As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Zagori and the Epirus Coast, here's our pick of places to visit. From Unesco-listed Vikos Gorge to arcs of wild beach, from magical villages where time seems to have stopped to the mouth of Hades and a ruined Roman city, Zagori and Epirus are not short of sights. It’s no surprise that Vikos, the world’s deepest gorge, takes star billing in Zagori. Yet centuries of isolation has preserved a distinct human history here, too. Beautiful frescoed chapels in woods, picturesque stone bridges and the region’s 46 villages themselves, the Zagorohoria, reveal a region of living history. Towards the coast, that historical timeframe stretches back to temples that were considered ancient even by Homer. That they’re a short drive from the beach only adds to their appeal. We’ve highlighted the best natural sights, the most traditional villages and the key antiquities to visit in this fascinating region. We’ve also selected the best beaches – both the family-friendly and those quiet escapes Greeks like to keep for themselves. Oxia viewpoint, Monodendri, Zagori, Greece From the most accessible viewpoint of the Vikos Gorge you receive a leg-wobbling view of the Unesco-listed canyon, officially the world’s deepest (1,000m) in relation to its width (1,000m). Its wall of limestone plummets as a sheer cliff, stained orange by iron and fuzzed at its base by lush forest. A path notched into the cliff on the left provides the best photos if your nerves are up to it. Ovires natural pools, Megalo Papigo, Zagori, Greece Villagers cool off in high summer in this wooded limestone gorge which burrows into a hillside between Megalo and Mikro Papigo. The Rogovo stream has carved out a series of interconnected plunge-pools – a lovely place to wallow in natural jacuzzis filled with cool (12–14˚C), pure spring water, sliding from one to the next via weed-slippery chutes. Come for a stroll, too, because the wooded gorge becomes steeper and narrower the further back you go. Park in a layby on the main road opposite the canyon entrance. Vikos Gorge, Zagori, Greece In the heart of the Pindos mountains lies the mighty Vikos Gorge – the world's deepest at 1000m – cutting a jagged course for 20km through the Vikos-Aoos National Park. There are some great viewing spots from the villages of Monodendri and Vikos. There is a fantastic viewing point at Oxia, and plenty of trails that lead deep within the gorge for some superb hiking. Kalogeriko Bridge, Kipi, Zagori, Greece In a landscape riddled by canyons Zagori residents became expert stone bridge-builders – under the Ottoman occupation, sultans acclaimed local architects the finest of their empires. Six span gorges around Kipi village, the most celebrated being this picturesque bridge (1814) which hopscotches 56m across the river in three arches. Actually, locals acclaim the high, single-span Kokkori bridge (1750) nearby as the more impressive engineering feat. Monastery of Panagia Spileotissa, Aristi, Zagori, Greece A monk sought solitude in a cave near the Voidomatis river. Followers arrived, then a tiny monastery was built over his hermitage in 1579, in later decades a refuge from invading Ottomans for villagers. Still, the upshot is the most atmospheric chapel in Zagori, hidden from sight deep in beautiful woodland. The size of a matchbox with the atmosphere of a cathedral, its tiny interior is covered in inky-blue and ruby frescos. Source the key (and request a guide) from En Aristi restaurant. Accessible at all times is a belltower with lovely woodland views, reached by a scramble up beside the monastery’s entrance. Convent of Agia Paraskevi, Monodendri, Zagori, Greece Zagori’s most cultural popular sight is this 15th-century convent 500m from the village square. There’s a small frescoed chapel within its tiny courtyard complex yet it’s more impressive for its precarious position clinging to the lip of the Vikos Gorge. Small wonder it served as an impregnable redoubt for villagers during Ottoman expansion in the 1500s. If you can laugh at heights, take a footpath notched around the cliff beside the monastery to reach the fortified gateway behind which villagers picked off any invaders. Kapesovo, Zagori, Greece One of the area’s best-preserved hamlets, Kapesovo is the sort of unspoilt backwater everyone likes to stumble upon. Sleepy and built of stone the colour of old ivory, it basks in sunshine on a high southern slope. Park outside the hamlet, walk down to the tiny square with a wonderful café-shop and pocket-sized bar, then explore cobbled lanes built with incorprated gutters to channel winter rain. Rizario Handicraft Centre, Monodendri, Zagori, Greece Beyond some mass-produced products in the foyer there’s fine traditional embroidery and tapestry displayed and sold here. It’s the outlet of a 150-year-old church handicrafts’ school in Monodendri – girls come from nationwide to enroll on a two-year course which maintains Zagoria craft traditions. A small embroidery sampler can take students months to complete, so prices are not cheap. An affiliated gallery in a nearby mansion holds photography exhibitions. Kipi, Zagori, Greece While there’s no sight per se, Kipi is one of the most traditional villages of Zagori. Nicely lived-in, with a ramshackle charm, it spills down a hillside in a cats-cradle of alleys full of interesting corners. Wildflowers bloom between cobbles. Jasmine clambers up drainpipes and tomato plants flourish in old oil cans on terraces. One for the photo album. Sarakiniko, near Parga, Greece Though busy in peak season due to taxi boats from Parga, Sarakiniko provides a wonderful beach-day at other times. Its crescent of sand arcs beneath a hillside of silver olive trees, stretching between rocky headlands that offer good snorkelling, and there are three tavernas for lunch. If you have toddlers, be aware that the bay shelves steeply in places. Agia Paraskevi, near Syvota, Greece Tricky to find – it’s not signposted except by hoardings (look for that of Nisaki taverna) – but that keeps this quieter than many beaches in the area. A strip of sand and coarse shingle, it’s popular with Greek holidaymakers. That the crystal-clear bay is gently shelving and sheltered from waves by a pine-scrubbed islet makes it so ideal for young children. Monolithi, near Preveza, Greece South of quiet Kanali resort and kilometres long, the favourite beach of Preveza locals always has space to spare. It’s more natural than most strands in the area, with eucalyptus and pine forest backing its long deep arc of sand, and open waters of Blue Flag quality – expect small waves by mid-afternoon when the wind increases. Facilities include a couple of beach bars providing snacks, drinks and parasols. Lichnos, near Parga, Greece One of the most popular beaches in the area, served by regular taxi boats from Parga harbour. Factor in a medium-sized resort hotel, several tavernas with holiday accommodation and a couple of beach bars and it’s no surprise this is busy in peak season. Nevertheless, it’s a handsome swoop of sand, with watersports hire and interesting snorkelling around its high headlands. It gets quieter the further you go. Nekromanteion of Acheron, near Preveza, Greece The future was revealed to the dead, believed the ancient Greeks who built this fourth-century BC oracle to Hades. So, for devotees, this mazey temple complex – today sketched out by walls of massive hewn stone – really was the gateway to the Underworld. Homer had Odysseus scarifice a ram on what was an island above a swamp fed by the Acheron river, aka the Styx. At the temple’s core is a subterranean chamber, presumed to be the doorway to the underworld. With its moody lighting and dead acoustic it’s hugely atmospheric. Archaeological site of Dodona, near Ioannina, Greece Homer names it in the Ilyiad – Achilles comes here to pray – and Herodotus dates it to 2,000 BC. Sited in a broad valley, the oldest Hellenic oracle retains some of the magic that made it a place of worship to Gaia (Mother Earth) then Zeus – his spirit was said to live in the roots of oak trees and answer questions posed by devotees via priestesses who “slept on the ground with unwashed feet” to remain connected to the earth, Homer claims. The site’s most impressive attraction is the celebrated theatre from the 3rd century BC, added by King Pyrrhus, of victory fame. With a capacity of about 18,000 spectators, it is one of the country’s largest. Nikopolis, near Preveza, Greece To celebrate his victory over the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra to become Roman emperor, Octavian built a new town on the bay from which his army sailed. Excavated finds of 30BC Nikopolis (literally, ‘Victory City’) are displayed in an Archaeological Museum of Nikopolis on Preveza’s suburbs. Its marble carvings and mosaics are a good primer for a visit to the site itself, a mix of Roman and Byzantine ruins spread over a vast area. Christian basilicas jut from the grass and you can climb on to a section of massive Byzantine city wall with a gate. Beyond it lies the theatre, currently undergoing restoration. For nearby places to eat, and local places of interest and low impact activities, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Zagori and the Epirus Coast

James Stewart discovers some of Zagori's finest ingredients – from crumbly feta to mountain lamb – and the passionate producers behind them, and forages for wild mushrooms I’m in the mossy dell of an oak wood in Zagori, mainland Greece. Gold coins of sunlight are scattered over the forest floor and the air smells richly fertile. Crusty with lichen, a small chapel is half-hidden among the trees. I’m not sure which feels more sacred, that chapel or this beautiful, quiet woodland. Vikos Gorge, the world’s deepest chasm by width, lies 20 minutes away. But Vasilis Katsoupas wants to highlight another side of Zagori instead. He’s brought me to forage for wild mushrooms. I’ve rarely met anyone as passionate about an ingredient as Vasilis. After decades as an ecologist for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in Canada, he runs foraging and ecology trips in Zagori’s quieter corners and cultivates mushrooms for his mushroom-themed restaurant, Kanela and Garifallo. For Vasilis, mushrooms are not simply a foodstuff. They are a building block of Zagori culture. He explains: “People take things for granted. Most of us don’t appreciate nature and how we’re a part of it; we tend to see ourselves as masters of the universe. Foraging like this and talking about our food and where it comes from helps us connect with the environment. It brings food back to a specific location and our place within it.” He could be speaking for the culinary culture of Zagori. A sparsely-populated corner of Greece near the Albanian border, Zagori prepares a menu as distinct as its wild landscapes. Its cuisine is one steeped in self-sufficiency. When every imported ingredient came from beyond the mountains on foot or by donkey – roads only appeared here in the 1950s – villagers lived from surrounding woodlands, meadows and alpine pasture. “My family farmed here for generations,” Costas Zissis, a nature photographer in Aristi, tells me. “We had everything we needed: wheat from fields by the Voidomatis river, sheep from the mountain meadows for cheese and meat, cows for dairy, berries and wild honey, even some vines for wine.” He talks about chamois once hunted in the Pindos mountains, about a mountain flower which brews a refreshing herbal tea and of dog rose hips packed with Vitamin C. Like the traditional dishes of rural France and Italy, Zagori cooking is stewed in a peasant past; a cuisine of survival foods refined into pure pleasure. Founded on sheep’s cheese, fresh vegetables and meat, it is also Greek cooking at its best – honest, unpretentious, delicious. If foodie buzzwords like “local”, “organic”, “homemade” and “seasonal” have yet to catch on, it’s only because they are taken for granted. The bread and jams served at breakfast in your family guesthouse? Ubiquitously homemade (it speaks volumes that there are no Zagori bakeries). Vegetables served in restaurants generally come from the family garden and cheeses and meats are typically from a neighbouring farm. This is terroir and then some. I first sample this at a restaurant in Megalo Papigo. Above its vine-covered terrace, muscular cliffs are flushing pink in the sunset. It’s pinch-me beautiful. Yet I hardly notice such is the quality of the cooking. Having entrusted my selection to the family owners, plates arrive like a culinary Sorcerer’s Apprentice; a salad of tomatoes and soft feta cheese; chanterelle mushrooms picked that day and sautéed with garlic and parsley; zucchini perfectly seasoned with olive oil, lemon and salt; succulent pink veal with french fries flecked with thyme. To aid digestion there’s tsiporou, a light grappa that the owners swear is a cure-all. Every ingredient is from the family farm, they say. Indeed, some ingredients grew in the vegetable and herb beds that surround the restaurant. Talk about food miles in Zagori and you often have to reduce the measurement to metres. Even the region’s fine-dining address, Salvia, maintains the ethos. Nothing comes from more than 40 miles away, the chef tells me after my meal (local trout with dewdrops of honey). To guarantee fresh salads and herbs, he has a greenhouse and garden, “of course”. When quality is assured, food dilemmas come down to choice. So what to eat? The surprise is that the local speciality is pies. Based on flour and eggs, Zagori pies come in as many varieties as there are households: either quiche-like or wrapped in flakey pastry, often cooked with mountain greens, spinach or feta, always seasoned with local herbs. They are an art passed through generations as much as a kitchen staple. As central is the crumbly soft feta from sheep grazed in Zagori’s pure alpine pasture. A world away from the salty slabs in supermarkets, this is the original Greek feta from which all others derive. Look out, too, for stews of huge gigantes beans with spinach, tomato and herbs, and slow-roast lamb. As ubiquitous are sweet liqueurs flavoured with local walnuts, cherries or mountain herbs; all homemade, naturally. Back in our oak wood, we harvest just a plate or two of chanterelle mushrooms (we’re a little late in the season).Vasilis is disappointed. Not me. Our tour has revealed the terroir behind the tastes; the pasture, woods, wildflower meadows and cold clean rivers that nurture a delicious cuisine. “Food here is not just something to eat. It’s part of Zagori itself,” Vasilis says. I’ll say grace to that. Words by James Stewart

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Gower, Paul Bloomfield picks out a selection of places to stay in this glorious Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in south Wales. Conjure up your perfect weekend on the coast. Do you want to stay in a fairytale house, a shepherd's hut, a converted barn, an old farmhouse? No problem, it's all on offer in Gower. A warm welcome comes as standard on the peninsula, especially at our pick of the best hotels, B&Bs and self-catered properties. After all, you're going to need a good night's sleep and a big breakfast with all that exploring to do. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Gower: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to stay in Gower Worm's Head Hotel, Gower, Wales A beautiful view over Rhossili Bay and every bedroom faces the sea. There’s one standout reason to stay at the Worm’s Head Hotel, and that’s the insanely beautiful view out over Rhossili Bay. The sweeping beach, sunlit hills and the wreck of the HMS Helvetia stranded on shore will captivate you. Luckily there’s no need to fight for a room with a view, as all the accommodation here faces the lovely bay. Rooms are simply furnished but comfortable and there’s a pleasant restaurant, cosy bar and terrace downstairs. thewormshead.co.uk King Arthur Hotel, Gower, Wales The location of the King Arthur, in chilled-out Reynoldston with the moorland and the sea both a walk away, makes it a wonderful choice for a relaxed weekend away. kingarthurhotel.co.uk Oxwich Bay Hotel, Gower, Wales The wonderful restaurant is a real highlight, as are the friendly, smiling staff. The little details, from vintage radios to toiletries in the rooms, are well thought-out. oxwichbayhotel.co.uk Parc le Breos House, Gower, Wales The comfy, sumptuously kitted out rooms and the friendly yet luxurious common rooms make the whole experience like spending a weekend at someone's country retreat. parc-le-breos.co.uk Tallizmand Guest House, Gower, Wales A cosy and friendly atmosphere reins supreme and owners David and Anne can send you off with a packed lunch. gowerholidays.com King's Head Inn, Gower, Wales A 17th-century inn that is dog-friendly and serves homecooked food. Underfloor heating soothes walk-weary feet and your evening meal is only a few steps away. kingsheadgower.co.uk Tir-Cethin Farm, Gower, Wales A pair of luxury self-catering barn conversions surrounded by the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A perfect example of eco-luxury, this is also a fantastic base for everything from walking and pony-trekking to kite surfing. tircethinfarm.co.uk Slade Barn, Gower, Wales A woodburning stove and lots of oak features keep it cosy, whilst modern marble and granite make it feel sleek and contemporary. sladebarngower.co.uk Hillside Farm, Gower Peninsula, South Wales The Hillside Farm (Country Retreat) tents are sited in an orchard close by the farmhouse. Views stretch back across the AONB Gower Peninsular taking in scattered hamlets and rocky outcrops with 15 miles of glorious coastline to explore, dogs welcome. featherdown.co.uk Pitton Cross Caravan and Camping Park, Gower, Wales If you fancy a campsite stay but aren't too keen on sleeping under canvas there are pretty shepherds huts also available to hire. pittoncross.co.uk For information on local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Gower

