Gythion is a small town on the southern coast of Greece near Sparta (home of the original Spartans). Lemons, olives, and honey are grown here; all the delicious ingredients for Mediterranean cooking. The city has a long promenade along the waterfront lined with pastel-colored neoclassical buildings filled with restaurants and shops.
It was another chilly day (high 40s F) as I explored the Villages of Mani. Windy and cold in the shade, but bearable in the sun with my many layers.
Mani is the southernmost peninsula of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. Due to its isolation from the rest of Greece, they developed somewhat different traditions and styles. The architecture of the region is prone to tower houses and fortified family dwellings in the Ottoman/Byzantine styles. The landscape is stunning and rich with wildflowers, and homes are a fair distance apart.
We then moved on to the fortress town of Vatheia, with some abandoned two- and three-story tower houses that were being restored. There were two buses traveling together because the driver of the other bus was not a local and didn’t know the ways to go so he followed us. I felt 50 people piling off buses at each stop was a bit much, but what do I know? As small as Vatheia was, three people managed to get themselves lost in the little village.
The coastline was a joy to watch as we rode to Cape Tainaron, where the Aegean separates from the Ionian Sea. Legend has it that the cape hid an entrance to Hades (first mentioned in Homer’s “The Iliad”), through which Hercules dragged the three-headed dog Cerberus as one of his 12 tasks. No signs of Cerberus today, but there were LOTS of olive trees. Our guide told us how they would pick them by hand, or if was good access to the trees, they could use these machines that deploy a net around the base of the tree and then the machine shakes the trunk of the tree to get the olives to fall off into the net. They grow different olives for different purposes – some for eating, some for making olive oil. The pits are used for heating. No part of the plant or fruit goes unused.
As we passed one farm, I saw a herd of sheep quietly grazing while two golden retriever puppies roughhoused in the tall grass nearby. It was so cute, and I didn’t get a picture of it, so I will have to just keep the memory in my mind.
Our guide was the Greek Ben Stein. He is giving good information but in such a soft monotone voice that it lulled me to sleep. I often smiled when he explained to us the roots of all the words that come from the Greek, ala “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.
I want to see Greece!!
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