Good afternoon, and welcome. If you'll gather in, I'll take you through this piece first and then we'll begin the tour proper. I do have a script. I am told I deliver it well.
The Windstorm P. What polarization does, precisely, is filter out light that has bounced off a flat surface and come back at you organised into a single plane — glare, in ordinary language.
The P is the important letter: it denotes the polarized lens, and the colourway I have here is Polarized Grey.
Off water, off wet paving, off the sheen of a hard court in the middle of the afternoon. A polarized lens makes one specific thing quieter and leaves the rest as it was, which is a considerably more sophisticated instrument than most people realise they are wearing.
A tinted lens makes everything darker.
The frame is a full-rim rectangle, described as bio-injected, and it measures 65mm across the lens on a 13mm bridge with 140mm temples.
The Windstorm platform is an 8-base sport wrap built with Nike's Max Optics — clear vision at the edges of the lens, not only through the centre — with subtle venting through the frame, cushioned rubber temple tips and high-tension hinges to hold everything in place while you move.
Now. Ioannina. The script says: Its Kale, the inner citadel, containing the tomb of Ali Pasha, who ruled here for decades and whose story is far too large for the time allotted. It says: Nisi, the island out in Lake Pamvotis, and the monastery of St Panteleimon upon it, which is where Ali Pasha's story ends. Both true, both delivered.
And then — forgive me, we are going off-book, we always do at this point — the Silversmithing Museum, and the silver workshops in the castle. I could stay in that room until they turned the lights out.
This city worked silver for centuries, and what is in there is not treasure, it is technique: filigree drawn out so fine it is closer to embroidery than metalwork, made by people whose names in most cases nobody bothered to write down. Every piece is somebody's whole working life. We will be some time.
You will get use out of these lenses everywhere from a bright court to the glare coming off that lake, and while we are out there, the ancient theatre and oracle at Dodona is the oldest stop on the tour and I will not rush it either.
"A tint makes everything darker. Polarization makes one thing quieter and leaves the rest as it was."
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