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades, here's our pick of local visitor attractions. No Greek island would be complete without an impressive ruin or temple to gawp at – and Naxos is no exception. From the magnificent Portara standing tall at the entrance to Naxos Town – the emblem of Naxos and the region's most visited site – to Naxos' very own mini Acropolis, the Temple of Demeter, the islands are full of intriguing places to wander around. The island has its fair share of fascinating museums giving visitors an insight into some of the area's cultural heritage: there's the Eggares olive press museum, a citron distillery which offers free tastings and a collection of wonderful museums in central Naxos. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos & the Small Cyclades: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places of interest in Naxos & the Small Cyclades Ancient Sites Portara, Naxos Arriving by boat, the magnifient Portara – the monumental marble doorway of an unfinished Temple of Apollo – is likely to be your first taste of the ancient glories of Naxos; it's little surprise that it has become the emblem of Naxos and is the most visited landmark on the island. Built on the islet of Palatia and connected to Naxos Town by a walkway, contruction began in the 6th century BC by tyrant Lygdamis, but didn't get much further than the entranceway and foundations, all of which can still be seen today. It's a special place to visit at any time of day, but sunsets are particularly spectacular – possibly one of the loveliest settings in Greece – though you'll have to vie for a photo spot with the throngs of other visitors who climb up to the temple as dusk descends. Demeter Temple, Naxos The setting couldn't be more apt for a temple dedicated to the god of harvest and agriculture – off the beaten path, the beautiful ruins, which date from the 6th century BC, lie amongst miles and miles of open farmland. It's a pretty five-minute walk up oleander-lined paths to this mini Acropolis, and there's a little museum about the history of the site (closed Monday, check opening times). Until fairly recently there was little to see here: over the millennia, the building's columns and stones had been reused in local buildings, including a church on site, but a team of archaeologists restored the temple to its ancient former glory ten years ago. Everything you see is original, however; some of the blocks of marble look as pristine as the day they were hewn from the nearby quarries. Archaeological Museum, Naxos Housed in a Venetian mansion at the very top of Naxos Old Town, this is a wonderful small collection of Cycladic art and history dating back to 5300BC gathered from Naxos and the surrounding islands of Keros, Donousa and Koufonisia. The finds, most of which have been recovered from tombs across the region, include Early Cycladic marble figurines, Classical pottery and terracotta items, Prehistoric tools and weapons and objects made from ivory, gold and semi-precious stones. The museum opens out onto a wonderful enclosed courtyard featuring a Roman mosaic at its centre, with spectacular views across Naxos from the castle walls. Please note: open Tuesdays and Saturdays only. Bazeos Tower, Naxos The imposing stone tower, perfectly square and fronted by a high walled courtyard, is a fine example of the sort of Venetian buildings that were constructed across Naxos in the early 17th century. Originally built as a monastery, it was bought by the current Italian family (Baseggio) in the 19th century and now hosts art and cultural events and exhibitions throughout the year. Inside, it's an intriuging place to explore, its higgledy-piggledy layout and low ceiling'd rooms connected by narrow staircases and stone archways. Climb to the top for some wonderful views from the openair courtyard. Music concerts are held in the courtyard throughout July and August. Sangri and Chalki are close by. Church of St Georgios Diassoritis, Chalki, Naxos In its heyday in the 11th century, this church would have been one of the most important religious centres in the region. It's a ten-minute walk from the historic centre of Chalki (it's not well signposted so you may find yourself asking for directions several times along the way) but it's definitely worth the trip. Hidden amongst a sea of gnarly ancient olive groves, the Byzantine church is a rare example of 'cross-in-square' type of church architecture. Inside, the walls are decorated from top to bottom in a stunning series of frescoes depicting the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Ascension – not all are clearly visible in the semi-darkness, but this only adds to the charm. A enthusiastic group of volunteers is on hand with information leaflets. Cultural Sites Eggares Olive Press Museum, Naxos The importance of the humble olive tree in Greek culture cannot be overstated. In Naxos alone there are 90 surviving olive presses, though none are in operation today. One example is found in the tiny village of Eggares, now a little museum giving a fascinating insight into the life and history of the Lianos family who pressed olives here between 1840-1967. Bubbly Nikoleta will show you round the mini museum (just two innterconnecting rooms) and demonstrate how the olives were once pressed, separated, bottled and stored, all the machinery still in situ; she clearly loves showing off her family's heritage and brings the whole experience to life. The family continues to produce olive oil from the original trees surrounding the museum (some are 120 years old) and you can stock up on products, from soap and smellies to oils, tapanades and beautiful olivewood kitchenware, in the little shop. Don't leave without a tasting or two. Manolis Lybertas’s Pottery Workshop Manolis is the fourth generations of potters here at this pottery studio and workshop in the heart of Naxos. Enter a room full to bursting with colourful ceramic wares: pots and jugs, mugs and statues, beads and bowls; it's a wonderful place to wander around. Watch Manolis in action – it's a fascinating, mesmerising experience watching a potter at work, making it look effortless as he chats to the crowds gathered around him. Don't leave without picking up your own momento from the shop. Vallindras Citrus Distillery, Chalki, Naxos Five generations later, the Vallindras family are still producing 'Kitron', a liqueur made from the fruit and leaves of the citron tree (a larger version of the lemon tree) which is unique to Naxos. The distillery is still in operation but part of the building is now a museum, giving visitors an insight into how the liqueur is produced. You can join a tour (all staff are family members) and learn about the processes involved, and end with a tasting or two of the secret family recipe, which has been distilled in the same way since its creation in 1896. Museums of Folklore, Archaeology and Natural History, Apiranthos, Naxos The village of Apiranthos, in the very centre of Naxos, has an impressive number of museums to its name. The wonderful Folklore Museum, located in a traditional house in the old market quarter, is a treasure trove of artefacts documenting the historical past of Naxos, giving visitors a fascinating insight into the local traditions of weaving, bee keeping and cheese making. The Archaeological Museum, well worth a visit, is stuffed full of Cycladic statues and other treasures dating from the Neolithc period. The compact Natural History Museum has a fascinating collection of shells, dolphin skeletons, whale bones and some intriguing, if rather gruesome, specimens floating in glass jars. For information on where to stay nearby, places to find local food and drink and low impact activities, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos & the Small Cyclades, here's our pick of places to eat. Naxos' surprisingly green valleys, misty mountains, natural springs and meandering rivers make the island one of the most fertile in Greece. Thyme honey, throumpa olives, a whole host of soft, velvety cheeses, and citron liqueur are just some of the produce unique to the island. The Small Cycladic islands have a similarly rich food culture. Make sure you try the local fava – yellow split peas – of Schinoussa and xerotigana – fried dough strips with honey – of Koufonisi. Be tempted by dishes such as cuttlefish flavoured with oregano, crispy pies stuffed with vlita (wild greens) and Naxian cheeses, Patatato – wild goat stew – as tender as slow-cooked lamb and flavoured with cinnamon, and puddings like caramalised quince served with gooey kaimaki – a Turkish-inspired ice cream, all of which can be found at this collection of lively restaurants across Naxos and the Small Cyclades Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos & the Small Cyclades: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to eat in Naxos & the Small Cyclades Mitsos Taverna, Donousa, Small Cyclades, Greece Moor your boat in the bay then cool off on the bamboo-shaded terrace of this pretty family-run taverna. Bowls of salt-dried Throubes olives arrive on your table before you've even had time to digest the menu. Everything's grown here on site. Herbs – picked along the lanes – flavour family recipes: there's cuttlefish with oregano, cinammon and tomatoes, vlitta (tasty greens which grow wild throughout the island) with mint and lemon. The family's version of the popular Greek Potatatas (wild goat casserole) has been passed down from grandmother Fani, who, at 86 years young, still rules the roost round here. Round it off with some caramelised quince and kaimaki – a buttery, vanilla-flavoured ice cream with a meringue-like chewyness in the middle. Yazoo Summer Bliss, Naxos, Greece Forget feta salads, mousaka and fried calamari – the menu at this beachside restaurant will blow your idea of Greek cuisine clean out the water. Giorgos, who hails from Crete, has created a fusion of rich and tangy Naxian and Cretan flavours: try the apaki (pork) salad with Xinomyzithra cheese (half goat's, half sheep's cheese) infused in 20 different Greek herbs and doused in an orange vinaigrette, or the super-succulent 11-hour pork, which literally melts in the mouth. The homemade Sioufihta, a type of Cretan pasta, is cooked with black truffle and served in a clever paper parcel which keeps it gently cooking on the way to your table. You'll only find Greek varieties on the wine list. A beautiful setting too – bleeched floorboards, wicker lanterns hanging from trees, well-positioned tables and comfy sofas for gazing out at the windsurfers on the water. yazoo.gr Kedros Beach Bar, Donousa, Small Cyclades, Greece A lavender-lined path leads from the golden sweep of Kedros beach to this laid-back beach bar, created by two brothers in 2002. Here, sandy-footed souls laze in stripy deckchairs on the shady terrace sipping refreshing iced teas flavoured with aloe vera (the brothers have an aloe vera plantation on site) and tucking into fish dishes and salads packed with ingredients plucked straight from the organic allotment behind the café; the 'Garden' salad uses beans, courgettes and creamy mizithra cheese, a Naxian favourite. At night, the place is transformed into a chillout bar, festooned with strings of fairy lights and serving a temping selection of cocktails, with regular music evenings and DJs playing throughout the summer. Free camping is available on a site behind the beach. Kori Tou Michali, Donousa, Small Cyclades, Greece High up above Mersini (walk up from the beach if you fancy the challenge), this restaurant serves wonderful Greek food with a slightly experimental touch. This is very much a family business – Koula will happily spend time with you going through all the dishes on offer, hand-written on a small menu. Your best bet is to ask her to bring you her recommendations. Expect huge platters heaving with delicious local ingreidients, slow-cooked goat that falls off the bone and tempting desserts. Sweet Bar Deli, Schinoussa, Small Cyclades, Greece This bright and breezy place in Schinoussa Town has a fantastic menu featuring fava (locally grown beans) cooked a variety of ways and lots of other dishes inspired by local ingredients, such as grilled squid and four-hour pork with lemon and thyme. The restaurant opens onto a lovely terrace with great views out across the Aegean. Irini's, Naxos, Greece Just off the busy quay in Naxos Town, Irini's is a popular, welcoming family-run taverna with checked tablecloths and vines strewn across the ceiling. The huge menu (don't worry, Giorgos is on hand to recommend) features lots of traditional Greek dishes, such mousaka and stuffed aubergines, and plenty of Naxian dishes, too: the crisp pastry rolls stuffed with Naxian goats' cheese are delicious, as are the spicy meatballs. A great spot for watching boats coming in and out of the port. Gianni's, Naxos, Greece In the centre of historic Halki with its narrow winding streets lined with charming shops and galleries is this lovely family-run taverna, a favourite amongst locals and visitors alike who take shade on the the cool, vine-draped terrace. The outdoor spit turns from dawn til dusk, roasting an array of delicious things to eat over hot coals: try the popular chicken souvlaki, local village sausages or kontosouvli – succulent crispy barbecued pork. Vegetarians will love the pies – the courgette pie, a family recipe, oozes with creamy feta. Friendly staff and generous portions. Platia, Naxos, Greece Ask Andriana to show you her allotment: it's a wonderful, vibrant place of fruit and olive trees, neat rows of vegetables and colourful pots of herbs. Needless to say, everything that appears on the menu comes straight from here, and herbs feature heavily in the dishes: mint, basil, thyme, oregano. It's a family business and each member plays their part. Andriana and daughter Voula run the show, rustling up delicious, home-cooked food such as soutzoukakia (meatballs with parsely and lemon), and onions stuffed with mince and xynomyzithra cheese (a fresh batch of cheese is made each morning). Grandfather Manolis makes wine and raki. Apostolis, Naxos, Greece The tight and winding alleyways of Naxos Old Town open out onto this pretty little courtyard restaurant, with its neat tables and comfy seating for lazy lunches. The 'Apostolis' salad is a new take on a traditional Greek salad, the ingredients of which are placed into a hollowed out round loaf. Oi Atairiastoi, Koufonissi, Small Cyclades, Greece Head up from the main beach towards the windmill to this sweet place dotted with palm trees with bright, multicoloured tables and chairs and quiet, softly-lit corners. Food here is some of the best on Koufonissi: feta baked in honey and sesame, tasty fish soup, homemade breads and, reportedly, the best raki on the island. The lovely staff are attentive without being intrusive. Great value for money, too. Deoudas, Naxos You won't be able to walk past this popular, family-friendly taverna without stopping to admire the fresh fish on display or exchange a few words with the friendly waiters. Right on the front, a stone's throw from the harbour and Portara, Deoudas serves a great range of perfectly-cooked fish dishes – calamari, octopus, salt-dried gouna, baracouda, red snapper. Huge salads and tasty starters include fava dip – a local speciality – marinated anchovies and crunchy whitebait. A great wine list, too – many of the bottles on offer are from vineyards on the island. Hara's Cafe-Bar, Schinoussa This lively, colourful café-bar in the heart of the island serves delicious freshly-squeezed fruit juices as well as a range of tasty light bites, including crepes, waffles and breakfasts. For ideas of local food and drink, visitor attractions and outdoor activities, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos & the Small Cyclades

