Sights in Greece

10 Best Places to Visit in the Peloponnese

With its claim as one of the birthplaces of modern civilization, its glorious and historic past, delicious cuisine, balmy climate (tropic i might say nowadays*),sandy and rocky beaches too , Greece beckons travelers looking for a vacation out of the ordinary. Natural beauty vies with man-made wonders in the sun-gilded province of the Peloponnese, with its olive groves, mountain peaks, vineyards and pristine sandy beaches. Visitors can choose to relax at the seaside, explore mysterious ruins or partake in some of Greece’s vivacious and compelling culture here. An overview of the best places to visit in the Peloponnese:

10. The Ionian islands

It’s quite easy to go to the Ionian Islands, located North of Peloponnese. These islands are well known for their green landscapes and wonderful coves.

The boats are sailing from Killini or/and  Patras, in Peloponnese. You can go either to Zante island, or Cephalonia island, or Ithaka island as these two are the closest from the mainland.

If you wish to go to Corfu, you can take a boat from Patras, but then you will have to take another boat in Igoumenitsa to reach Corfu.

Silhouetted against the wide expanse of the sky, crumbling, ornate columns of carved stone stand in testament to the ancient Greeks’ architectural skill. The stark remains of ancient Corinth are perfect if you enjoy photography. In particular, the Temple of Apollo presents a beautiful tableau with its fluted columns and plinths surrounded by wildflowers and the craggy mountain peaks in the background. Another favorite sight in the ancient city is the Acrocorinth, a brooding hilltop fortress considered one of the finest in Greece, first built thousands of years ago. Artifacts from various excavations, such as mosaics, statues, sarcophagi and tools are housed in the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth, located nearby.

9. Kardamyli

Kardamyliflickr/cicciuouo

This quaint sea-side town features whitewashed homes, stately cypress trees, historic buildings like the atmospheric church of Saint Spyridon and pretty, pebble-strew beaches. Homer wrote of this city in the Iliad, bearing witness to the city’s millennia-old past. Frescoes in the Byzantine Church of Eisodia and the ruins of Mourtzinos Castle are a draw for visitors, though simply strolling through town, sampling the area’s delicious cuisine and enjoying the spectacular sea views offer visitors a feel for what drew people to this delightful place so long ago.

8. Corinth Canal

Corinth Canalwikipedia/Inkey

Severing Peloponnese from the rest of the Greek mainland, this canal creates a visual spectacle with its sheer rock walls plunging into a chasm of blue water that you can best enjoy from a sturdy footbridge that spans the canal. While ancient Greeks first attempted to create a canal more than two thousand years ago, it was not completed until 1893. The canal stretches across the length of the isthmus, and you can book a ticket on a tour boat to marvel at the engineering feat from water level, or if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, try bungee jumping for an entirely different perspective of the canal.

7. Ancient Olympia

Ancient Olympiaflickr/hans-johnson

Nearly three thousand years have passed since this area held the first Olympic games in the shadow of the stately Mount Kronos, a tribute to the god, Zeus. The remains of temples honoring both Zeus and Hera can be found here, their graceful columns offering a picturesque ruin where you can wander freely. The flame for the modern Olympic Games is still lit in front of the Temple of Hera. The centerpiece of the site is the 200-meter (650 feet) track of the stadium itself, entered by way of a long arched tunnel. The vast sanctuary complex built to house competitors thousands of years ago has yielded a wealth of artifacts, exhibited in the on-site Olympia Archaeological Museum.

6. Monemvasia

Monemvasia

Dramatic cliffs plunge straight down into the Aegean, highlighting the beauty of this ancient stone village connected to mainland Peloponnese by a causeway. People have lived here for at least a thousand years, with many of the medieval buildings drawing visitors with their picturesque simplicity. The rocky outcrop provided protection for the village during invasion and today offers dramatic photo opportunities. The ocean takes center stage on this tiny island, and you can enjoy a range of water sports including scuba diving, sea kayaking and snorkeling.

