagine these spaces in their glorious heydays.
I’m not a big fan of saying things like “they don’t do X, Y, or Z like they used to,” but I’d always make an exception for the craft that went into decorating these interiors, even if many of them are a bit rough around the edges today.
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I’m very excited for next week’s newsletter where I’ll take you exploring a noisy, chaotic place in Tbilisi that is often the answer to most questions here that start with, “Where can I go to find a…?” I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Target.
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