Florence Fortnam explores the archipelago by boat, mountain bike and kayak "Remember, the slower you go, the more likely it is you'll fall off," said Themis as our bikes approached the rocky pathway up to the trio of abandoned windmills at the top of Vivlos, a village about 10km southeast of Naxos Town. "Lean right over the handlebars but don't put too much pressure on them," Themis shouted after me as I negotiated the tricky ascent. Ten minutes and three attempts later, I had made it to the top and sat on a crumbling doorstep of one of the windmills to catch my breath, knees and elbows graze-free, feeling ever so slightly pleased with myself. I’d call myself a fairly proficient cyclist and am never happier than when peddling around on my road bike but I have to admit that mountain biking is something that had slipped, perhaps intentionally, under my radar. Until today, that is. I had joined Themis Vlissidis from Flisvos Sports Club on St George's Beach in Naxos for a two-wheeled trek into the heart of the island to see what the interior had to offer from the saddle. We’d barely left the sports centre and I was already appreciating the reassuringly fat tyres spinning below me as we made our way down sandy tracks, uneven roads and across rocky terrain, stopping every so often so I could pick up a few tips from Themis (stay relaxed, stay light) or admire a view. We weaved through little villages – all whitewashed and blue – and down alleyways barely wider than our handlebars. We bounced down bumpy country roads, spotting distant domed churches and grazing livestock, before an exhilarating descent back to the water's edge two hours later. Think of outdoor activities in Greece and images of snorkelling in turquoise seas, tranquil boat trips and bombing around in banana boats probably pop into your head. What probably doesn't come to mind is getting sweaty and caked in dirt on a mountain biking adventure. But I hadn't enjoyed a new sport so much in ages, and the dip in the sea at the end had never felt so good – or so deserved. One of the charms of Naxos and the Small Cyclades is that good old-fashioned island hopping is the only way to get around the archipelago. The lack of airports has meant the islands have escaped the package-tour-and-boutique-hotel syndrome that has affected other Greek islands – good news if your idea of a perfect Greek holiday involves wallowing in the warm waters of your own secluded bays. With this in mind, I jumped on a boat in Donousa – one of the four inhabited islands which make up the Small Cyclades – for a trip around the coast. Life in Donousa runs at its own gentle pace. There are no schedules or timetables here: the boat goes when it’s full (a good excuse for us to grab a coffee at the harbour beforehand), but it wasn’t long before we were speeding off around the headland to the next bay. “Look, ospreys!” Loukas, our guide, gestured to the majestic birds spiralling around the clifftops above us as we glided towards the sea caves of Fokospilia. Once the hideaway for pirates and, more recently, a colony of seals (Fokospilia means 'cave of seals'), the sea caves are carpeted in coral which glows emerald green when the sunlight catches it. We spent the afternoon dipping in and out of bays, jumping overboard into the crystal clear sea, wading through warm waters to tavernas set back from the beach where we feasted on roasted sea bass stuffed with herbs, colourful salads and tangy cheeses. In the summer months, the Aegean's northerly wind phenomenon – the meltemia – whistles through the islands. If you're a lover of watersports, this means a strong steady wind from May to September. Naxos is fast becoming one of the go-to places to wind- and kitesurfing. It’s 91km of pristine sandy beaches which gently shelve into shallow waters are ideal conditions to learn the sports – or hone existing skills. Windsurfers will have a hard time resisting the urge to take to the water along popular Plaka beach, renowned for its flat, aquamarine waters. But if you want to delve even deeper into the hidden caves and coves of the islands, the best way to do it is by kayak, and the calm, tranquil waters of Schinoussa are perfect sea kayaking territory. The friendly bunch at WayOut Adventure offer sea kayaking trips around some of the island’s most beautiful spots and can tailor their trips to suit all ages and abilities. As we paddled out to sea, nothing, I decided, beats gliding silently through the water on a kayak. Gently rocking from side to side, the trickle of water as the paddle leaves the sea and the squarks from seabirds overhead were the only noises to disturb the peace. Words by Florence Fortnam == Disclosure: Florence's trip to Naxos and the Small Cyclades was organised by the Greek National Tourism Organisation Board (GNTO UK & Ireland) as part of Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades. Florence has full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Naxos and the Small Cyclades this year. All opinions are the author’s own.

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Lesvos & Chios, here's our pick of characterful places to stay. On Lesvos there are a host of charming places to stay on the coast - we recommend waking up to a welcoming view of the Aegean at Hotel Votsala and heading out for a morning dip before coffee and pastries served by the beach. Or if you'd rather get lost in the hills, discover Toumba eco-farm tucked away in the middle of the island that’s a haven for hikers and horse riders. Chios' walled medieval villages have to be seen to be believed and beg to be explored for longer than just a day, so we've picked places where you can bed down in lovingly restored cottages within the fortified walls of quaint, maze-like communities. Then head to the cool citrus glades of Kampos to stay in a luxurious old manor house-turned-hotel and experience how the Chiot gentry once lived. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Lesvos & Chios: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to stay Lesvos & Chios Hotel Galini, Lesvos, Greece A chilled-out little hotel down a quiet side street in town. Galini's rooms are clean and airy, with balconies looking out over the streets. The best bit of a stay here is a chat with charming owner Fani, a font of local knowledge. hotelgalini-lesvos.gr/el Votsala Hotel, Thermi, Lesvos This colourful, friendly hotel is made up of blocks of apartments facing out to the sea, but it doesn't feel too big or busy - the abundance of flowers dotted about the grounds make a stay here feel like ambling about in someone's garden. votsalahotel.com Sunrise Hotel, Molyvos, Lesvos Sunrise's blindingly white apartments are terraced on a gentle slope which looks down over the deep blue Aegean sea and across to the valley of Eftalou. Everything's big at Sunrise, from the beds and the azure swimming pool to the breakfast buffet. sunrisehotel-lesvos.com Archontiko Petras 1821, Lesvos, Greece We love Archontiko's cosy, romantic rooms, and the location of the old-fashioned hotel is just as special - right in the middle of stunning Petra, a stay here combines the buzz of a town location with easy-going beach life as the coast is next door. archontikopetras.gr Art Lesvos Villas, Mytiline, Lesvos Modern meets classic in these cheerful holiday homes, with bright red roofs and primary-coloured shutters. A great choice for families, and an easy base for exploring the island. We love the hamper of loca produce waiting on arrival. art-lesvosvillas.gr Hotel Pearl Bay, Chios, Greece Pearl Bay is a complex of modern, smart apartment-style rooms arranged around a beautiful swimming pool, across the road from pretty Daskalopetra beach. If you want to be a stone's throw from the coast, this is a great choice. pearlbay.gr Spitakia Houses, Chios, Greece The literal translation of Spitakia is 'little houses', and these charming, beautifully restored cottages dotted about in Avgonima, one of Chios' laid-back medieval villages, are cosy homes from home. spitakia.gr For ideas of local food and drink, visitor attractions and outdoor activities, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Lesvos & Chios

As we celebrate our Greentraveller's Guide to Lesvos and Chios, Sian Lewis explores the lush valleys and inviting coastline of Lesvos on foot, by bike and on horseback. Lesvos is an island of contrasting landscapes. Venture into its heart and you'll find groves of olive trees, sleepy villages, medieval castles and hot springs. Meanwhile the rocky fringes of this gem in the North Aegean are a wild swimmer's dream, where you can leap off rocks into warm, crystal-clear water and spot a rainbow of fish flitting past in the day and the glimmer of phosphorescense around you at night. I spent a few days exploring this outdoors-lover's haven on foot, on horseback and by bike. Greentraveller's video about the islands of Lesvos and Chios: Lesvos is pretty big - the third largest of the Greek islands - so travelling by two wheels is a great way to see more of it. And its lush valleys, steep hills and woodland trails make the perfect terrain for mountain biking, says Titos Chatlezis. He and his family run Lesvos Ride, a new company aiming to share their love of cycling with visitors to the island. We met Tito in the countryside near Molyvos, where he told me tales of his years biking around the world before concluding that "Lesvos is definitelythe best place to mountain bike in Europe". And he may be right - over 280km of paths zig-zag over the island, and Lesvos Ride can take everyone from complete beginners to seasoned pros out to explore them. After a gentle cycle in the hills the Chatzelis brothers took us on a rather different tour - we swapped the outdoors for the teeth-jolting cobbled streets of Molyvos. The narrow alleyways and steep steps of this charming town make for an urban playground for experienced mountain bikers. We definitely startled a few cats as we careened round corners, although the ladies we came across sitting in doorways making orzo pasta didn't look particularly impressed. Off the bike and onto a different kind of saddle - we spent the next afternoon on horseback with Rita Michalaki, who takes riders out on her quiet horses on trails that meander through some of the island's most beautiful spots. Rita offers day-long treks from Molyvos to Petra or the chance to gallop wild and free along sandy Eftalou beach, but we opted for a gentle ride around a nearby reservoir, the afternoon light painting far-off Molyvos town and the surrounding hills red and gold and Rita's gorgeous Alsation, Zara, trotting behind us. There are hiking routes all over Lesvos, but perhaps the most surreal is a four-hour walk around the island's petrified forest. This UNESCO-protected site looks at first glance like a rolling hillside dotted with trees and odd stone marble columns. Look closer, I realised that the towering marble columns were actually the trunks of ancient, petrified trees, fossilized where they stand. We followed the trail around the site, coming across the bizarre remnants of the towering sequoia forest that once stood proud of the island twenty million years ago. Back when Lesvos was a tropical island one of its volcanoes erupted and spewed lava and ash, covering the forests. The ash slowly replaced organic materials in trees and plants with thermal liquid, perfectly fossilising them as beautifully coloured rock. The landscape where they stand is beautiful, too - definitely a walk to remember. But as lovely as the hills and valleys of Lesvos were to explore, it was the inviting clear blue waters that hug the coast of the island which I found impossible to resist. Often on our travels we'd often come suddenly come across the sea - looking down on it from hiking paths, spotting it sparkling in the distance from a taverna - and I was always desperate to stop for a swim. I found two favourite spots during our time on the island - one is the beachfront of the liberal and gay-friendly town Skala of Eressos, where you can shake of any inhibitions and go skinny dipping with the locals. A very invigorating way to start the morning! The other is found across the island. Aghios Isidoros beach, near Plomari, looks like a normal, pleasant beach, with a scattering of sunbathers on the sand. But when we swam out into the turquoise water we were alone, floating above the reef. The water is so clear that we didn't need goggles to spot the iridescent fish flitting around our feet, although I did find it slightly unnerving to be informed that many-tentacled octopus were probably asleep in little holes and crannies in the rocks below. I can't think of a nicer way to spend the day than floating in the water and watching the creatures of the deep. Words by Sian Lewis Details Sian cycled with Lesvos Ride, who offer a variety of tours on the island for riders of all levels, including families, with experienced cycling guides. They also organise cycling holidays and bike rental is available. Sian went riding with Ippos Ride, based near Molyvos, who organise day rides, week-long riding holidays and lessons for beginners. The Petrified Forest site is open daily and maps are available with marked hiking trails around the fossils.

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades, here's a selection of outdoor adventure activities in these beautiful islands. There's a wide range of outdoor activities throughout Naxos and the Small Cyclades. The gorgeous aquamarine sea and strong steady winds make this one of the best places in the Cyclades to get out on the water for windsurfing, kite surfing and sailing. Inland there are plenty of trails for cycling as well as marked routes for hiking. The most enjoyable way to travel around the coast of the islands is by boat, and there are plenty of boat operators that can take you to hidden coves, sea caves and inlets, and small fishing villages. Jump overboard and wade through the warm waters to pretty tavernas set back off the beach where you can feast on delicious fresh local produce. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos & the Small Cyclades: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Activities in Naxos & the Small Cyclades Walks on Naxos and the Small Cyclades Walking trails on Koufonissi, Greece Ano Koufonissi is small enough (5.7 square miles) to walk around the coast in a day – and you can reach many of the island's beautiful beaches on foot. The Municipality of Naxos and the Small Cyclades proposes a route that goes around the island from Chora to Gialos via Loutro, Parianos, Limenari, Xylobatis, Pori, Platia Pounta, Fanos, Finikas and Charakopou. Alternatively, there's an inland route from Chora to Pano Meria via Prohpitis Ilias that leads to the highest point of the interior. Walking trails on Donousa, Greece There are several established walking routes on Donoussa, most are signposted to help you find your way and enjoy wonderful views of the Aegean Sea as well as the interior, dotted with local attractions, such as villages, the remnants of age-old settlements and industry. The Municipality of Naxos and Small Cyclades proposes the following routes: Stavros-Kalotaritissa (4.4km), Kedros-Messaria (1.1km), Merssini-Livadi (0.9km), Kedros-Kato Mylos (1.8km), and Stavros-Limni-Aspros Cavos (2.1km). Hiking on Iraklia, Greece One of the charms of walking on the island of Iraklia is that as well as the superb views, you are likely to spot rare birds as the island is part of the Nature 2000 network of natural habitats. There are several marked trails across the island, the loveliest of which are in the southern part of the island. The longest hike that you can do on the island follows a route to the stalactite-studded cave church of Agios Ioànnis, possibly one of the most beautiful caves in Greece. Another follows a coastal Cycling on Naxos and the Small Cyclades Flisvos Sports Club, Naxos, Greece Windsurfing and watersports centre with beach café, seaside studios and apartments conveniently located to the south of the main town of Naxos. As well as windsurfing boards and sails for hire, there are mountain bikes (you can also hire an experienced mountain bike guide to take you to some of the best places for cycling on the island as well as show you the best of the local sights), beach volleyball, catamaran sailing tours and lessons, as well as kite surfing at its Flisvos Kite centre Mikri Vigla. Thoosa Rent-a-Bike, Koufonissi, Greece This local bike hire place on the island of Koufonissi rents out bikes by the hour, day, or for longer spells. Set right by the beach and harbour on this Small Cycladic island, the friendly outlet have a range of bikes, from mountain bikes to road bikes, as well as bikes for children. The island is a fantastic place to explore in the saddle; at just 6km long, you can visit the whole island in a day, whilst the reasonably good roads shouldn't prove too tricky for the average cyclist. There are some more taxing trails into the interior of the island for those after something a little more challenging. Watersports on Naxos and the Small Cyclades WayOut Adventures, Schinoussa, Greece This team of friends behind this outdoor activity provider will take you on a tour of Schinoussa's pristine waters by kayak, hiking into the remote hills, stand-up paddle boarding along some if the island's picture-perfect coastline, or on a climbing adventure further inland. Plaka Watersports, Naxos, Greece Windsurfers will have a hard time resisting the urge to take to the water along popular Plaka beach, renowned for its flat waters, steady winds and aquamarine waters. The friendly, professional guys here will set you up with all the equipment you need, whether you're a pro or new to the sport. They also run a series of courses to suit all ages and abilities, from private 1-2-1 training to group lessons. They also hold waterskiiing and wakeboarding lessons, and kids can have fun messing about on the water in a banana boat or tube. Kick back in the super cool chillout bar afterwards with a cocktail or tasty burger. Donoussa Magissa Boat Trip, Donousa, Greece Charming Loukas has been running boat trips from the harbour at Donousa for over ten years. He and his small crew follow the island's coast, stopping off at beautiful beaches, coves and villages along the way – you can hop off at any time, and there are plenty of opportunities to leap overboard in to the clear, warm waters. Loukas will regale you with intriguing seafaring tales, such as the pirates who inhabited the sea caves to escape their enemies (the boat stops here for a swim), and is a font of knowledge on the history of the island – he's lived here for most of his life. Island hopping around the Small Cyclades One of the joys of visiting the Small Cyclades is that, due to the happy fact that there are no airports servicing them, good old-fashioned island hopping is the only way to get around the archipelago. There are regular ferry crossing between the islands but the best way to see them by far is to join a small boat stationed at harbours across the islands. The islands are all within a few kilometres of each – except Donousa which is flung out further north – making this an easy way to visit the archipelago on daily boat tours. For more information on nearby characterful places to stay, where to find local food and drink, and local attractions, see our Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades

