SKOPELOS, NORTH
GREECE, AND ATHENS
DAY 1 Arrive AthensWe'll meet in the hotel lobby this evening to go out for dinner at a great local restaurant.
DAY 2 Volos
We'll drive north up the coast to Volos. The best place in Greece to hear Rebbetika music (the traditional Greek music, something like our jazz) is Skala Milanou in Volos. There was a famous rebbetika player named Milanos some 40-50 years ago. He had a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Volos (now in the family for 86 years), which is now run by his 2 sons Nikos (age 68) and Karolos (73). They're the most incredible musicians I've heard in Greece. Every night Nikos cooks (incredible food) and about 10.30 Karolos comes in and starts playing with some of the locals and whatever musicians happen to be going through Volos. Then Nikos joins in and there are usually about 5 or 6 playing guitar, bouzouki, baklama, spoons, and singing. It's unbelievable. I know almost all of the old rebbetika, but they play this music in a totally unique and completely riveting style.
And you can eat and drink all night for about 7 euros.
DAYS 3-4 Skopelos
View of the Prince
Stafilos in Skopelos
Like the other Sporades Islands, Skopelos is mountainous and pine-covered, with dozens of marvelous beaches and picturesque coves and villages. It’s visited during the summer by many knowledgeable tourists from around the world, but fortunately it has no airport and hasn’t yet been ruined by mass tourism. It’s a big island, about 40 miles long and from 5 to 12 miles wide. A single paved road runs from Glossa, an elevated village on the west coast, to the main town of Skopelos. Situated in a circular harbor surrounded by mountains, the town rises steeply above the water like a huge layer cake. The bottom layer is the waterfront, a half-mile of restaurants, shops, and cafes almost hidden by the green of mulberry and plane trees, while above it layers of whitewashed houses with red tile roofs and brightly painted shutters seem to be piled on top of one another.
What is there to do in Skopelos? One could easily spend two days just exploring the town; the people are friendly and the view around every corner of the narrow lanes is wonderful; when you get tired of walking, have a seat at one of the waterfront cafes and watch the boats or chat with the people at the next table. If you want to see other parts of the island, rent a motor scooter or take the bus or a taxi; both taxis and busses leave from a plane tree on the waterfront, and the bus schedule is on a sign attached to the tree. About two and a half miles from town (a pleasant and not difficult walk) is Staphylos. the best-known beach; it’s named for a mythical prince of Crete who supposedly colonized Skopelos during the Bronze Age. Another two and a half miles along the truly breathtaking scenery of the southern coast brings you to Agnondas, a quaint village with a few houses and three seafood restaurants. Or, if you want to see the whole island, take the bus all the way to Glossa and back.
Skopelos is the home of Kostas and Voula Kalafatis, my Greek colleagues (they help me with my arrangements while I am in America). If you want information, help, or just friendly conversation and a cup of coffee (or something stronger), go to their shop on the waterfront.
DAY 5
We'll take an afternoon ferry to Volos, where our bus will meet us and take us to the village Hania on the top of Mount Pelion, one of the greenest and most beautiful areas of Greece.
DAY 6 Volos
We'll spend the sight-seeing around Mount Pelion — beautiful forests and orchards, whole villages devoted to growing flowers, incredible beaches a few miles from a major ski center. We'll spend the night in Volos, a wonderful port city famous for its ouzeris (waterfront restaurants specializing in the seafood appetizers that are served with the anise-flavored liquor ouzo).
DAY 7 Vergina Kalambaka
From Volos we'll go north past Mount Olympos to Vergina, where the new state-of-the-art museum contains the Macedonian royal burial mound and the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
We'll then go south to Kalambaka, the town of the Meteora (24 Orthodox monasteries perched on sheer precipices). Long ago under water, the rocks have been wierdly shaped and pitted by countless centuries of wind and rain. The recesses and their inaccessibility attracted early hermits and monks to the place, and during the 14th century the first monasteries were built. Once crowded and prosperous, they became virtually deserted during the last century, although a current renaissance in monasticism is accompanied by large building projects at several of the bigger monasteries. We’ll visit either Varlaam or Metamorphosis, and see the chapel (with frescoes depicting every possible way to become a martyr), the museum, and the platform from which rope nets are let down several hundred feet by a windlass; this was until 70 years ago the only means of entrance to the monasteries and still the only way to transport goods and materials. Male visitors are not allowed to wear shorts in the monasteries, and women must wear a skirt or dress and have their shoulders covered.
