Two local ladies chat while sitting on a doorstop on one of the marble-paved streets in Ano Syros (Upper Syros), a Venetian-era village perched on a hilltop above the beautiful city of Ermoupoli on Syros island.
Tag: village (page 4 of 6)
Koronos is built on the horseshoe-shaped slopes of a mountainside 30 km east of Naxos Town. The village descends hundreds of feet into the valley, and most homes are accessible only on foot.
Stair masters: I have three very specific and vivid memories of our brief visit to the Naxos mountain village of Koronos last October: a taverna tout, a man with a gun, and stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.
I’ll tell you the stories about the restaurant promoter and the guy with the gun some other time. For now I’ll stick to the stairs to keep with a common theme I’ve been posting about this week — walking around mountain villages on Naxos.
In my May 15 post I published a videoclip from our visit to Filoti, while my May 13 report included film of our walkabout in Apeiranthos. We had to climb a lot of stairs in both villages, but the workouts we got there were nothing compared to the stairclimbing challenge that awaited us in Koronos.
Popular tavernas are located far down the hillside
This village is built in a horseshoe shape on a mountainside, and descends deep into the valley. Koronos has several cafes and restaurants that are popular with tourists — including Taverna Platsa Matina & Stavros (which friends and other travellers have urged us to visit) and Taverna Dalas. The “downside” to both of these places, no pun intended, is their location on lower levels of the village. To reach them, you must walk down dozens of stairs. That’s the easy part. Getting back up to your car or the bus stop after a meal or drink will require a lot more effort as you can probably imagine.
Below are several photos showing just a few of the many sets of stairs we encountered while walking around Koronos. Those are followed by three videos. I shot the first clip while walking along a lane that wasn’t as far down the valley as the two tavernas. I filmed the next video while walking up one “street” that was basically a long, steep staircase. Dan took the third video of me walking up the steps while I was filming my climb.
We’re physically active and do a lot of walking and stair climbing whenever we’re in Greece, but I felt more winded than I expected by the end of that uphill hike. I would not want to walk all those stairs after a big meal and a few glasses of wine!
View of Koronos from the side of the highway where the Naxos bus dropped us off. This sloped road leads only part way into the village, perhaps 30 to 50 meters. Then the fun stair climbing begins!
A tourist strolls down the road leading into Koronos. One series after another of thigh-burning stair climbs awaits him.
This was the first set of steps we walked down. We climbed back up a short time later after we finished exploring the left-hand side of the village.
A streak of sunlight illuminates a set of steps
Yet another flight of steps in Koronos
Several flights of steps were under renovation on the day we visited Koronos. Workers had closed off two lanes while they laid stones in place. Work on this particular staircase wasn’t complete, but it had been reopened to traffic.
Looking down a long, curving set of steps. This was the last staircase we climbed on our way to the Koronos bus stop to catch our ride back to Naxos Town.
These buildings were surrounded by stairs on two sides
I filmed this clip while walking along one of the streets in Koronos
I shot this clip while climbing a long flight of stairs. I counted 102 steps during the minute and 20 seconds it took me to walk up.
Dan filmed me going up the stairs while I was filming my climb. You don’t need to go to a gym to get exercise on Naxos … just visit a mountain village like Koronos and you’re guaranteed a rigorous cardio workout!
Apeiranthos is sometimes referred to as “the marble village” because many of its buildings, lanes and public squares have been constructed from marble and stone. Click on the photo to see a full-size image.
Marble marvel: One of our memorable excursions on Naxos last October was a visit to Apeiranthos, described in many travel guides and websites as one of the island’s prettiest mountain villages.
Literally made of stone, Apeiranthos is often called “the marble village” since many of its squares, streets and buildings have been constructed with slabs and sheets of the crystalline rock.
The village is home to four separate museums (Archaeological, Folk Art, Geological and Natural History), the Zevgoli Tower (which dates to the 17th Century), several tavernas and cafés, and some local artcraft and gift shops.