Florence Fortnam discovers some of the islands' finest wild ingredients – from mountain goat to thyme honey – and learns some of the secrets behind the islands’ tasty local produce. From our boat, we watched a small herd of goats bound fearlessly down the rippling cliffs to the sea. ’Salt water – eugh!’, I cried, as they began lapping thirstily at the water’s edge. “Natural seasoning!’ our guide, Loukas, said with a wink. Wild goat, he went on to explain, has been one of the staples of the diet in Naxos and the Small Cyclades for millennia. You find it on every menu – baked in crispy pies with vlita (spinach-like greens that grow wild across the islands), braised in stews with the famous Naxian potato, cooked with tomatoes and cinnamon, or steeped in thyme honey (a speciality of neighbouring Iraklia) and roasted on an open flame. It hadn’t been long since I’d filled my belly with breakfast but I couldn’t help my mind wandering to thoughts of lunch. I was on Donousa – one of the four inhabited Small Cyclades islands, ten miles east of Naxos – on the first day of my gastronomic discovery of Naxos and the Small Cyclades, delving into the food culture of the islands to uncover some of this archipelago's wild and wonderful produce. As we rounded a clutch of jagged rocks jutting out into the aquamarine sea, a green cliff face came into view, an unexpected sight on an otherwise rocky, shrubby island. This verdant, vertiginous valley, Loukas explained, was home to a number of natural springs, the secret behind the island's productivity, he claimed. "Our very own little oasis,” he said. “Apricots, figs, lemons, almonds, pears, plums, grapes, oranges – they all grow here.” As we drifted closer, I could just make out the tiny colourful flecks of early fruit amongst the leafy trees. Half an hour later our boat moored in the glassy bay at Kalotaritissa and we climbed the rough path to the bamboo-shaded terrace of the family-run Mitsos taverna. Bowls of salt-dried throubesolives (the black, wrinkly kind) and hunks of poppy seed bread arrived on our table before we'd even had time to digest the menu. Many of the family recipes have been passed down from the indomitable grandmother Fani, who, at 86 years young, still rules the roost around here. Like almost every rural taverna across the Cyclades, everything is either grown here on site, gathered locally or caught in the bay. Herbs – picked along the lanes – flavour family recipes: there's cuttlefish with oregano, cinnamon and tomatoes, tasty vlita with mint and lemon, huge salads topped with scoops of soft, velvety, basil-flecked feta. "Bit different to the sort you're used to, hey?" Loukas joked, as images of the vacuum-packed rectangles of rubber cheese we call feta popped into my head. Lunch was rounded off with some caramelised quince and kaimaki – a buttery, vanilla-flavoured ice cream with a meringue-like gooeyness in the middle. This was followed by a shot of brain-tingling raki, accompanied, as always, by an enthusiastic 'yamas!' (‘cheers'). Naxos produces some of Greece’s best-known cheeses, a culture attributed in part to the Greek myth that Apollo's son and cheese maker extraordinaire, Aristaios, supposedly grew up on the island. There's the rich, creamy and slightly sour Xynomyzithra, buttery Graviera, sweet Mizithra, and spicy Arseniko, to name a few. To find out more, I headed to a cheese-making farm in Agiassos on the south of the island where, with an 800-strong herd of goats, Stelios and his family produce one of the island’s favourite cheeses – a tangy, award-winning Mizithra. After a quick tour of the production room, I followed Stelios out to meet the rest of the workforce. I could hear them before I could see them – each goat, he explained, has a different sounding bell, and he can recognise each individual one. As he opened the gate, the goats stampeded into the surrounding heather-studded valleys (their diet of wild flowers and shrubs is the secret to their success, so Stelios claims), which was one of the most awesome, dramatic sights of the trip. My ears were ringing with the sound of 800 goats bells for the rest of the day. Naxos is a surprisingly lush island, with hidden green valleys, natural springs, misty mountains and a higher than average rainfall. This fertile environment has allowed it to be self-sufficient since ancient times, producing its own meat, unique cheeses, vegetables, fruit, herbs, honey and wine – you name it, they produce it. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Dionysus, the Greek god of winemaking and fertility, was supposedly born here, too. Evidence of its agricultural roots – past and present – is everywhere, from the now derelict windmills perched on hilltops and the flocks of sheep and goats that graze freely on open plateaus, to the agricultural terraces, carved deep into cliff faces along the coast. Later that evening we tucked into patatato, a slow-cooked casserole of wild goat and the famous Naxian potato. The meat was tender like slow-cooked lamb – and beautifully seasoned, naturally. Words by Florence Fortnam == Disclosure: Florence's trip to Naxos and the Small Cyclades was organised by the Greek National Tourism Organisation Board (GNTO UK & Ireland) as part of Green Traveller's Guide to Naxos and the Small Cyclades. Florence has full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Naxos and the Small Cyclades this year. All opinions are the author’s own.

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of places to eat selling locally produced seasonal food. Photos: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves The joy of a peninsula, with both mountain and coastline, is the diversity of its seasonal food larder. Settle into a seafront taverna and pair your tsipouro (Greek grappa) with mezedes of grilled octopus, pickled rock samphire or deep-fried sea anenome. Venture inland and savour everything from wild greens to apples, chestnuts and wild boar. You’ll also find the ingredients - green peppers, tomatoes and sausage - for Pelion’s most famous dish, spetzofai. Most of Pelion’s restaurants are relaxed family-run affairs, often in the enchanting setting of a cobbled village square. But if it’s table-clothed gastronomy you’re seeking, Pelion offers that too. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to eat in Pelion Kritsa, Portaria Sit outside in the square or grab a seat indoors by the neo-classical Egyptian-style fireplace. Either way, you’re in for a treat: Kritsa is one of Pelion’s most convivial eateries, offering seriously delicious rustic fare with some of the region’s best organic wines to boot. It’s run by Eleni Karaiskou and her extended family, with many ingredients hailing from their farm where Eleni also runs a cookery school. Specialities range from simple Foraged greens with eggs to hearty renditions of Pelion classics like spetzofai and strapatsada. To sample the belter breakfasts, book into one of the seven rooms upstairs. hotel-kritsa.gr and peliongastronomy.gr Aleka’s House, Tsagarada In spring, you’ll find wild asparagus and in autumn, stuffed mushrooms or locally foraged sweet chestnuts that accompany chef Theodoros Tzembetzis’ aromatic slow-cooked veal. This congenial restaurant-cafe, on Tsgarada’s main street, is firmly rooted in the seasons and local soil. Like Kritsa, it’s a family business, set up by the parents of Theodoros’ wife Eleni who still help out by making savoury pies and puddings from local ingredients. Also try the imaginative salads, as well as the knockout kokoras me xilopites (chicken with homemade tagliatelle). There’s a cafe next door and upstairs, ten simple bedrooms too. alekas-house.gr Aggelika, Milopotamo Given its panoramic views over one of Pelion’s most spectacular beaches, it’s no surprise that seafood - from squid and octopus to anchovies and bream - is the centrepiece at this recently expanded clifftop glass-framed restaurant. It’s caught by the father of Aggelika who runs it, so dishes, such as the taverna’s famous fish soup, revolve around whatever fish he’s landed that day. But it’s not just fish that hits the mark here; starters such as the grilled aubergine with feta, tomatoes and parsley, or the innovative politikisalata - made from dill, grated cabbage and carrot - are equally delicious. aggelikapelion.gr Six Keys, Afyssos Expect high-end gastronomy at this beachside restaurant attached to a luxury seven-room guesthouse. Ingredients are as home-grown as anywhere else, but, under the guidance of Athenian superchef Giannis Baxevanis, they are transformed into cutting edge dishes. You might start with fish carpaccio with sea fennel and aged tsipouro, followed with a Spetzofai tagliatelle with fried mizithra cheese and peppers - a twist on Pelion’s spetzofai. Grab a verandah seat and watch the sunset as you feast. sixkeys.gr Salkimi taverna, Milies At this roadside taverna opposite Milia’s main square, there are traditional Pelion favourites, such as rooster cooked in wine to boubari (intestines stuffed with mince and rice), but its speciality is its hearty stews slow-cooked in whopper earthenware pots; try the Giulbasi (kid goat, veal and pork stewed with tomato, peppers and garlic) or the Salkimi, a stew of veal, courgettes, aubergines and peppers that’s topped with bechamel sauce and cheese and grilled. Kardamo, Makrinitsa The views from this bijou restaurant (whose name means cardamom) near Makrinitsa’s dreamy square are as good as the food. In the evening, sit out on the balcony and watch the flickering lights of Volos below as you tuck into specialities such as aubergine and veal stew or rooster with homemade pasta. In autumn, snuggle by the fire in its artefact-decked interior and enjoy foraged mushrooms or giant beans with lemon sauce - a nice twist on the usual gigantes in a tomato sauce. It’s all so hearty and friendly you could almost be in the owner’s home. restaurantkardamo.business.site (greek only) Archipelagos Ouzeri, Volos Pelion’s communal tipple is tsipouro, a firewater made from the grape skins after they’ve been pressed to make wine, and it’s served in tavernas known as tsipouradika. At Archipelagos, on Volos’ harbour-front, as in other tsipouradika, each diddy 50ml bottle (choose with or without aniseed) brings a different plate of home-cooked food. As you’d expect, most revolve around seafood, such as mussel risotto, deep-fried sea anemone, or grilled octopus. But the pickled kritamo (rock samphire), fried aubergine and salad dishes are equally delicious. archipelagos.com Y Drosia, Pinacates Traditional family-run taverna, serving simple fare with lashings of atmosphere in an unspoiled mountain village. Sit at one of the check-tableclothed tables on the tree-shaded terrace and gaze out over the Pagasitic Gulf below, or if it’s chilly, snuggle by the hearth inside. Food is mainly home-grown or in the case of meat, from local free-range farms, and even the tsipouro and wines are homemade too. There’s a wide range of starters (such as grilled sardines with green beans), while mains tend to be roasts or grills, generally of goat, veal or lamb. Anna Na Ena Milo bar, Milies The name of this bar (meaning “Anna, here’s an apple”) comes from a phrase taught to all Greek school children to teach them their alphabet. But there’s nothing elementary about this cosy roadside cafe-bar, just off the square of the mountain village of Milies, that’s probably as close as Pelion gets to hipster. Enjoy the colourful prints and posters plastering the walls as you sample a Greek coffee served from a traditional copper pot, or one of its homemade desserts (the lemon mousse and the cheesecake get our vote). A great place for people watching. Meintani, Zagora Field to fork eating doesn’t get much better than at this flower-draped neighbourhood eatery, known by the locals as Niki’s after its motherly owner. Niki grows much of her own produce, from the courgette flowers and cabbage leaves that she stuffs, to the tomatoes that she grates into her spetzofai. Goat and wild boar are slowly braised with oil and garlic until meltingly tender, while dessert is likely to revolve around the local firiki apple for which Zagora is famous. Sit on the verandah for views of the turquoise Aegean below or inside to watch the village goings-on. meintani.gr Taverna Karagatsi, Damouhari The tiny postcard-perfect port of Damouhari, with its ancient Venetian architecture, leapt to fame after being chosen as the location where Mamma Mia was filmed. Thankfully it’s still a tranquil spot populated by self-catering cottages and a handful of tavernas from which Karagatsi stands out. Personable chef-owner Apostolis serves up wonderful Pelion staples but fresh fish is the must-eat, along with tasty mezedes such as homemade taramosalata. Watch the skies turn crimson over neighbouring Alonissos and Skiathos as you dine.