DAY 8 Meteora Metsovo
From Meteora it's a short drive up into the Pindos Mountains to Metsovo, a village of 5,000 Vlachs (and the wealthiest town per capita in the European Union).
Metsovo and the other mountain villages of this area are completely unlike the rest of Greece. Even the language is different, since most of the people, although they speak Greek. are Vlachs and speak Vlachika as their native tongue. The older people still wear the traditional mountain clothing: men in black. sometimes with skirts and white leggings, tasselled clogs and shepherd’s crooks, women in long skirts and embroidered velveteen bodices. They are taciturn and proud, but very friendly to their North American visitors. The scenery everywhere is fantastic: Metsovo is on the steep side of one mountain and looks across a valley to some of the highest peaks of the Pindos. capped with snow through the summer. The fields are riots of wildflowers, and in distant valleys flocks of sheep and goats are tiny moving white dots. The town itself is one of the most prosperous in Greece, with most of the income coming from lumber, grazing, cheese-making, weaving, and the bequest of the Tositsa family. Houses are wood and stone, with slate roofs and carved wooden ceilings (you’ll see these also in our hotel). During the morning we’ll visit the Tositsa Museum, the house in which the immensely wealthy family of the Barons Tositsa lived for over three centuries. After the death of the last Tositsa in 1950, the house was made into a museum, a memorial to the way the rich used to live, and a superb collection of the folk arts of the region. The rest of the day is free; those who wish can gather in the afternoon to discuss the psychology of Greek myth.
Our hotel, the Egnatia, in Metsovo.
DAY 9 Konitsa
We'll go to Konitsa, a few miles from Albania, after seeing the Vikos Gorge and the Oracle of Zeus at Dodoni. The Oracle was regarded by Homer as the oldest of all oracles and second in importance only to Delfi. Zeus was the god of Dodoni and spoke through the rustling leaves of a sacred oak tree. At first the oracle consisted of only a circle of tripods around the oak; a temple was built in the 4th century, enlarged by Pyrrhos at the beginning of the 3rd century, and rebuilt at the end of this century. The most spectacular structure at Dodoni is the theater, one of the largest in Greece (holding around 20,000); it was built by Pyrrhos and rebuilt twice in later years.
The first priests at Dodoni were called Selloi (which may be connected with Hellenes, the Greek word for themselves); Homer says that they wore no shoes, never washed their feet, and slept on the ground (probably because this oldest of oracles maintained a strong connection with Gaia-Earth, the first giver of oracles). Later a band of priestesses called Doves interpreted the sounds of the oak to petitioners. In the museum of Ioannina are several dozen lead tablets of questions put to the oracle; the most common types of questions are “How (or when) will I have a son?” and “Am I the father of her children?” and “To which god should I pray for business success?”.
Views of our hotel in Konitsa, the Gefiri.
Dodoni theater
Venetian harbor at Nafpaktos
We'll visit several interesting places during our drive south to Erateini, on the coast near Delfi, including the aqueduct built by Emperor Augustus for the town he created, Nikopolis, and the beautiful Venetian harbor at Nafpaktos, wherre the Turkish fleet assembled before the famous battle of Lepanto in 1571.
DAY 11 Delfi
We'll drive up into the foothills of Mount Parnassos to visit the Oracle of Apollo at Delfi. Delfi was the most famous oracle of the ancient world (remember that an oracle was a place or a message, not a person), already held in highest esteem at the time of Homer (8th century). Here questions were asked of the god Apollo (mostly by rulers and governments in the earlier phase, by individuals in the later phase) and his answer was transmitted by a priestess, the Pythia, who babbled something incoherent which was translated into hexameter verse by the college of priest-poets. The petitioner would first purify himself in the sacred Kastalian spring, then write his question on a lead tablet, and wait for his turn to submit it. The order of submission was determined by lottery, unless one was granted the right of promanteia (the privilege of cutting in line), presumably in return for a handsome gift to the sanctuary; an extant inscription just below the Temple of Apollo reads “Delfi grants to the people of Chios the right of promanteia (cutting the line).” The oracles were characteristically vague or ambiguous, thus increasing immeasurably their odds of success.