Village is situated 28 km from Naxos Town
We got to Apeiranthos by taking one of the local buses which, at that time of season, operated only a few return trips per day on the 28 km route between Chora (Naxos Town) and the village. Return fare cost €12.40 — a price of €3.10 per person each way. The highlight of the ride was the tremendous scenery we got to enjoy, particularly the mountain and valley views on the twisting section of highway above Filoti village (check out the post below for a videoclip showing some of the fabulous views from the bus). Despite the limited departure and return bus trips, we still had several hours at Apeiranthos — plenty of time to explore the village and vicinity, as well as stop for a drink and snack at Samaradiko Café.
The village was fairly quiet during the several hours we spent visiting the museums and walking around. We saw several small tour groups and perhaps three dozen other tourists (at most) wandering through the village or having coffee or lunch in one of the cafés. Besides the people working in restaurants and shops, we saw just a handful of local residents plus a few cats and dogs. We had most of the village entirely to ourselves which was wonderful, since we don’t like crowded places.
A video walk along the marble-paved streets
Below is a two and a half-minute videoclip that I shot while we were walking through passageways and up some of the marble- and stone-paved steps. I think it will give you a reasonably good impression of what it’s like to actually wander the village’s residential hillside streets.
To see more of this charming mountain village, click here to view over 300 photos in the Apeiranthos album on the MyGreeceTravelBlog Flickr page.
If you would like to learn more about Apeiranthos, click here to read a richly detailed article that was written by Konstantinos Toubakaris and published on the travel website This is Naxos. Take note that if you plan to do further research, you will probably encounter several variations in the spelling of the village name. Besides Apeiranthos, I have seen guides, maps and websites use Apiranthos, Aperanthos, Aperathos and Aperathou. They’re all one and the same place.
Here’s a 2.5-minute videoclip I shot while walking around “the marble village” of Apeiranthos on October 9 2013.
I shot this 5-minute-long video while we were taking the bus from Naxos Town to the mountain village of Apeiranthos last October 9.
Valley views: We rented a car during our second visit to Naxos back in 2006 so we could spend a day driving around the island and visiting a few of the nearly three dozen different mountain villages. Since I was behind the wheel on the ride up to the villages and had to concentrate on the road rather than the scenery, I didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the impressive views.
I finally got that opportunity last October when we took the local bus to several villages, including Chalki, Filoti, Apeiranthos and Koronos, on three different days. Each time I got to watch the scenery pass by while somebody else handled the driving.
The stretch of road from Filoti to Apeiranthos was my favourite since it offers breathtaking panoramic views of the beautiful valley and mountain scenery, as well as Filoti village hundreds of feet below. And since we were sitting high up in a bus, we had a vastly better vantage point than we ever would have gotten had we been riding in a compact rental car again.
Above is a 5-minute video I filmed while the bus was climbing the mountainside above Filoti. Please pardon the shaky filming — it was difficult holding the camera steady while the bus maneuvered along the many bends in the road. You’ll get to see Filoti village numerous times between the 1:40 mark and the end of the clip.
Enjoy the ride!
A view toward Tsikalario and Himmaros, just two of many scenic mountain villages on Naxos island
Visitor favourite: Looks like we have plenty of company in recommending Naxos as an outstanding Greek Island holiday destination — it has been rated the Number 6 island in the world in TripAdvisor’s 2014 Traveler’s Choice Awards.
Naxos is the only Greek island to crack the Top 10 list of the world’s best islands, a ranking based on reviews posted by the tens of millions of travellers who participate on TripAdvisor.com each year.
Basking in the glory of the #1 ranking is Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize, which also took first place last year. Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos islands claimed the #2 spot, while Bora Bora in the Society Islands came 3rd.
We have been to Providenciales and, though we enjoyed it, we can’t understand how it ranked higher than Naxos in the Top 10 list. Although it does boast spectacular white sand beaches, superb restaurants and some incredible luxury resorts and rental accommodations, it doesn’t have a fraction of the attractions and activities awaiting visitors to Naxos.
