Greece - The Mani

We took advantage of the long weekend by making it an even longer weekend.  I took a leave day for Tuesday and with Monday being the Memorial Day holiday we had a long four-day weekend.  To start, we left Friday after work and drove past Corinth and Tripoli to Sparta, arriving with plenty of time to walk around before dinner.


Sparta was the home of King Menelaus, whose wife, Helen, was seduced by Paris, provoking the Trojan War.  The Spartans were most powerful from the 9^th to 4^th centuries BC and defeated the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War.  They were a warlike group and feared by all warriors of that period.  Because they built mostly of wood, there isn’t much left today of ancient Sparta.  It is, well, Spartan.  Today’s town of about 13,000 isn’t much to write about either.  We walked the main streets and sat on the town square drinking a beer at an outside café.  We had dinner at Diethnes restaurant, considered to be the best in town, in a nice shaded courtyard.  The food was adequate but nothing great.  At least we had a decent central hotel. 


Saturday morning we got up early and left soon after breakfast as we had a busy schedule planned.  We drove the short distance to Mistras (or Mystras) and arrived at 8:00 am when it opened.  Last December we were on an Embassy tour that stopped in Mistras for a short time.  At that time we only had time to explore the Lower Town and its remaining churches.  So this time we drove to the top entrance, which is the Upper Town, to begin our tour. 


Mistras has a fascinating history starting in 1249 when William de Villehardouin of Champagne, France, started building the fortress.  In the 14^th and 15^th centuries it was considered the Florence of the Orient and was occupied by Franks, Venetians and Turks (Ottomans) until Greece won its independence in 1830.  Much of the city is in ruins today but many churches remain, one nunnery, the citadel at the highest peak, much of the palace, and many streets and alleys with shells of houses.  We started by hiking up the steep and winding walk to the castle fortress or citadel.  The views were great in all directions.  At one steep overlook the ancient Spartans hurled their malformed babies.  We were the second couple to arrive at the top and we could see for miles in the distance as the countryside woke up.


We climbed down and toured the Upper Town going into Agia Sofia (St. Sofia), St. Nikolas, and Moni Pantanassas, a former 15^th century monastery that is inhabited today by a few nuns and several cats.  We could not enter the former palace as renovations keep people out but we did walk old alleyways and the major streets of this city that once housed 20,000 people.  Finally we had to hike back to our car and head on to Kalamata.


The drive from Mistras to Kalamata is an exciting mountain road that passes through a park dedicated to rock climbing.  It starts out very rocky and barren but soon enters pine forests with more greenery and wildflowers.  At this point we crossed the Taigetos Mountains and after a short while we descended into the town of Kalamata, known mostly for its large, delicious olives.  We navigated through the town, busy with Saturday shoppers, and made our way past Messini to Pylos where we stopped for lunch. 


Pylos (or Pilos) was known as Navarino and sits on the largest Greek harbor with one side shielded by three-mile long Sfaktiria Island.  Two forts overlook the bay, one built in 1278 (and difficult to access) and the other in Pylos built by the Turks in the 16^th century.  The Battle of Navarino took place in 1827 when the allied forces (11 English, 7 French and 8 Russian ships) defeated a much larger navy of 82 Turkish and Egyptian ships.  The battle paved the way for Greek independence from the Turks.


We had a pleasant lunch on the waterfront with views of Sfaktiria Island across the bay.  After lunch we walked to the Niokastro, or new castle, but it closed at 3:00 pm and we only had about 15 minutes for a quick look.  So we drove the short distance south to Methoni and an even nicer fortress to explore.


Methoni is a sleepy little town, at least in May, with a nice little beach next to the citadel that was begun in the 13^th century on the site of an earlier fortress in a very strong position on a promontory surrounded by the sea on three sides.  Methoni is mentioned by Homer and also has a history of being occupied by Mycenaeans, ancient Greeks, Franks, Venetians, Turks and modern day Greeks again.  What remains today of the citadel was mostly built by the Venetians in 1494 with additions by the Turks such as the Bourdzi Tower.  We hiked all around the citadel and out to the Bourdzi Tower which sticks out into the sea and is connected by a narrow rock walkway. 


It was late afternoon and we were tired after a long day so we drove a short distance to Finikouda, a small fishing village turned into tourist hotels, but didn’t see any place we wanted to stay.  So we drove back to Methoni and were able to get a room at the Methoni Beach hotel where we had stopped for a cappuccino freddo earlier.  They had a room available so we took it.  It had a nice balcony where we sat and read our books while watching the sunset color the citadel just a few yards away.  We lazily watched sailboats in the harbor and the islands of Sapienza and Schiza in the near distance as the sun set.  We had our dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was on the beach overlooking the small harbor.  Life doesn’t get much better than this.


Sunday morning we slept in and took our time getting away.  We had a nice breakfast on the hotel patio overlooking the bay and hated to rush away.  Eventually we checked out and drove the short distance to the town of Koroni on the Messenian Gulf.  Koroni is situated on a high promontory that protects a small port and is surmounted by a castle once more.  Koroni, called Coron by the Franks, was conceded to the Venetians in 1206 and together with Methoni was called “the eyes of Venice”.  Venice and the Turks fought over Koroni and it exchanged hands a few times.  Today it has small, narrow streets and whitewashed houses with tiled roofs.  We drove through the center of town, barely making it through some streets, to the citadel.  We briefly looked at the main gate and took some photos before leaving town and driving north.