In myth Delfi (like almost all oracles) was at first the possession of Gaia (Earth), who was the first to utter prophecies. Later Apollo killed the great serpent which guarded the site and took it over (Pytho, the early name of Delfi, and Pythia, the priestess, may be words derived not from python [serpent] but from pythao [a verb “to rot”], since Apollo left the body of the serpent to rot in the sun).
We’ll begin with the museum (the display labels are mostly in Greek and French, so if you don’t know one of these languages attach yourself to someone who does).
We go up the entrance stairs to the first exhibit, a large omphalos (navel stone). Zeus saw where two eagles, flying from the ends of the earth, met; this place was Delfi, the navel of the earth. The following rooms contain in order the Sphinx of the Naxians; a huge archaic sculpture which stood atop a 30-foot column, and the pediment and frieze from the Treasury of the Siphnians; large, very early bronze shields; two kouros statues of Kleobis and Biton, two youths proclaimed by Solon to be the most fortunate persons in the world, since they pulled their mother’s chariot to the Argive Heraion, fell asleep in the temple, and never awoke; a treasure of gold, silver, and ivory objects found in 1939 under a path below the Temple of Apollo; sculpture from the Treasury of the Athenians; statuary from the archaic Temple of Apollo (this temple, called the Alkmaionid temple because it was paid for by the aristocratic Athenian clan of the Alkmaionidai, was the second on the site and was destroyed by an earthquake in 373 BC). The Alkmaionid temple was quickly rebuilt, and the new temple’s repair by Domitian at the end of the 1st century a.d. is commemorated by an inscription; a rare and important inscription of a hymn with musical notation. objects from the Tholos, a round temple in the lower shrine; 4th century sculptures, including three enormous dancing girls on a column which was the base for a tripod, and the votive offering of Daochos, a family group tracing his genealogy; the highlight of the museum (and perhaps of all museums) is the bronze statue of the Charioteer in; this spectacular piece, from around 475 BC, stands poised at the end of the Archaic age, on the verge of motion and the Classical style.
Turning left from the Museum entrance, we take the paved path to the site entrance (separate ticket). As we begin up the slope after the entrance we come first to the Offerings of the Arcadians and the Spartan Monument of the Admirals, two rows of statue bases, then two semi-circular Argive monuments, followed by a large number of treasuries, including those of the Sikyonians, the Siphnians, the Thebans, and the Athenians (reconstructed). Next is a small Council Chamber near the site of the column which held the Sphinx of the Naxians, the place at which the gold and silver treasures in the museum were found, and the Treasury of the Corinthians. Below the Temple of Apollo is the Stoa of the Athenians, a colonnade honoring the victory over the Persians in 480, and before the Temple is the Altar of Apollo, dedicated by the people of Chios (with the aforementioned inscription granting Chios the nght of promanteia). A reconstructed pillar held an equestrian statue of Prusias, king of Bithynia in the 2nd century BC. The great Temple of Apollo was the actual site of the oracle, perhaps in an underground chamber. Above the temple is a small but well-preserved theater, built in the 4th century and restored by the Romans. A steep but worthwhile walk leads from the theater to the Stadium, the best-preserved in Greece; it held 7,000 spectators and is still used for theatrical and musical events. After returning downhill to the entrance we turn left and follow the path to the Kastalian Spring; a little below the spring is a refreshment terrace (much needed by those who’ve gone all the way to the stadium) with a good view of the lower site. The large, recently-excavated gymnasium area is now open to visitors; below it is the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, which contains an old and a new temple of Athena, two treasuries, and a beautiful, partially-reconstructed 4th century Tholos.
After visiting Delfi we'll drive south to Athens.
Day 12 Athens
In Athens we'll visit the Akropolis and Agora.
Day 13 Athens
Today we'll see the Archaeological Museum. The afternoon is free for those who would like to see the Museum of Cycladic Arts and/or the Benaki Museum.
DAY 14 Depart (unless you're going on to the Peloponnese).