As we launch our Greentraveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves surveys the foodie scene of the Pelion peninsula, the mountainous boot that sweeps its heel into the Aegean Sea midway between Athens and Thessaloniki. Greece’s Pelion Peninsula is where bare rocky landscapes give way to lush sweet chestnut woods that jostle for space with fruit orchards and olive groves, gurgling streams and fountains, and stone and slate villages that tumble down the flanks of mighty Mount Pelion. Homer aptly dubbed it the land of “quivering foliage.” Such vegetation spawns a rich natural larder, which make Pelion’s food offering unique. Here you’ll find slow-cooked meat stews, grilled fish that’s just come off the boat, delicately stuffed cabbage leaves resembling tiny silk-wrapped parcels, and filo-pastry vegetable pies that provide perfect portable fuel for hikes along the peninsula’s cobbled kalderimia (mule paths). It’s creative, honest and delicious. Recipes reflect the peninsula’s many foreign influences too, but whatever the dishes, they use local, fresh and seasonal ingredients. Here cooks are rooted in their native soils, and rightly proud of it. Many even grow their own. The settings in which you eat are as unpretentious as the food itself; who needs fancy decor when you have the shade of a plane tree on a cobbled village square, or a beach with a view across the turquoise waters of the Aegean? Restaurants and tavernas are laid-back places where friends and families relax together over food, invariably watched by stray dogs and cats who hover for titbits. There are table-clothed exceptions, of course, such as some of the hotel restaurants in Tsagarada and Portaria, and at The Six Keys in Afyssos, where superchef Ioannis Baxevanis is wowing diners with his contemporary cutting edge cuisine. But in general, eating in a Pelion restaurant is like joining the owner around their personal kitchen table. Greeks also know how to juggle their food with their drink. In Pelion, the latter usually means tsipouro, a fire-water made from the pomace of grapes after they’ve been pressed to make wine. It’s served in tsipouro tavernas known as tsipouradika - choose with or without aniseed (the first making it like ouzo). In the old days, Peliot men drank tsipouro on its own, but the influx of refugees from Asia Minor in 1922 introduced the idea of combining it with mezedes (hors-d’oeuvres). So today, for every 50ml miniature I ordered, a different delicacy was brought to the table. Menus, and the stress of deciding what to choose, are dispensed with; and you can eat your way through the chef’s repertoire. I did just this at a tsipouradiko on the harbour front in Volos, on Pelion’s northwest corner. Ingredients, awaited with excitement, chart the year’s passing months. Visit in spring and you’ll feast on omelettes made with wild asparagus, and spot locals perched on rocks like goats to harvest rock samphire, succulent and aniseedy, or tsitsiravla, the tender shoots of the wild pistachio tree. Both are pickled in brine, to be enjoyed throughout the year as a meze with tsipouro or a classy salad garnish. Other wild greens are gathered by the armful to be stuffed into pies, sometimes bulked out with trahana - cracked wheat that’s been boiled with soured milk. Or they’re gently sautéed and topped with eggs, to make one of Pelion’s simplest yet most delicious dishes. June sees the arrival cherries as large as golfballs, celebrated at a festival in the mountain village of Agios Lavrentios. Many are preserved in a sugar syrup to make “spoon sweets”, traditionally offered by housewives to welcome guests (dentists look away). Pick of the crop is vissino (sour cherry), perfect with yoghurt as pud. Visit the Women’s Agritourism Cooperative in Vyzitsa and you can watch the village ladies making spoon sweets and jams the way they’ve been made for millennia. Summer sees the arrival of juicy chin-slathering melons and figs, and of tomatoes, which are thrown into salads or scrambled with eggs to make strapatsada. It’s the season too for green peppers - spetza - which give the name to spetzofai, Pelion’s most celebrated dish which combines fried green peppers and grated tomatoes with chunks of local sausage. Eleni Karaiskou, who owns Pelion’s much-loved Kritsa restaurant, and taught me to make spetzofai at her farm-based cookery school, swears by the veal sausages made by Drosos butchers in Volos. Traditionally though, sausages would have been made from goat or mutton with a bit of pork. For meat, goat and chicken rule the roost, often enjoyed as gidha lemonati (goat stewed in a lemon sauce) or kokoras me hilopites (casseroled rooster with homemade pasta). In winter the must-eat meat is wild boar, which Kritsa slow-cooks with tomatoes, plums and chestnuts. Pelion’s big thing, though, is apples. Visit Zagora in late summer, and its steep hillsides groan with aromatic apples, mainly firiki, a small oval altitude-loving variety. Cooks pop them into pies or bake them in the oven with cinnamon and honey. And thanks to its diminutive size, it’s a perfect candidate for preserving in a sugar syrup. My top apple delicacy, though, is petimezi, Pelion’s answer to balsamic vinegar, made by boiling firikiauntil they turn into a thick syrup that’s as dark as tar - wonderful on breakfast pancakes and on salads. In autumn, mushrooms and chestnuts litter the floor of the chestnut forests covering the peninsula’s eastern flanks. If you want to learn how to tell your boletus (known locally as ‘Little Monks’) from your parasol, join mushroom-mad Filaretos Psimmenos on a foraging expedition, then enjoy a garlicky fry-up in his Amanita guesthouse just outside Tsagarada. While mushrooms are generally pan-fried, chestnuts are prepared every which way - from bottled in a sugar syrup (of course!) to gently boiled to create a sauce to accompany pork or veal. Try the veal and chestnut humdinger dish at Tsagaradha’s Aleka’s House restaurant - or if you’re needing a sugar kick, go straight to their rum and chestnut puree dessert. Come in October and you can dance your way through the Chestnut Festival at tiny Xourichti. Last, but not least, there’s wine - and it’s good. Organic vineyards such as Milea and Patistis are producing some very quaffable wines - try Milea’s Merlot, and from Patistis, the Limnio with Xinomavro (both names of grapes) or the Xinomavro blanc du noir. No wonder the gods, according to Greek legend, chose Pelion for their holidays. They were clearly foodies. Text and photos by Clare Hargreaves == Disclosure: Clare Hargreaves was a guest of the Greece National Tourist Organisation and Volos Pelion. Clare had full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Pelion in the autumn of 2018 for our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion. All opinions are the author's own.

As we launch our Greentraveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves learns about the culture and heritage of this peninsula between Athens and Thessaloniki. Giants, centaurs, Olympian gods and demi-gods, Jason and the Argonauts…. the Pelion Peninsula is steeped in mythology. As a visitor, it’s reassuring to learn that Pelion was where the gods living on nearby Mount Olympus spent their summer holidays. As I discovered, it’s not hard to see why. Pelion’s mythical centaurs, half-man half-horse, supposedly born of the union of the shameless Ixion and the long-suffering Nepheli. Were these mysterious creatures a symbolic representation of the taming of the wild horse? Who knows. But what we do know is that the most celebrated was Chiron, tutor of many a Greek hero from Jason to Theseus and Achilles, and renowned for his knowledge of the area’s herbs (which still perfume its wooded slopes). Travel anywhere on Pelion and you’ll find cafes, hotels and bars named after Chiron or his fellow centaurs. Pelion’s other major claim to fame is as the source of the timber that built the Argo, the legendary ship in which Chiron’s pupil, Jason, set out for the Black Sea in search of the golden fleece. Jason, who was rightful heir to the throne of Iolcos (modern Volos, in Pelion’s northwest corner), set out on his quest because his uncle Pelias had murdered Jason’s father Aeson and was planning to kill Jason too. As his fellow Argonauts, Jason signed up all the biggest names of Greek mythology, from Heracles to Theseus and Orpheus. The Argo was essentially the first oared vessel ever made, signalling the start of navigation as we know it. But you don’t need to rely on your imagination to picture it; the locals have deployed ancient shipbuilding techniques to build an immaculate 50-oar replica in the habour in the centre of Volos, which has been used it to retrace Jason’s fascinating 1,200-nautical-mile-long route. For centuries, Pelion remained isolated due to its thick vegetation and inaccessible Aegean-facing coast. But from the 10th century, monks from Mount Athos, to the northeast, started building monasteries here where inhabitants could keep safe from pirates. Pelion became known as the second Mount Athos, the “Mountain of Cells.” Look at the names of many of Pelion’s villages, and it’s easy to see their monastic origins: Agios Lavrentios, Agios Giorgios, Makrinitsa (from the Monastery of the Virgin Mary of Makrinitissa) and so on. Villages mushroomed around the old monasteries, eventually turning into small autonomous republics that prospered from making wool and silk and growing olives and timber. As their wealth increased during the 18th and 19th centuries, villages employed craftsmen from Epirus to hew cobbled squares, fountains, stone-paved paths and bridges from the local schist stone. Such was their skill that the peninsula’s two dozen villages, whose stone-tiled roofs glisten like fish scales when it rains (and it does!), appear to sprout effortlessly from the chestnut and beech forests in which they stand. Some like Milies, on the west coast, and Zagora, on the east, used their new-found wealth to set up schools and libraries and became centres of learning. Today, Pelion’s best preserved villages are Makrinitsa, with its views over Volos, and further south, the west coast villages of Pinacates and Vyzitsa, all with tranquil squares complete with ubiquitous plane trees under which locals sip tsipouro (the local firewater). In summer, squares turn into open-air dance floors or the site for religious rituals, as locals mark saints’ feast days or celebrate local foods. It’s the architecture of Pelion’s archontika (mansions) that took my breath away -majestic, fortified tower-like edifices, whose projecting wood-framed top floors are in stark contrast to the almost windowless, stone floors below. Designed to keep both harsh winters and unwanted foreigners at bay, they’re ornate yet austere, incongruously tall yet at the same time perfectly blended with the villages they stand in. Relax over a herbal mountain tea in their airy rooftop hagiatia (lounges) and you could be in the Middle East: cushioned benches line the walls, topped by small, wood-shuttered windows, then even dinkier stained glass ones. Happily, many of these mansions have been turned into guesthouses - like the 1791-built mansion now run by Mahi Karayiannopoulou in Vyzitsa, with wonderful painted ceilings in its upstairs quarters and fireplaces in most of the rooms. Mahi tells me her grandfather bought the house in 1956, but after securing the roof, left it empty for 20 years. The Greek Tourist Organisation then helped to renovate it (and others), and in 1988 it opened as a guesthouse. In the 19th century, many took on Egyptian-style features, such as lob arcs and ironwork balconies, as Peliots emigrated to Egypt (with whom they’d traded silk) in search of a better life. Many made fortunes in cotton or tobacco, accumulating riches and artefacts that they sent back to their homeland. You’ll spot fine examples of Egyptianate mansions in Portaria, just above Volos. But my favourite is the grand neo-classical mansion in Tsagarada now housing The Lost Unicorn hotel. Another key chapter of Pelion’s history, its struggle for independence, is recounted by the naive frescoes exhibited in another mansion, a few kilometres down the mountain, in Anakasia. They’re painted by folk painter and eccentric Theofilos Hatzimihail. Born in around 1870 on Lesvos, Theofilos spent long periods in Pelion, often dressed up in traditional costume, painting murals in cafes and mansions in return for meals. One of the loveliest examples of his work is his 1912 fresco on the wall of the kafeneion in Makrinitsa where you can make out the figure of Greek independence leader Katsandonis carousing with his soldiers as hostile Turks loom on the horizon. Towards the end of my trip, I braved the hairpin roads along Pelion’s rugged spine to reach the village of Milies for a taste of its industrial past - in the form of its famous ‘Moutzouris’ train, the smallest of its kind in Greece. The steam-train was built by Italian engineer Evaristo de Chirico, chuffing into commercial operation between Milies and Volos in 1903 at a dizzy speed of 12 miles an hour. The train fell into neglect in the seventies, but has since returned to the rails as a tourist attraction. There are wonderful views over the glassy Pagasitic Gulf as the train snakes through the chestnut woods to the village of Ano Lechonia.I continued to Volos, its fast-moving highways a poignant contrast to the tranquil pace of the history-steeped villages. Old and new co-exist in Pelion - much as they have since the centaurs clip-clopped along their cobbled paths. Text and photos by Clare Hargreaves == Disclosure: Clare Hargreaves was a guest of the Greece National Tourist Organisation and Volos Pelion. Clare had full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Pelion in the autumn of 2018 for our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion. All opinions are the author's own.

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of characterful places to stay in the peninsula. Pelion has it all. Choose between living it up in 5-star luxury and winding up a day on the beach with a wallow in the spa; a simple guesthouse nestled in the chestnut woods, where you hang out with the owner and breakfast on their homemade pies and jams; Or if you want something completely different, stay in one of the grand stone mansions that grace Pelion’s mountain villages. Pelion is open for business all year round, including in winter when snow cloaks its densely-wooded peaks. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to stay in Pelion 12 Months Resort Luxury Resort hotel, Tsagarada Hidden discreetly in the chestnut woods and built in Pelion’s traditional style, 12 Months skillfully blends natural beauty with relaxed luxury. In fact, with 20 swanky apartments, each with a view of mountain, garden or sea, it’s a village in itself. After a day on one of the area’s pristine beaches or a coffee under the 1000-year-old plane tree on Tsagarada’s square, head for the sauna or the hammam in the resort’s spa, or work out in the gym or on the tennis court, before sampling the international cuisine in its stone-floored Melia restaurant. Great for families. 12hotel.gr Hotel Portaria, Portaria With its plane-tree-shaded square, cobbled footpaths, and stunning views, Portaria offers the first real taste of the mountains as you approach Pelion from Volos, so is popular with weekenders all year round. This hotel, right at the top, is its most luxurious offering, with 80 rooms, including 7 suites and 4 family apartments, as well as an outdoor pool and well-equipped spa. For food, choose between traditional local dishes or international cuisine, enjoyed by the fireplace in its main restaurant or in summer, outside on the verandah. It’s also a great base if you want to ski at nearby Agriolefkes. portariahotel.gr Hotel Aglaida, Tsagarada Turn off the road that snakes down from Tsagarada to Pelion’s steep-shelving Aegean coastline, and these white-washed apartments are your final stop - so you won’t find a quieter spot from which to watch the sun rise over the neighbouring islands of Skiathos and Alonissos. The unfussy rooms all have balconies and basic cooking facilities, though the owners do a cracking Pelion breakfast, including homemade wild greens pie, loukoumades (fried doughnuts) and strapatsada (eggs scrambled with tomatoes). Walk it off with a hike to Fakistra beach, below, one of the region’s loveliest. aglaida-apartments.gr Amanita guesthouse, Tsagarada The air here is heavy with the scent of sage and rosemary and at night, nightingales or cicadas sing you to sleep. Filaretos and Marianne both abandoned high-flying jobs in Athens to transform a ruin-in-the-woods into the immaculate boutique guesthouse it is today. Rooms are simple but stylish, most with fireplaces too. Marianne will show you the garden’s herbs, while Filaretos will whisk you off to forage mushrooms. Herbs, mushrooms and fruits and vegetables from the garden come together at breakfast time for a gastronomic feast. amanita.gr Lost Unicorn Hotel, Tsagarada Walk along the cobbled path from the village square and through the front door and you’ll need to pinch yourself to remember you’re not in an English country house. Chandeliers, model unicorns and a baby grand piano adorn the characterful library, sitting room and dining room, while the eight antique-furnished rooms upstairs could be from a period drama. Owners Clare, from England, and Greece-born Christos, met while Clare was touring Greece as a professional dancer. He does the cooking, from breakfast (full English if you want it) to dinner, which in summer you can enjoy on its clematis-draped terrace. lostunicorn.com Karagiannopoulou traditional guesthouse, Vyzitsa This archontiko (mansion) constructed in 1791 in the enchanting mountain village of Vysitsa, is one of its oldest survivors from the era. Sleep in one of its wood-panelled bedrooms, and relax with a mountain tea under the magnificent painted ceiling of the upstairs sitting room with its low-cushioned benches and stained glass windows. Breakfast, properly Greek and homemade, is served on the tranquil terrace or by the fireplace in the mansion’s cosy ground-floor stone kitchen. Try one of owner Mahi Karayiannopoulou’s apple or savoury pies, and the local honey. karagiannopoulou.com Karamarlis boutique hotel, Makrinitsa No wonder they call Makrinitsa “Pelion’s Balcony.” The views from this stone village across the Pagasitic Gulf, are mind-blowing. And there’s nowhere to appreciate them better than this gorgeous mansion, stylishly yet sensitively restored by the Karamarlis family who have lived here since 1800. Its warren-like rooms are all different, but many retain original wooden floors and ceilings, and some have fireplaces too. Breakfast (including vegetable pies, halva and rice pudding) is served in its neoclassical-style cafe-lounge, and homemade fare and drinks, such as its hot chocolate with homemade rose liqueur, are available throughout the day. archontikakaramarlis.gr Sakali boutique hotel, Pinacates Boutique hotels don’t get much slicker than this; housed in a restored mansion on the fringes of one of Pelion’s prettiest and remotest west-coast mountain villages. Drool over the sea views as you down a cocktail on the terrace after a swim in the pool, chill out in Pinacates village square and visit its historic church, or follow cobbled footpaths to neighbouring villages. Bedrooms have fabulously comfy antique beds, original art, handmade rugs and multi-jet showers. And breakfasts, served in an annexe, include homemade pastries and jams. From October to April there’s also a spa. sakalihotel.gr Villa Gayannis, Zagora Today Zagora, on Pelion’s northeast corner, is famed for its apple orchards its famous 18th-century library. Many of its fortress-style mansions, including this old merchant’s house from 1770, were built during this period. Rooms are simple, but with its massive gardens and views of the Aegean, it’s a wonderful place to relax. If you’re feeling active, owner Nicolas Gayannis will guide you to the nearby beach of Horefto, or in winter, to the ski station at nearby Agriolefkes. Villagayannis.gr Alatinos, Pinacates Pinacates is one of Pelion’s most unspoiled villages. What makes this simple stone-built guesthouse special is its central location, just off the cobbled square and its marble fountains, so you can immerse yourself into village life. En-suite rooms have spectacular views across the Pagasitic Gulf. Breakfast is served on the ground floor. For other eating and drinking, you’re spoiled for choice, as there’s a cafe on the main street above the village and at the end, an excellent taverna (Y Drosia). An excellent budget option. alatinos.gr

