Rosemary and Maraschino
When the Caronia sails into the Adriatic Sea on her forthcoming Autumn Mediterranean Cruise, she will approach the romantic coast of Dalmatia and drop anchor off the turrets and ramparts of Dubrovnik.
Among the many associations with chivalrous days of old, is Dalmatia's forgotten fame as the home of the ruby maraschino cherry and the adopted homeland of hedges of rosemary. Both of these plants give out so much of themselves to whet everyone's taste and scent enjoyment that they are famed throughout the World.
[Photo: Courtesy of John Gerrity]
Maraschino is an Italian word for the special cherry of the Dalmatian coast, Venetian traders in bygone centuries ferried sour but robust cherries from this rugged seacoast, sweetened and reddened them, and then sold them to eager rulers, nobles and gourmets of spice-starved Europe.
The name “Maraschino” is the Venetian diminutive of “maraska”, the Yugoslav district where most of these cherries were found. Later years brought troubles, blights, and Turkish invasions, so that cherries are no longer exported from Dalmatia. However the name lives on and is applied solely to this sweet tasting and ruby-hued cherry that enriches the palates of gourmets and diners.
Rosemary is a hedge which in the hot sunny days of summer exudes whole strains of a rich sweet odour. Castles and villas along the Dalmatian coast invariably set out hedges bordering walks leading up from beaches of the blue Adriatic, enchanting visitors before they reach the sure hospitality awaiting them. Rosemary needs just the hot dry sun and the tangy salt air to coax out into the ozone that maximum amount of rich odour that its oily and waxy green leaves can yield.
Another lovely word was born in Dubrovnik - our term “argosy.” In medieval days Dubrovnik was known as “Ragusa”, and the proud ships her citizens contributed to the Venetian fleets were called “argosies” by Europeans who could pronounce the word no more closely. Since these ships were of fine girth, and hauled spices and precious things from the Levant to Venice, they took on the romantic association that enhances the name.
The Caronia's voyagers will love Dubrovnik's walled town, beaches, and exquisite setting between sea and tumbling hillsides. Rosemary, maraschinos, and argosies are, alas, but memories in this surviving port of the Crusades, but the turrets and ramparts of her medieval buildings still bespeak an exciting cruise adventure.
[ Produced for the Autumn Mediterranean Cruise departing New York 05 Oct 1962]