Only seven weeks ago, MyGreeceTravelBlog named Naxos as our Destination of the Year for 2013, based on two fantastic visits to the island in May and October of last year. See our January 16 post, Our Top 15 reasons to visit Naxos, for dozens of photos and a wealth of information explaining why Naxos is a must-see destination.
And while you’re at it, check out TripAdvisor’s list of the top attractions on Naxos. Also based on traveller reviews, the list includes beaches, museums, monuments, churches, sports facilities and activities.
Greek Islands dominate list of Europe’s 10 best
Naxos ranked much higher on TripAdvisor’s list of the Top 10 islands in Europe, clinching 2nd place (behind Lewis & Harris in the Outer Hebrides). Four other Greek islands made the list and confirmed that, with five islands in the world’s best 10, Greece is indisputably the top island destination in Europe.
Milos took 5th place, followed by Kefalonia in 6th and Santorini in 7th. Paros picked up 10th place.
An evening view of Thalassitra Church and the Gulf of Milos, as seen from a pathway leading to the kastro (castle) above Plaka village. TripAdvisor has rated Milos as the #5 island in Europe.
Dark grey stormclouds swirl above Lagada village as a spring storm moves across Amorgos. Although the weather looked bleak the morning we arrived on the island, the clouds cleared away during the afternoon and left us with sunny skies for the rest of our visit. Click the image to view a full-size photo.
This Apiranthos travel video runs nearly two and a half minutes. It was posted online by YouTube member naxosislandtv.
Marble & museums: When we visited Naxos in 2006, we rented a car so we could do one of the much-recommended round-the-island drives and visit some of the scenic mountain villages — including Apiranthos — along the way. We wound up seeing far less than we expected, thanks to the weather.
When we picked up the car shortly after breakfast, it was already 29 degrees Celsius (84 F). By the time we reached the mountain village of Filoti, the temperature was in the mid-30s, and we felt like we were going to melt after only a few minutes of walking around. We got back in the air conditioned comfort of the car and headed on, planning to stop at Apiranthos, but as we approached the village the dashboard thermometer showed it was a scorching 38 degrees outside. There was no way we could drag ourselves around the village in that heat, so we didn’t even bother getting out of the car and just kept on going. We eventually stopped at the Apollonas coastal resort area, where it was only marginally cooler at the seaside.
Marble architecture & four museums
It was a huge disappointment not to see Apiranthos, which we’d heard is one of the most beautiful villages on the island. Boasting marble buildings and marble-paved streets and squares, along with four museums (the Archaeological Museum, Folk Art Museum, Geological Museum and Museum of Natural History), the medieval village certainly sounded like a place we would enjoy. We thought we would get there during our next Naxos visit, in 2009, but we didn’t rent a car that trip and never made it to Apiranthos. We didn’t have a car during our brief stop in Naxos in May of this year, either, so the village remains on our Naxos “must-see” list.
With luck, we might finally get to see it when we return to Naxos next month. If we do make it there, you’ll see our photos (and maybe some videos, too) here on the blog. In the meantime, check out the videoclip above for a quick peek at the scenic village.
Mountains provide an impressive backdrop to the scenic town of Kokkari on Samos …
… situated about 11 kilometers from Vathi on the north side of the island …
… next to a sheltered harbour where dozens of bars & restaurants along the water’s edge …
… all engage in eye-catching competition to attract the attention — and business — of the throngs of thirsty and hungry tourists who visit the village each day
Sunbathe, swim, eat & repeat: Two impressions have stuck in my mind since we visited colourful Kokkari village on Samos three years ago.
The first is the picturesque beaches that bookend the village: Long Beach on one side, and two back-to-back beaches called Small Lemonakia on the other.
The second is the rows of restaurants lining the town’s sheltered harbour as well as much of the length of Long Beach. It’s almost impossible to walk more than a few steps without passing a waterfront café, bar or taverna, or signs pointing the way to dozens of different places to eat and drink. There are myriad restaurant ads and menus attached to posts and walls, and dozens of sandwich board-style signs scattered along the narrow lanes and footpaths.
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