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of historical, cultural and heritage visitor attractions. Giants, centaurs, Olympian gods, Jason and the Argonauts... Pelion is steeped in myth and history, so you’re never short of places to explore. Relive its mythical past by admiring the 50-oared replica of Jason’s Argo in the harbour at Volos, or dig into its Neolithic roots with a trip to the port’s archaeological museum. In the villages on Mount Pelion’s forested flanks, sip a coffee in the square encircling Greece’s oldest plane tree or visit churches and mansions painted with whimsical frescoes. Or if that’s too exhausting, chuff through the olive groves on its tiny train. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places of interest in Pelion Steam train in Milies (pictured above) Pelion’s dinky steam train - the smallest in Greece - is one of its most precious relics. Designed by Italian engineer Evaristo de Chirico, father of the painter Giorgio de Chirico, it first chuffed along the west coast from Volos to Milia in 1903, providing a vital means of transport for Pelion’s inhabitants. Today it provides a wonderful train journey from Lehonia (it will soon be extended to start from Volos) chugging its way up the slopes of Mount Pelion at speed of 25km/hour though the villages of Ano Gatzea, Agia Triada, Agios Athanasios of Pinakates and Aryureika to end at Milies. En route you can admire the views over the Aegean, the unique bridges of de Chirico, a five-arched bridge and straight metal bridge with a curving rail line. Great for families. Athanasakeio archeological museum, Volos Pelion’s Neolithic settlements of Sesklo and Dimini, west of Volos, are fascinating. In both, archaeologists have discovered houses and graves dating back as far as 6000BC. If you don’t have time to visit them, this museum, housed in a fine neo-classical building and named after its founder, is a good second best. Artefacts retrieved from the Sesklo and Dimini include bones, jewelry, household utensils, agricultural tools and even carbonised corn. Particularly eye-catching are the figurines and exquisitely decorated household pots. The museum also has halls with representations of Neolithic graves. efamagvolos.culture.gr/Mouseio_Volou.html Chestnut Festival, Xourikhti Pelion excels at putting on food festivals. But don’t imagine neatly ranked stalls and chef demos. Here festivals celebrate the region’s culture too, so dancing and music are usually firmly on the menu too. October’s Chestnut Festival in the tiny mountain village of Xourikhti, in the chestnut woods near Tsagarada, is no exception. So while you can buy locally foraged chestnuts by the kilo and feed on homemade cake, you also get generous portions of Zorba-style dancing by villagers togged in traditional costume. Pelion also has festivals to celebrate the peach, cherry, apple, melon and olive. Rooftile and Brickworks Museum, Volos Immerse yourself in bricks, tiles and chimneys in this unusual museum charting Volos’ recent industrial past. It’s on the site of the rooftile and brickworks factory run here by the Tsalapatas family from 1926 to 1978. Using clay mined near the Neolithic settlement of Dimini, west of Volos, by the early 1930s it employed over 200 workers who produced seven million bricks and two million rooftiles a year. View the French 1907-built locomotive and raven-black wagons that transported coal to its kiln. The latter was designed by German engineer Friedrick Hoffmann, and its 20 brick-lined chambers make an impressive sight. Argo ship, Volos The story of Jason and the Argonauts is well known, but did you know you can visit a replica of the oared vessel in which they travelled to Colchis on the Black Sea in search of the Golden Fleece? In 2004-2006 local craftsmen used ancient shipbuilding techniques and timber from Mount Pelion to craft a copy of the 50-oar Argo, originally named after its builder, Argus. In 2009, with a 50-strong crew, it retraced Jason’s journey, travelling to Batumi Poti (Colchis) in the Black Sea. This spectacular boat is on display in Volos harbour all year round (except when undergoing maintenance). volosinfo.gr or argonautes2008.gr Theofilos Museum, Anakassia Housed in a handsome 18th-century mansion, this museum is dedicated to the early work of “naive” painter Theophilos Hatzimihail. Originally from Lesvos, the self-taught artist lived for long periods in Volos, often dressed in national costume, painting colourful frescoes in return for meals or money. Many depict his favourite theme, the Greek War of Independence - so you’ll see scenes such as the taking of Tripoli and the graphically illustrated massacre of Turkish civilians. By contrast, others are a whimsical portrayal of Pelion village life: a mix of landscapes, figures, flowers and fantastical animals such as a bear-headed hippo. Tsagarada’s 1000-year-old plane tree Most Greek villages have squares shaded by a mighty plane tree. But the one gracing the square of Agia Paraskevi, one of Tsagarada’s four districts, puts all others into the shade. According to locals, it’s not only the fattest plane tree in Greece (needing 18 chaps to encircle it) but, at over a thousand years old, also the oldest. Its roots tunnel at least four metres beneath the square, which was effectively built around the tree. Even if you’re not a tree-hugger, it’s a wonderful place to sit and watch the world go by with a Greek coffee. Church of Agia Marina, Kissos Built in 1650, this squat, three-aisled basilica is one of the finest religious monuments in Pelion, with some lovely frescoes and an impressive belfry too. It’s probably best known for its goldleaf-laden iconostasis, carved by craftsmen from Epirus in the early 1700s. The interior also features four domes, decorated by painter Ioannis Pagonis. Unless you’re there on a Sunday morning when there are services, it’ll probably be locked, but you can see some fine frescoes above the south door. A chapel forms the village’s Ecclesiastical Museum. Women’s Agritourism Cooperative in Vyzitsa One of Greece’s great culinary traditions is the “spoon sweet”, fruit that’s preserved in a sugar syrup. In 2011, the women of the village of Vyzitsa decided that such customs also needed preserving, and hoped that by doing so they could also gain useful employment. So they set up a 13-woman cooperative which hired kitchens and equipment, and today you can see them making spoon sweets, jams and pies, which they sell in a shop at the front. In September they organise a Firiki Festival celebrating the firiki apple that’s unique to the region. Serpentin Organic Garden, Tsagarada An organic, shrub-filled garden is a rarity in Greece - which makes this exuberant plot, on the lush eastern slopes of mount Pelion, particularly special. It’s the labour of love of German-born Doris Schlepper who, against all the odds, planted it up with rare trees (including ginkgos, tulip trees, and glory trees), historic roses, vegetables and plants, and opened it to the public in 1990. It’s a playful, imaginative place, popular with wildlife and artists alike. Doris will show you around if she’s there, but groups must give advance warning. www.serpentin-garden.com

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of local activities in the great outdoors. Densely wooded mountains criss-crossed by ancient footpaths, crystalline rivers that tumble into turquoise seas … Pelion has all you need for an active holiday: abseil down its Canyon of Centaurs to one of its Aegean beaches; hike or cycle along its cobbled muletracks; jump onto a yacht for a bit of island-hopping; splash along the west coast on horseback; or paddle your way into one of the rugged east coast’s magical caves. Gourmets and nature-lovers can visit one of Pelion’s organic vineyards, join a tour to discover its medicinal and culinary plants, or forage for mushrooms. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to Pelion: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Activities in Pelion Photos: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves Horse Riding Tours - George Rigakis (pictured above) Whether you prefer splashing through the waves on a sandy beach or climbing “secret” mountain trails, the back of a horse is a fabulous place from which to explore Pelion. George Rigakis keeps his horses on a farm among the olive groves near Tsagarada and uses his knowledge of the peninsula’s network of paths to arrange customised horse-riding tours lasting one to three hours. As you ride, discover churches hidden in the beech woods, or stop to drink in the views of the Aegean Sea below. In summer, tours are generally early morning or late afternoon to avoid the midday heat. tsagarada.gr Horseriding Club In the land of the mythical centaurs, it’s seems appropriate to trot your way around the peninsula on horseback. And if you’re new to riding, the Horseriding Club, based on a farm near Koropi on the west coast, makes it fun and easy. A guide will accompany you on foot and lead you and your horse along ancient stone paths through the beech forests and olive groves and down to the beach near Kala Nera on the Pagasitic Gulf. Experienced riders can rent a horse and guide for longer outings, and the Club will provide all the equipment you need. Ifom.gr (Greek only) Mountain Escapes It’s not often that you can canyon your way through lush vegetation to a beautiful beach, while also following in the footsteps of Pelion’s mythical centaurs. For beginners and/or families with children of 10 years or over, a good trip to kick off with is the Canyon of Centaurs A, which starts at Kissos and includes jumps, swims, natural water slides and abseils of up to 26 metres. The trip takes around six hours and the company provides equipment and instruction. More advanced canyoners can tackle the Fakistra, Galanopetra and Kathreftis canyons, on Pelion’s east coast. www.mountainescapes.gr Nature Seminars The ancient Greek poet Hesiod called Pelion “rich in herbs” thanks to the wealth of herbs and medicinal plants on its lush mountain slopes. Happily herbs still abound, and you can learn their properties and how to use them in the home by joining a botany workshop in the pretty southern village of Lafkos. Workshops are led by Maris Zafiriou who studied at the American Farm School in Thessaloniki and moved to Pelion in 2015 to grow aromatic and medicinal plants and keep bees. As well as workshops, she runs four-hour walks, and short courses on apiculture. www.natureseminars.gr Amanita Marianne and Filaretos Psimmenos have a well-founded reputation for their foodie boutique guesthouse in the woods (see Places to Stay). But what fewer people know is that they’re also wizards about Pelion’s botanological traditions. Join Marianne for a tour of her herb garden and the neighbouring woods and learn how to use herbs for cooking or healing. Or book in advance and she and Filaretos will give you cookery classes (using recipes from Filaretos’ book). In autumn, join Filaretos to gather mushrooms - from boletus to Caesar’s - then return to the guesthouse for a fry-up, downed with a glass of tsipouro. amanita.gr Walking Holidays In the old days Pelion’s mountain villages were connected by a web of cobbled mule and foot-paths, which today provide wonderful walking. Travel with Volos-based Walking Holidays and you can choose to navigate your own way or join a group. Their seven-night self-guided trip starts in the traditional west coast village of Milies, then takes you across the mountains through chestnut forests to Tsagarada and Damouchari on the east coast, before winding back to Portaria via Chania. The company also runs a guided trek that in addition to Pelion includes Meteora and its rock-top monasteries. www.walkingholidays.gr Pelion Scout If you’re new to walking in Pelion and have little ones too, Pelion Scout’s “Lost in the Forest” hike could be just the ticket. You meet at Zagora, on Pelion’s northeast corner, from where the company’s guide drives you to the start, then takes you on a 7km hike through the region’s spectacular beech forests. Pelion Scout also offers boat trips (try their half-day trip to the sea caves of Thetis), sea kayaking, canyoning, horse-riding and biking. Select the trip that suits your level of fitness and if there isn’t one, you’ll probably be able to have one tailor-made for you. www.pelionscout.com Bike or Hike Until the sixties, the main way to get from village to village was via dirt track or kalderimia (cobbled muletracks). Roads now connect the villages, leaving the old network of tracks for cyclists, mountain bikers and hikers to enjoy. Portaria-based Bike or Hike will tailor-make a mountain biking tour to suit your fitness and time availability. If you’re up for a challenge, sign up for their 9-dayer from one end of the peninsula to the other. The company also rents out all types of bikes and equipment, and arranges hiking tours too. bikeorhike.gr Green Mountain Activity Area Green Mountain, in Tsagarada, is an area you can try your hand at a range of activities, from paintball to archery - with all the equipment provided. There are activities for the kids to do too, and all ages can take part in Green Mountain’s Mythological Treasure Hunt in the chestnut woods. Or simply take it easy and mess around on a bike or mountain bike. In June, the Area’s creator, Nikolas Melis, also coordinates Tsagarada’s four-day Tsagarada Escape Festival, a jamboree of hiking, sea kayaking, horse riding, rock climbing and archery along with live music and talks on flora, fauna and history. Green Mountain: https://www.facebook.com/greenmountainactivities; Festival: www.tsagarada-pelion.com Pelion Secrets Land on a deserted sandy beach or explore one of Pelion’s evocative sea caves by sea kayak or stand-up paddleboard (SUP). Pelion Secrets runs day trips along the peninsula’s rocky east coast, starting from the coastal village of Chorefto. But if you’re still finding your sea legs, book onto the 2-hour “Short Paddle”, and when you feel more confident, take the half-day “East Coaster” trip to Plaka beach. Tailor-made tours are also available. Pelion Secrets also runs hiking trips in conjunction with Pelion Scout (see under Walking). pelionsecrets.com Shakayak A natural harbour offering protection against winds and waves, tiny Damouchari (where Mamma Mia was filmed) is the perfect spot to learn to sea kayak or paddleboard. So it’s no surprise it’s the spot Shakayak has chosen as their base. If you’re a beginner, potter around the bay while admiring the ruins of its old Venetian castle. For the adventurous, Shakayak runs full-day tours (picnic included) to the sea caves at Fakistra and beyond, while also showing you the coastal flora, fauna and geology. Or simply rent a board or kayak and do your own thing if you prefer. www.shakayak.gr Eclipse Sailing It goes without saying that one of the loveliest ways of exploring the coast of Pelion and its neighbouring islands is by boat. Eclipse Sailing’s yacht Nereida is a classic yacht built in 1984 from iroko and mahogany to a 1944 design by naval architect John Alden. Board this vintage beauty in Volos, then sail across the Pagasitic Gulf to Trikeri island on Pelion’s toe, stopping for swimming and snorkelling en route. Lunch, including Greek salad and homemade pies, is served on board. Eclipse also offers week-long holidays (with skipper and hostess provided). www.eclipsesailing.gr Sail Aegean This Belgian-Greek family-owned yacht charter company may have its headquarters in Brussels but its yachts are firmly moored in Pelion’s port city of Volos. Hire one and cross the mirror-calm Pagasitic Gulf to explore Trikeri island or the Sporades to the east. Stop off to swim or snorkle in iconic Tzasteni bay, and eat freshly landed fish in one of Trikeri’s sea-front tavernas. Rent a yacht with a skipper if you’re not experienced and don’t want the worry of navigating. Or hire bareboat (without skipper) if you’re experienced and fancy sailing under your own steam. sailaegean.eu Patistis vineyard Protected by Mount Pelion to the north and cooled by the breezes off the Aegean Sea in summer, this 8-hectare vineyard run by the Patistis family is ideally situated to grow (organically) local grape varieties such as xinomavro, roditis and limnio. Recently it’s also added assyrtiko, used to make its best-selling barrel-fermented Assyrtiko, a white wine with lovely citrus and tea aromas. Also popular are its Idioma red and its Blanc de noir white, both from xinomavro grapes. You can buy its wines from its cellar door shop (book in winter), and tours of its vineyard and tastings are also available. To visit the winery, book in advance. patistis-wines.gr Milea vineyard Like Patistis, Milea vineyard in nearby Argalasti, uses organic farming methods to grow its vines - as befits an area that embraces eco-tourism. And like Pastistis, this vineyard (of just six hectares) is family owned and run. But where it differs from Pastistis is in its choice of grape varieties. Milea grows just French varieties - Merlot, Syrah and Chardonnay. Its Merlot single variety red is matured in oak barrels for 14 months, producing a robust, full-bodied red with notes of jam, plum, chocolate and vanilla. You can buy wines on site, but for tours and tastings book in advance. ktimamilea.gr == Useful websites: Let’s Go Travelnet and Live Like Local.