5. Nafplio

Nafplio

Poised on the coast and long famous as a port city, this historic town commands sweeping ocean views as well as offering a wonderful glimpse into modern Greek village life with its quaint town squares, sidewalk cafes, charming wrought-iron embellished homes and atmospheric, 400-year-old Palamidi Fortress. If you’re a history buff, the historic Venetian Headquarters building off Syntagma Square houses the city’s archaeological museum, with a range of exhibits recalling the city’s Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman influences. Visitors in need of relaxation can head down to Karathona Beach, a sheltered, sandy beach with delightful views.

4. Simos Beach

Simos Beachwikipedia/Nikos Kanellopoulos

The small island of Elafoniso, hosts Simos Beach, often hailed by locals as the best beach in the Peloponnese. The clear water reflecting an aquamarine sky frames the fine, sandy beach offering quaint wicker sun parasols and lounging chairs at Simos. Depending on the time of year you visit Greece, a trip to the seaside, with its cool breezes and refreshing water temperatures, provides the perfect antidote to the warm inland sunshine. The protected bay is popular with kayak enthusiasts, and the gentle, clear waves prove enticing for swimmers and snorkelers alike. There are also toilets and showers for public use, and both a market and a pizza parlor provide snacks for hungry beach-goers.

3. Mycenae

Mycenae

This fascinating ruin of a flourishing civilization four thousand years ago features enormous, meticulously shaped stone block foundations in an excellent state of preservation. You can still walk through the famous Lion’s Gate, climb into the site’s secret cistern and explore the royal tholos tombs. The ruins of the Acropolis that was once the home of the fabled Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra sprawl across a broad lookout over the valley and olive orchards. From here you can enjoy a breathtaking display from every angle of the city’s ancient layout, a patchwork of modern fertile fields and layers of the lofty mountain peaks beyond. Greater insight into the lives of people who lived here can be found at the Mycenae Archaeology Museum, located just over a mile from the ruins.

2. Mystras

Mystrasflickr/domestictimes

Located inland from the coast in the southern Peloponnese region and framed by the tall peaks of Mount Taygetos, Mystras has an almost magical air with its hilltop palace, orange tile-roofed Byzantine churches and sweeping views of mountain tops and lushly green valleys. The city served as the capital of the Peloponnesus in the 14th and 15th centuries, ruled by relatives of the Byzantine emperor. Some of the buildings, such as Agios Demitrios and the Pantanassa, still feature rich murals dating from several hundred years ago. To best enjoy the breathtaking natural scenery, you can hike any of the various trails at the Lagadas Climbing Park, some of which feature waterfalls. The area is also famous for its olives grown in the fertile soil, and you can enjoy delicious food incorporating local produce in the city’s cafes.

1. Epidaurus

#1 of Best Places To Visit In Peloponneseflickr/Rosino

The spectacular ruins of this enormous theater are almost perfectly intact, belying the millennia since its construction in the 4th century BCE. Still in use today, you might be lucky enough to catch a performance here and enjoy its almost perfect acoustics. This marvel of ancient engineering still holds up to 14,000 people, and it’s rumored the crowd can hear the sound of a match being struck on stage due to the theater’s superior design. There’s a nearby museum that features information about the construction of the theater, as well as history of Epidaurus and its renown as a center for the healing arts in ancient times.
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Holidays in Western Greece *rescue tips

Hello there, Here are some quick tips when you are Resting in Greece :

You love the sights here, Hotels and Villas are very fine, the all inclusive is .. okay and sometimes it is  way too boring and annoying spending all your time in the hotel and the only choice is to walk miles just to find something interesting or even a grocery shop !

You are here for 1 (;) week , you rest for couple of days and then your journey starts…

Asking around and googling how to rent a car a bike or finding a taxi etc. etc.

*  There’s no rent a motorbike in         Patras – Niforeika – Kalogria – Rio –          Region. as far as I know at least.

So… a quick tip is to get in touch with us the earliest possible cuz by the end of the week there will be no more cars available not only from us but of almost every company around 🙂

◌ׄ Try to find interesting places to visit with plenty of History and beautiful sights and energy.

◌ׄ It’s better not to drive up the hills ,  Temperature is way too high and somedays wind is dangerous also for wildfires.

◌ׄ Use sunscreen always when you go out under the sun not only at the beach,

you will get red the day after     lol.

