theology . This branch of Christianity is known as Uniate Church . Is it East or is it West ? This story begins in the small Town named Prešov . I reached it in a few days , crossing the gentle Slovakian countryside dotted here and there with grey factories and great barracks from the Soviet era , brought to a new life by the vivid colours they ’ re painted with , which makes them look like gigantic Pantone colour charts .
Prešov , instead , looks like it ’ s made of marzipan : a small treasure chest of different architectures — from rococo to soviet rationalism , passing by neoclassic and art nouveau — painted in pastel colours . Pointy cathedrals face the hammer and sickle of the revolution gone by , between a souvenir shop and a kebab nook .
Prešov region is the far western offshoot of Ruthenia , a name that meant a smaller territory in past centuries : from the big Kievan Rus — extending from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea — to the small Subcarpatic Ruthenia , coinciding with the area between L ’ viv and Prešov . The latter passed to Slovakia and was finally divided between Ukraine and Slovakia at the end of World War II , after a timid and very brief attempt at autonomy .
I am confused ; am I in the West or in the East ? In doubt , I head straight to the Ukrainian border , to Uličské Krivé , in search of material evidences of this hybrid identity . Accompanied by the low whirr of the one-litre twin-cylinder engine , I ride through the small roads crossing the beechwood . Tarmac is sometimes pebbled , sometimes scuffed , but always digestible by the V-Strom ’ s suspensions , which seems to be having at least as much fun as I ’ m taking corners . There I find small , humble and tidy villages , made up of tiny houses with immaculate gardens , each with its own well-kept flowerbed on the front , denoting a
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