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Clare Hargreaves discovers a surprise signature dish and a feast of other local gems on a food tour of the peninsula Grab a table on the plane-tree-shaded terrace at the convivial O Thiasos cafe in Kalamata, the beachside city in the Peloponnese’s southwest corner, and order the signature dish for which locals return time and time again. It’s not lamb or goat, as you might expect after a drive across the forested mountains of Arcadia to the north or across the fertile plains of Messinia surrounding Kalamata. But succulent roasted pork clothed in the tastiest crackling you’ve ever crackled. Why pork? The answer is the region’s history, which flavours so many of its dishes. The Peloponnese was ruled by the Ottomans for nearly 400 years, until the early 1800s. “As Muslims don’t eat pork, the locals knew the best animal to keep was the pig,” says Fotini Arapi, who leads the Kalamata Food Tour run by the company Food Philosophy (kalamata.tours). “They knew the Ottomans would leave those alone. And while the Greeks tended their herds, they hatched revolt.” Still today, no Peloponnesian festival is complete without its spit-roasted pig. Pork doesn’t just come roasted though. Another prized speciality on this wild and vast rocky peninsula is pasto (or siglino) meaning ‘salted pork.’ Pork meat is ‘corned’ with salt, then smoked over local woods like olive and cypress, and herbs such as sage, which gives it a unique flavour. Finally it’s simmered with wine, oranges and spices. It’s been made in Kalamata by the Oikonomakos family ever since they started their butcher’s shop in 1871. Drop in there today (it’s part of the Food Tour route) and you’ll see Giorgos, one of the two brothers now running the shop, proudly stirring vats of rosy pork chunks and vibrant oranges below rows of hanging salamis as his parents hover at the back, Greek coffees in hand. “The tradition comes from the Mani, south of here. All houses had a pig that they’d slaughter in February and eat for the rest of the year,” Giorgos tells me, handing me a succulent morsel to try. “Orange trees is what grew in people’s gardens, so they flavoured the meat with their branches.” The meat makes a great flavouring for a bean soup, or stufffed tomatoes. But you’ll also find it served on its own as a mezze in local restaurants, many of which make their own, from O Thiasos in Kalamata, to Skourkos and To Xani tis Kandilas to the north, in and near Levidia. You’ll find more of Kalamata’s must-eats at Mantineia, a deli in the city’s old quarter a few blocks from its apricot-and-cream Byzantine-style cathedral. Perhaps the most sought after is vanilla fir honey, from the forested Menalon mountains to the northeast. This is a ‘honeydew’ honey, which means it’s made not from blossom nectar, but from sweet secretions produced by micro-organisms on the trunks of the vanilla (or black) fir tree. Bees use this to produce a pearl-coloured honey that’s not only delicious but has a remarkably low glucose content. Unique, it’s been given PDO protected name status, so grab some quick if you spot it alongside Mantineia’s other honeys and colourful spoon sweets (fruits preserved in sugar syrup). Peloponnesians may not drink much fresh milk, but they’re champions at yoghurts and cheeses. In Mantineia’s fridges you find metal trays of set yoghurt which aproned ladies cut into chunks for you to take home. Also look out for locally-made sfela, a protected-name semi-hard cheese made from goat and sheeps’ milk (sfela comes from the Greek sfelida, meaning strip, as it’s cut during production). It pairs briliantly with local lalagia,bread-stick ‘spaghetti’ that’s been fried in olive oil then scattered with sesame seeds, displayed in vast baskets alongside. Visit the city’s covered market and you start to understand why, 25 centuries ago, Euripides called Messinia’s soils ‘kallikarpi’ or ‘fruitful.’ Vats of herbs foraged from Mount Taygetos jostle for space with neat stacks of aubergines (the region even has its own variety), oranges and wild greens. In spring, you’ll find a variety of small-and-spiky wild artichoke from the Mani, that’s celebrated there with an annual festival. And in summer, ruby-coloured mulberries, after which the peninsula was once named (its ancient name was Moreas, thanks to its resemblance to the outline of a leaf of a mulberry tree (mouria) - rounded at the top, with the three long fingers of Messinia, Mani and Monemvasia extending below.) To taste it all, including locally grown black-eyed beans with spinach and herbs and kayianas (eggs scrambled in olive oil and grated tomato), both delicious, there’s no better place than O Thiasos. As I’m visiting in autumn I’m also lucky enough to try moustalevria, made from the must of the pressed grapes. The grape juice is mixed with flour and cinammon and boiled until it forms a jelly, which is topped with walnuts or sesame seeds - pleasantly refreshing at the end of an oil-rich meal. The king of the larder round here, of course, is the olive - and Kalamata even has its own ebony-hued olive named after it, not to be confused with koroneiki olives which are grown to make rich fruity oils. Messinia has around 15 million olive trees, producing 60,000 tonnes of extra virgin olive oil annually. Visit between November and January, and you’ll see entire villages outside harvesting their precious trees - always by hand in the case of Kalamatas, to avoid damaging their delicate flesh. To learn the secrets of pressing, I join a tour of The Olive Routes at Androusa, northwest of Kalamata, owned by Dimitra and Stathis Kontopoulos. The mill is housed in an ancient building that was once the Sultan’s house. For the tasting, oils are poured from dark blue bottles so that you focus on taste (“cut grass” and “tomatoes”) rather than colour which, as Dimitra will tell you, is irrelevant. Travel to the Peloponnese’s southeast coast for other gourmet delights. Stop en route at pretty Italianate Gytheion, for instance, and you’ll see spot fishermen thrashing their octopus against the jetty steps to soften their flesh. In Lent, when the eating of blood is forbidden, squid, octopus and cuttlefish (all bloodless) come to the rescue, often stewed with spinach, onions and other vegetables. Talking of spinach, Monemvasia, the historic castle-on-a-rock on the coast, has its own unique way of preparing it. The ubiquitous spinach pie is replaced by a delicious flatbread filled with spinach called saithia. We tried it at the old town’s Matoula restaurant, where the views across the town walls out to sea are as scrumptious as the home cooking. North of Monemvasia, the handsome mountain village of Kosmas has become famous for its galaktoboureko, or semolina custard pie. Find it in any of the cafes under the plane tree in its central square - there are even signposts to it! Like most Greek desserts, it’s a filo-pastry-clad affair that’s bathed in a honey-sweetened syrup. And eating it is a sacred Sunday morning ritual. But while you’ll find galaktoboureko elsewhere in Greece, a pastry you probably won’t is crinkly-edged diples, which means ‘folded or doubled’ pastry - think blonde brandy snaps without the brandy. Rolled pastry is deep-fried then sprinkled with honey and chopped nuts. Having breakfasted on some excellent home-made ones at Kinsterna Hotel in the hills near Monemvasia, I can heartily recommend them. But for the locals, diplesare also something you eat at weddings and christenings to symbolise the ‘sweet life’ of the married couple or the ‘double joy’ of the baptised child. Wines are plentiful - and increasingly good, particularly in areas like Nemea (outside the scope of this blog) which produce some superb reds, from the Agiorgitiko (St George) grape. But the true wine of the south is the sweet wine from Monemvasia, called Malvasia, whose production began in Byzantine times - the first record of it is in 1214 by the Bishop of Ephesus. Monemvasiots exported their sweet wine worldwide, and the wine even makes an appearance in Shakespeare’s Richard II. Monemvasia-Malvasia wine was reborn when the Monemvasia winery opened in 1997 and in 2010 it proudly gained its own PDO. I sip it in the relaxed Enetiko Cocktail Bar in the Lower Town on Monemvasia’s great rock. Stin ygeia mas! Cheers! == Disclosure: Clare Hargreaves was a guest of the Greece National Tourism Organisation. Clare had full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting the Peloponnese in October 2019 for Green Traveller's Guide to Central and Southern Peloponnese. All opinions are the authors' own.

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves sample adventure activities in some of the most ancient parts of the peninsula Setting off from a ridiculously idyllic forest-backed sandy beach, we kayaked through crystal clear water with just the sounds of our paddles lapping in the water and occasional birdsong overhead. After a lunch of fresh tomatoes, feta cheese, olives and home-baked bread, the plan for the afternoon was gloriously simple: we just had to slowly kayak along the rocky coastline back to where we’d set out that morning. The sea was warm, the sun was baking and it was a perfect clear blue sky day. Welcome to autumn in laid-back Kardimili. Kayaking is just one of many outdoor adventures in the southern Peloponnese provided by Explore Messinia who also run hiking, canyoning, rafting, river trekking and stand up paddleboarding. Away from the coast, there’s also a huge variety of things to do provided by any number of adventure operators: you can explore the Mainalon, the vast massif at its heart, on foot, bike or horseback; test your inner Robinson Crusoe by joining a course in survival tactics - including creating fire with sticks; or raft down spectacular river gorges. Adventurous foodies can enjoy city food tours, olive oil tours and mountain mushroom-hunting – most tours inevitably go hand in hand with learning about the fascinating heritage of this ancient part of Greece. We started our adventure in the heart of the vast wild and rocky peninsula - in Mistras, six kilometres west of Sparta, which we could see sprawled across the plain below. Above us, its jagged head buried in clouds, is mighty Mount Taygetos, while beside us is an equally staggering sight: a lush 250-metre-high foothill bearing the remarkably intact remains of what was once a thriving walled Byzantine city. With its grey stone fortress dominating its frescoed churches, monasteries, mansions, and streets it’s mind-blowing to picture the 20,0000 people who once played out their lives and faith here. Leaving the hovering taxis and hawkers selling honey-and-sesame pasteli, we entered the stone arches of the Upper Gate, and tramped an olive-fringed footway up to the remains of the castle. This was one of a trio of fortresses built in the mid 13th century by William II of Villehardouin, the fourth Frankish prince of the Morea, in an attempt to extend Frankish rule over the southern Peloponnese following the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders. Following Mistras’ stone-paved alleyways, we crossed its town square to reach the vast, Gothic-looking Despots’ Palace, a (rare) civic building where the despot lived, adjudicated and received visitors. As we wandered down, we soon lost track of its many Late Byzantine churches, all built on a characteristic cross-plan and topped with multiple terracotta-roofed domes, seen as symbols of the divine and eternal. But getting lost is part of the joy of Mistras - its ancient buildings mingle with olive trees and bushes of vibrantly coloured rock roses through which stray cats wander, and the hill is ample enough for you to escape the crowds. If Mistras was Byzantium’s spiritual centre, Monemvasia, impregnable on its vast pink rock off the peninsula’s east coast, was its secular counterpart. Founded by the Byzantines in the sixth century to escape the rapacious Avars and Slavs, it remained in Byzantine hands (with occasional interruptions) for almost seven centuries, becoming subject to the Despotate of the Morea from 1349 to 1460. We entered the imposing gate into its walled Lower Town via a causeway from the modern town - the name Monemvasia is an elision of the Greek words “moni” and “emvasis” meaning single and entrance. The locals, though, dub it “kastro”, meaning “castle” - a reference to the citadel that lords it over the Upper Town above. As we wandered through the Lower Town’s tangle of narrow paved streets, lined with cafes, souvenir shops, and tavernas (one of them owned by relatives of Yannis Ritsos, one of Greece’s foremost poets), we dived into the main street’s Enetiko bar to sample one of the exports from which Monemvasia’s noble Byzantine families made fortunes - its Malmsey or Malvasia wine, so famous it even got a mention in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Two decades ago, a Monemvasia winery started producing the sweet wine once again and in 2010 it even gained a PDO. It’s drunk chilled, which dampens the sweetness, and it makes a welcome aperitif before the steep climb up to the Upper Town. If that’s not enough to take one’s breath away, the beautiful octagonal twelfth-century church of Ayia Sofia, a few steps up from the gate, certainly is. Its walls bear colourful wall paintings dating from the late 12th and early 13th century. Happily they’re being looked after well - we meet a woman painstakingly restoring them. Further south, we headed to the famous Dinos caves, which pierce the cliffs near the village of Pirgos Dirou, 8km south of Areopolis. Alepotripa and Vlichada caves (collectively known as the ‘Dinos Caves’) were used in the late Neolithic period (4000 - 3000 BC) as shelter, dwelling, and place of worship. You can walk in the Alepotrypa cave but we took a boat trip in the adjacent Vlichada cave. A short walk from the cave’s entrance leads to an underground jetty from where we boarded a paddle boat for an awe-inspiring 30-minute trip along the silent underground network of waterways, passages and galleries of stalactites and stalagmites lit up against the reflected water. Emerging in the warm October sun, we then visited the Mani - an area steeped in mythology; a cave on Cape Tainaron, its southernmost tip, is said to be one of the entrances to Hades (the Underworld), from where Hercules dragged Cerberus into daylight. One of the most fascinating sights are the marble-roofed tower houses - many are well preserved, and one has been turned into a stunning boutique hotel. Climbing the steep alleyways winding up between tumbeldown houses, with only the occasional pungent-smelling carob tree for greenery, we marvelled at how its inhabitants eeked out a life in such a challenging landscape. It seemed a far cry from Mistras’ lush mountainsides, Monemvasia’s bustling streets and the coast of Kardimili but such is the variety of things to do in this glorious pensinsula – our advice is to just give yourself plenty of time to see as much as you can! Words by Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves Photos (unless otherwise indicated) by Clare Hargreaves == Disclosure: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves were guests of the Greece National Tourism Organisation. Richard and Clare had full editorial control of the review, which is written in their own words based on their experience of visiting the Peloponnese in October 2019 for Green Traveller's Guide to Central and Southern Peloponnese. All opinions are the authors' own.