◌ׄ Beware the mosquitos especially  at night in places where Trees or lakes are around cuz theres a possibility not to able to sleep in some cases  😛

◌ׄAlways Drive Safe.

Greek drivers (men and women) often gets into road rage *

◌ׄ Speak with the locals , they are very friendly  and hospitality , you’ll probably get  huge amounts of positive energy.

◌ Try to find taverna in small villages  to eat local foods and of course ‘ souvlaki ‘ or ‘ pita ‘ with real (!)  potato inside  .

◌ׄ NEVER drive off road places and / or take random turns vertical from the national road because it is probably a dead end road ahead ( especially NEVER do that in Islands  or Mountains !!!! )

*I’ve been there.

◌ׄ Imagine yourself as a local .

It would be awesome to leave some comments of your experience in Greece so will other people have an idea 🙂

Ancient F(e)ia – Pontikokastro

                                                                Ancient F(e)ia – Pontikokastro

      nowdays:                                               Matzakoura – Agios Andreas


History:

With seamless habitation from the Neolithic to the Medieval times, Fea or Fea in the present-day St. Andrew bay, in the Katakolo area, was an important port in the antiquity, the port of Pisatida and its boundary with the northern area of ​​Koilis Ilida.
When Ilida subjected Pisa and the other cities as residents, Fea served as the second most important post-Kyllini port of the elite state.

Description:

F(e)ia during the Homeric era was a city tilted. Below its walls, according to Homer, the conflict between Pylia under Nestor and the Arcadians took place. In Odyssey, Telemachus meets Phoeus on his return journey to Ithaca, having left behind Pylos where he met Nestor seeking information about his father.
It seems that Fea was an important identifying element for navigation in the Ionian Sea and trips to the Greek cities of Lower Italy.
In the years of the Peloponnesian War, the harbor and the city of Phoeas also constituted the scene of conflicts between the opposing factions, and at the end of it, it experienced the same fate as Killini, losing its walls as a humiliating term imposed by the victors of the war Lacedaemonians to the defeated Eleans.
The distance between Fea and Olympia is determined by Strabo geographer in 120 stages. However, the traveler Pausanias does not refer to Pheasia, except by describing a war scene in the Kysselos Larnaka which he saw in the sanctuary of Olympia on the conflict of Pilias; Arcadians.
Perhaps Fe(i)a's silence in Pausanias' work shows that in his years the city and the port had declined.
The population of Feas was extensive and sparsely populated, as evidenced by the surviving archaeological remains. In classical times, the village occupied the entire surface of the cape, now called Pisces, approaching to the north the present settlement of Skafidia, in the place where the small river with the ancient name Iardanos is poured into the Ionian Sea.
At the top of the hill, above the harbor, was the acropolis of Fea. The view of the surrounding area from this point is excellent, since there is unobstructed visibility to every point on the horizon, towards the Ionian, the western Peloponnese up to the mountains of Arcadia.
Throughout the antiquity, the port of Feas served as an important gate especially during the summer months through which people and goods were flowing naturally to and from the Hellenic state. However, this picture changed every four years, in the summer of the Olympic Year, as the era of the Games was approaching.
The harbor and the people of Fea, as well as the Killini northern, welcomed the crowds of Greeks who came to the sacred land of Ilia by ships of that time, with the origins of mainland Greece and the numerous colonies across the Mediterranean in order to take part in the majestic A religious feast in honor of Zeus in the enclosed sanctuary of Olympia.
In any case, hundreds at the beginning and later thousands of pilgrims brought with them the precious, small or greater tributes to the Sanctuary, and along with them various other goods, animals, commodities and items for consumption. The magnitude of the passenger and commercial volumes that were trafficked by sea routes increased progressively, following the evolution and progress of shipbuilding and shipping and the correspondingly magnificent reputation and glamor of the Olympic Games.
As long as they lasted, ships of all sizes and types remained anchored in the natural bay of Fies and the port of Killini, waiting to carry all the passengers back to their homeland and with them various agricultural and craft products of Ile(i)a people.
Certainly, the most valuable "cargo" of some ships was the most important and most important passenger of his Olympic champion, whether it was Milona from Croton, Diagoras from Rhodes, Thaagen from Thassos and so many others.
In the Byzantine period, the building material of the ancient citadel was used to build a castle, in the lower parts of the wall of which the ancient wall was preserved, with obvious traces of its repair by the later (1204) Franconian conquerors. The fortress is known in the sources as Ponticocastro (first mention in 1111), a name it owes due to an interpretation of the point, the forecourt of the seas (mouse, seaside castle) or another version of the similarity of the hill-plan with a mouse
In the Chronicle of Morea, the castle is known because in some of its rooms the important marriage of Godephrios II Villehardouinou, the heir to the Princess of Achaia and Aghia Kourtenai, the daughter of the Latin emperor in Constantinople, Petros Kourtenai, was agreed upon when he was accommodated here Her mother, as they passed through the sea to the king. In "Geography Old and New", the metropolitan of Athens Meletios hand over to us the castle of Katakolos the name "Kaloskopion", the Greek version of his Italian name ("Belvedere"). 