We headed through seaside beach resorts that seemed a bit too touristy for our taste.  At the main road we headed back through Kalamata and into the district known as The Mani.  We drove through the small village of Kambos with an impressive Frankish castle overlooking the town and stopped in Kardamyli where we had reservations for the night.  The Notos Hotel had several stone cabins that were first class accommodations with views of the Messenian Gulf once more. 



After we checked in we drove into town and had lunch at the Kiki Taverna under shade trees with views of the Gulf.  Our waitress spoke excellent English so I asked her if she knew where we could find Patrick Leigh Fermor, author of the best book on the region called The Mani.  I recently read his book and an article about his colorful life in the “New Yorker” magazine.  He is 92 years old today and lives alone in his houses here and in England.  The waitress suggested we check at the Karamitsi Hotel, which we did.  They pointed us to the path to his house, which is behind the hotel, but when we arrived it was all quiet.  I called out and even walked through his unlocked gate but there was no answer.  Perhaps he was still napping or perhaps didn’t want any more company.  So we drove back to our hotel and read our books on our balcony.



In the evening we drove back into Kardamyli and had dinner at Lela’s restaurant.  Lela’s is hard to find but has a beautiful setting on the water.  We decided to eat about 8:00 pm thinking it was early by Greek standards.  In Athens we are usually dining alone at 8:00 pm.  This area is heavily visited, mostly by German tourists who eat earlier, so the small restaurant was packed and we barely got one of the last available tables.  The restaurant also ran out of most of their dishes so we had to settle for what was left.  Rita chose moussaka while I had pastissio and both dishes were very good.  It was a pleasant evening.



Monday we had breakfast on our balcony and checked out about 10:00 am.  We drove further south along the scenic road across the boundary that divides the Outer Mani from the Inner Mani.  We took a cutoff to see the seaside resort of Stoupa where many Germans like to vacation.  We stopped in Areopoli (Ares City) and walked around the old town with its Maniot towers, the unusual 18^th century Taxiarch church, which has the zodiac symbols on its narthex, and the picturesque St. Johns church.  The Maniots were a wild, isolated group who built tall towers to wage war on their neighbors whenever a blood feud occurred, which was often.  Some of their feuds would last for 40 years and the towers allowed them to drop rocks and boulders onto their neighbor’s roof tops, as well as shoot at them. Sometimes complete families were wiped out in these feuds.  They would stop their feuds to group together to fight the Turks and then continue the feud after the Turks were run out.  The Turks decided it was best to not even try to conquer these strange people.  The two items that the Maniots are best known for are their feuds and funeral dirges. 



We drove further south past many tower villages such as Kita, Gerolimenas, and Alika to the best known Maniot tower village, Vathia.  We stopped in Vathia and walked around the many deserted towers and houses.  Then we continued down to the bottom of the peninsula to Porto Kagio (quail – which are hunted here in abundance in the fall) where we had our best meal of the trip.  There are only three restaurants in this very pretty village set in an isolated bay.  Each restaurant had their own small fishing boat.  We picked Akrotiri Taverna because the waitress seemed the friendliest.  I picked a fresh fish out of the cooler and we had an excellent meal of grilled eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and fish with fried potatoes.  We had a nice white wine with the meal and walnut cake with coffee afterwards.  The setting was perfect, as was the weather, and we didn’t want to leave. 



We continued a bit further, as far as the road goes, to the tip of the peninsula called Cape Tenaro where there are the ruins of an ancient temple to Poseidon.  There is a water grotto nearby which is rumored to be the entrance to Hades or the Greek underworld.  Also, in 1941 the British navy fought a battle with the Italians here with the Italians losing three cruisers.



We drove back to Alika where we followed a road along the east coast of the peninsula through more Maniot villages with fortress towers.  We drove to the pretty seaport of Kotronas and then back across the mountains again to Areopoli where we checked into the very nice Limeni Village hotel for the night.  We sat on our balcony watching the sunset and had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant which was also on a balcony overlooking the bay.  After dinner Rita and I stayed up late watching stars, meteorites, and the occasional satellite from our balcony.



Tuesday we had to start our homeward journey.  We drove across the peninsula to the pretty port of Gythio, which was Sparta’s main access to the sea.  We stopped on the pier and walked over to a beautiful four-masted ship named the “Sea Cloud”.  It was built in 1931 for E. F. Hutton and Marjorie Meriwether Post, changed hands a few times, and then became a cruise ship.  It carries a maximum of 64 passengers, has a crew of 60, and still has hand-operated sails on its four masts. 



We continued northwards through Skala to the medieval town of Geraki with its 12^th and 13^th century Byzantine churches and its Frankish castle built in 1254.  Geraki is called a mini-Mistras by one guide book.  Rita and I walked up to the castle and were met by the keeper from the village who had keys to let us into the churches. 



From Geraki we drove into mountains and the pretty town of Kosmas with a shaded town square surrounded by cafes and an old church.  From Kosmas the road became quite difficult with hairpin curves and steep drop-offs.  The country was wild and mostly uninhabited.  The road drops rapidly to the Dafnon river gorge and finally ended at the village of Leonidio after hundreds of curves.  We continued north on the Arcadia Coast road with nice views of the Argolikos Gulf.  We made a short stop to see the Neolithic ruins at Lerni.  We saw the remains of the House of the Tiles which is dated to about 2200 BC and then headed home through Argos and Corinth.



The drive home was long and tiring and we were happy to be home but it was a great weekend trip to a remote part of the Peloponnese that we had wanted to see for some time.