The designer, R. Traquair, suspects the destruction of the Pontiacaster in 1470 by Constantine Palaiologos, as he acted in the castle of Glaredzas as the last before their Turkish occupant, so that, as the latter did in the Peloponnese, they would not benefit from their conquest.
The narrowly preserved ruins of the medieval fortress stand out in the north-west corner of the tower, which is maintained at a height of 12 and a width of 8 meters. Also, at the center of the flat surface of the formerly cast castle, the ruins of a 2m long, dome-shaped reservoir are preserved.
Today, the coast and the bottom of the bay of Ag. Andreou, shows huge gaps showing the significant geological changes and transformations that have occurred over the centuries from the intense seismic activity in the area. In particular, the earthquake of the 6th AD Century which shook the entire northwestern Peloponnese and precipitated the magnificent temple of Zeus of Olympia is probably the culprit for the sinking of Fe(i)a and its port facilities.

In the late 1950s archaeologist Nick. Gyalouris carried out underwater and coastal research in the Gulf of Phoeas, which yielded rich and varied archaeological finds. According to her, the building remains are located throughout the bay, up to 200m. From the shore and at a depth of up to 5m. Among the ancient ancient remains found, many architectural members such as columns, Dorian and Ionic columns, as well as capitals, some of which were recruited and recovered.
-You may still find some of those not deep at all inside the sea.
The timelessness of this location is proven by the discovery of vases of all time, from the Mycenaean to the late Roman era, both in the sea and on the shore. The two Cycladic figurines dating back to the end of the 3rd millennium, which, according to N. Yalouris, point to the use of the harbor since this time, as well as the relations between the western Peloponnese and the Aegean and the Cycladic civilization . In the islet "Tigani" The investigations yielded findings from Classical to Roman times.However, because of the lack of a large part of the image presented by Fea, both in antiquity and in medieval times, it is necessary to carry out systematic research on this important land, land and sea.

As was the case in antiquity, even today, once the Sanctuary of Zeus receives thousands of visitors every year from every corner of the planet. The bulk of the visitors arrives at Olympia, following the same road that the visitors of the sea had chosen in antiquity. Fioda's contemporaneous port of Catalun, after stoppage of centuries, once again welcomes the not so many thousands of travelers who take part in the weekly, usually long-lasting cruises.

Without knowing it, foreign visitors will follow the luxury coaches the footsteps of the ancient route from Fea to Olympia and for only a few hours they will be hosted in the once sacred territory of the Hellenic state. At the same port they will return and depart for their next destinations, most enjoying the nature and beauty of the Olympic Landscape, but most of all reborn by the Olympic Ideal, as well as the people of the ancient era.



SOURCES:



- Xydis Th., "Iliaka", pp. 166 - 191.

Association for the Dissemination of Beneficial Books, Athens 1981

-Gialouris N., "Ancient Illis, The Cradle of the Olympic Games", Ed. Adam, 1996

- Papachatzis N., "Pausaniou of Greece Survey, Messinian and Solar", Athens 1982

-Archaeology: Peloponnese, p. 381. Collective work. Curator: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Melissa Publishing, 2012.
 

 

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