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of cultural and heritage visitor attractions. With its rich history, thick with myths and legends, and its magnificent landscapes, you’re never short of places to visit in the Peloponnese. Explore the peninsula’s Byzantine past with trips to the coastal rock-city of Monemvasia or to the ruined hilltop settlement of Mistras, beneath mighty Mount Tagyetos. You can see remnants of the earlier Mycenaean period too, as well as the peninsula’s occupation by the Franks, Venetians and Ottomans. Folklore and costume museums, ancient libraries and churches illustrate different stages of the region’s turbulent history, while wineries and festivals show that Greek culture is still very much alive today. Photos: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places of interest in the Peloponnese Skouras Winery Like the other 50-odd wineries in the Peloponnese’s Nemea region, this winery, established by Argos-born George Skouras in 1986, grows not only indigenous Agiorghitiko and Moscofilero grapes but also international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay. The winery is also working on a sweet red made with the little-known Mavrostifo (meaning “black astringent”) grape that’s dried in the sun to concentrate its aromas, flavors and acidity - watch this space! Visits (bookable in advance) include a tour of the winery and the cellar and then a tasting of its wines, including Megas Oenos (meaning Big/Great wine!). skouras.gr Open-Air Water Power Museum, Dimitsana This unusual museum in the woods overlooking the Lousios river on the edge of Dimitsana, illustrates the importance of water power in pre-industrial Greece, showing how it was used to produce various goods, from gunpowder to flour and leather. You visit a fulling-tub and a watermill - throw corn into the hopper and watch it being ground by the millstones. Beyond are a tannery, which used water to process skins, and a gunpowder mill where inhabitants of Dimitsana manufactured powder during the Greek War of Independence. “We had powder,” wrote Arcadia-born revolutionary leader Theodoros Kolokotronis. “Dimitsana made it.” Tel: 30 279 50 31630 The Library, Dimitsana Dimitsana’s ancient library (and folk museum) is housed in the Municipal School building opposite the church of Agia Kyriaki, at the top of the village. Founded by two monks in 1764, it started life as a theological school and its library was one of four that existed in Greece at that time, with almost 5,000 volumes. Sadly, during the Revolution, many of the library’s books were used to create ammunition, and in 1864 it closed. Today it has over 35,000 books, which include Ottoman decrees, ecclesiastical books dating from the 16th century, and documents from nearby monasteries. Tel: +30 27950-31219 Folklore museum, Stemnitsa Design-built as a “traditional dwelling” by the Savopoulos family in 1995, this museum recreates daily Stemnitsa life in the 18thand 19th centuries. The ground floor has workshops of different traditional professions (including shoemaker, candlemaker, bellmaker, silversmith). The next reproduces the interior of a 19th-century mansion, complete with authentic furniture, weavings, embroideries and loom. The top floor houses the Savopoulos’ family collection of local costumes, Byzantine icons, jewelry, wood carvings, ceramics, and weavings. And in the New Wing, you can admire a collection of ecclesiastical silverware, weavings and home utensils. Well worth a visit. Tel: +30 27950-81252 Mystra Mystra is a hauntingly beautiful, ruined fortress-town that covers a steep, 250-metre-high foothill of mighty Mount Taygetos, to the west of Sparta. It was founded by the Franks in 1249, who built a castle here, but they were soon driven out by the Byzantines who by the mid-14th century had turned this isolated region into the Despotate of Mystra - effectively the last outpost of the Greek Byzantine empire. Explore the hill’s magnificent terracotta-domed churches, many lined with wonderful frescoes, and you can also visit the Pantanassa convent, still inhabited by nuns who sell their handicrafts. Agii Apostoli church, Kalamata This tiny honey-coloured Byzantine church, in the lively heart of historic Kalamata, just below its 14th-century Frankish castle, was built in 1317. Look closely and you’ll notice that the church is lopsided: the larger section was added onto the original core in 1626, and the bell tower was added a bit later. On 23 March each year the city’s liberation is re-enacted here - always an emotional occasion. Ypapanti Cathedral, Kalamata Kalamata’s Byzantine-style apricot-and-cream Ypapanti church was built on the site of an earlier church in 1839 and consecrated in 1873. Inside it holds the ancient icon of Panayia Ypapanti, the protectress of the city of Kalamata. On 2 February the city celebrates the Festival of the Ypapanti, during which the icon is paraded around the vast marble-lined square in front. There’s another leafy square to the side, with an impressive line-up of statues of its previous bishops. Monemvasia Standing proud and impregnable on its salmon-hued eruption of rock, mighty Monemvasia was the medieval seaport and commercial centre of the Byzantine Peloponnese, the secular counterpart of Mystras. Founded in the sixth century, at its zenith Monemvasia accommodated almost 60,000 people within its walls. After Byzantine rule, it was controlled by the Venetians and then the Ottomans. Both the lower town, with its shops, bars and museums, and the upper town, with its castle and 12th-century fresco-painted Agia Sofia octagonal church, a replica of the similarly named church in Constantinople, are fascinating. Allow yourself a day to take it all in. monemvasia.gr Diros caves It’s hard not to be moved by these famous magical caves, which pierce the cliffs near the village of Pirgos Dhirou, 8km south of Areopolis. Alepotripa and Vlichada caves (collectively known as the ‘Diros Caves’) were used in the late Neolithic period (4000 - 3000 BC) as shelter, dwelling, and place of worship. You can walk in the Alepotrypa cave but the main attraction is the boat trip in the adjacent Vlichada cave. A short walk from the cave’s entrance leads to an underground jetty from where you’ll board a paddle boat for an awe-inspiring 30-minute trip along the silent underground network of waterways, passages and galleries where you see the stalactites and stalagmites lit up against the reflected water. Highly recommended. visitgreece.gr/en/nature/caves/diros_caves The Victoria Karelias Collection of Traditional Greek Costumes, Kalamata The elegant neo-classical building containing this private collection gives a taste of what is inside - beautifully presented traditional Greek costumes from all over the country, including lavishly-embroidered overcoats and magnificent pieces of jewelry. Costumes date from the mid-18th-century to the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition explains how Byzantine and Western influences merged in people’s clothing, and how regional costumes were also affected by factors such as raw materials, climate and production techniques. There’s good explanation in Greek and English, and plenty of interactive exhibits, so it’s a good bet for children too. vgkareliascollection.com/en/ Kalamata International Dance Festival - July This jamboree has been going since 1995 and now attracts contemporary dancers of all ages from all over the world, some of them making their debuts here. Come here to watch anything from hip hop to Indian kathak to contemporary acrobatics, it’s all here! Outdoor performances are held in the scenic setting of Kalamata’s Central Square (around the cathedral) and workshops are inside the city’s Municipal Stadium. The festival also comissions works from talented Greek choreographers. Alongside the performances, there areworkshops, photo exhibitions, talks, and film screenings aimed at dance students and professionals alike. kalamatadancefestival.gr

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection characterful places to stay. Fancy sleeping in a luxury mountain lodge or a 19th-century mansion, a cricket’s hop away from the pine-forested mountains… or a Grade 1-listed converted customs house beneath a Byzantine castle… or a hotel among the palm trees from where you can saunter to the beach or the pool. Swanky or simple, the central and southern Peloponnese has the full range. Foodies are well provided for too, as many hotels produce their own olives and oil, as well as fruits which are turned into delicious breakfast jams. Some, like Kinsterna, even show you how to make bread the traditional way. Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to stay in the Peloponnese Lazareto Hotel, Monemvasia (pictured above) This hotel, perfectly situated at the base of Monemvasia’s Byzantine castle, was built by the Venetians as a customs house in 1709. Shipping companies paid duty here, which allowed them to unload in Venice. A decade later, another wing was added as a quarantine unit against the plague - the word ‘lazareto’ means ‘quarantine’. Its stone and timber buildings have been beautifully converted by the owners into characterful rooms which furnished with quirky antiques and rugs. Choose between a suite in the former ambassador’s house, a circular custom’s house, or one of the simpler rooms in the main building. lazareto.gr Porto Vitilo boutique hotel, Itylo Built in stone, wood and marble in the local tower-house style, this luxurious hotel stands alone among olive groves on a promontory overlooking Itylo bay so you’re lulled to sleep by lapping waves. Furnishings and bedding are unashamedly plush, breakfasts are a feast (try the homemade chocolate cake, and jams) and there’s a pool with sunloungers outside if you don’t fancy the beach. This is a well-positioned base from which to explore the Mani with its tower-house villages and aridly beautiful landscapes, and the Pirgos Dirou caves are just 20 minutes’ drive away. portovitilo.gr Filoxenia Kalamata, Kalamata Located around a palm-tree studded courtyard and looking out over the Messinian Gulf, this hotel is the ultimate place to relax. The only decision you’ll need to make while staying here is whether to bathe in the pool or in the sea. Do both - and try the (indoor) pool inside its Olive Spa too. Its 188 elegant rooms, in calming pastel colours, are beautifully light. Downstairs there’s a fitness centre, floodlit tennis court, library, restaurant and several bars. The spa offers treatments using essential oils from wild aromatic plants hand-harveted on the slopes of nearby Mount Taygetos. filoxeniakalamata.com Nefeles Hotel Stay in these luxurious stone-built apartments in winter to ski, or in summer to hike or mountain-bike through the forested mountains of the Menalo range behind the hotel. Either way, you’re in for a treat. Apartments all have tip-top bedding, lounges with comfy armchairs and fireplaces, as well as kitchenettes where you can make yourself a morning coffee. Once you’ve watched the sun rise over the valley below, decend to the dining room for a first-rate breakfast of homemade pittas (pies), locally made jams and fresh bread from the super bakery in nearby Levidi. nefelesmainalon.gr Kinsterna Hotel, Monemvasia Set among olive groves, vineyards and citrus trees just inland from Monemvasia, this majestic manor and its outhouses used to be part of an ancient Byzantine estate. Rooms combine modern comforts with traditional features like stone fireplaces, handmade wall embroideries, wooden ceilings and marble baths. There’s a spa and a hammam too. Relax by the L-shaped infinity pool, or visit one of the outhouses to watch bread or olive oil being made the traditional way. Not surprisingly, breakfasts are a highlight, with homemade bread and jams, fruits from the estate, and freshly baked pastries and pies. kinsternahotel.gr Elies, Kardamili Not only is this stylish beachside hotel, with its Scandi-chic interiors and gleaming pine floors, lovely in itself, but it stands in the olive groves in one of the Mani’s loveliest villages, Kardamyli. Elies’ stone cottages have one or two rooms, and all have a kitchenette, so you can self-cater if you want to. Actually you probably won’t as Elies’ taverna is by far the best in town. As you sit among the olive trees and geranium pots you sample fresh fish, local olives and greens and herbs plucked from the slopes of Mount Taygetos, the mighty backdrop to the village. elieshotel.gr Kyrimai Hotel, Gerolimenas Experience a bit of Mani’s history by staying at this stone mansion on Gerolimenas Bay, near the tip of the Mani peninsula. The mansion was founded by the Kyrimis family in 1870 and amazingly it’s still owned by the same family, who have recently transformed it and its adjoining warehouses into a luxury boutique hotel. Antique-furnished rooms with exposed stone walls overlook the bay, there’s a lovely pool, or you can swim from the jetty. There’s also a great restaurant delivering modern Mediterranean cooking (including plenty of local seafood). Eat out on the waterside terrace or inside by the log fire. kyrimai.gr Citta dei Nicliani, Kita Once the largest and most powerful village in the region, Kita is famous for its historic tower houses - including this one, built in 1750, which since 2011 has been been a luxury 8-room boutique hotel. Named after Nicliani, who was born in the village and was a powerful local leader, it’s owned and run by native Maniots Ilias and Tania Sepsas and their son Panagiotis. With its cobbled courtyard and views through the olive groves, it’s a truly tranquil spot. In the evening try the wines from the hotel’s impressive wine cellar, stocking over 100 quality Greek wines. cittadeinicliani.com Mazaraki Guesthouse, Pikoulianika, near Mistras At first glance this looks like a cafe, nestled in a cottage in the village of Pikoulianika, near the ruined Byzantine hilltop city of Mistras. But look more closely and beside it you’ll spot stone buildings housing ten rustic-chic self-catering cottages, each with its own private balcony or veranda. Some have fireplaces or woodburners too. Although the cottages have kitchens, breakfast is included in the rate and brought to your door each morning. Mistras is only two kilometres’ walk away, so you’re in the perfect spot to get there before the crowds. xenonasmazaraki.gr Trikolonion Country, Stemnitsa, Arkadia With its closely packed cobbled streets and myriad churches and museums, it’s hard to imagine that the tiny mountain village of Stemnitsa could squeeze in a luxury hotel. But Trikolonion has been skilfully crafted out of four stone towers to create 14 rooms and four suites that combine ancient materials like wood and stone with modern comforts. All have wooden ceilings, antique furnishings and original lithographs and engravings, and downstairs there’s a stunning wood-panelled lounge with a cafe serving snacks and meals by the fire. There’s a Wellness Area with gym, sauna and jacuzzi too. trikolonioncountry.gr Anyfanti Mansion, Zatouna This traditional 19th-century Arcadian mansion used to house a weaving business and a textile shop and during the years of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 the ground floor was used to store saltpeter that was supplied to the locals to produce gunpowder. The building has been sensitively restored by Greek architect Giannis Kizism retaining its fortress-like windows, the stone dome on the ground floor, and its wooden balconies and ceilings. Breakfasts (including homemade pies, local cheeses and fir honey) are a highlight, there’s a cafe open all day, and you can dine here on Friday to Sunday. archontikoanyfanti.com Camvillia Resort, Vounaria, Koroni This no-expense-spared resort combines glorious isolation on olive-planted slopes with proximity to the stunning Venetian seaside fortress of Koroni, with its pastel-washed houses and maze of twisting streets. Relax by the infinity pool, or try the heated pool in the fitness centre, which also includes a sauna and a hammam, as well as rooms for spa treatments based around olive oil (naturally). Rooms are decorated in soothing olive-silvery-green, and all have balconies or verandas, most with views to Koroni. Food is local and dinners, by chef Lefteris Tranoudakis, a foodies’ delight. camvillia.gr Eumelia, Gouves The name of this organic farm in the south-east Peloponnese means harmony, and it’s a perfect place to combine relaxation with learning about food and bio-dynamic agriculture. Rent one of the five eco-villas overlooking the vineyards and olive groves, and if you wish, join in olive oil and wine tastings, cookery classes and even olive picking. The accommodation uses eco-friendly materials and technology, and you can get biodynamically-grown vegetables from the gardens. It’s a beautiful region to explore too, with the port of Gytheion and the pretty mountain village of Kosmas both a short drive. eumelia.com

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of places to eat selling locally produced seasonal food. With its Mediterranean climate, vast and rugged mountains and extensive coastline, the southern Peloponnese produces an enticing larder - from olives and olive oil to figs, salty cheeses, mountain-reared meats and seafood - all of which you’ll sample in the region’s many restaurants. Locals still forage greens and herbs from the mountains, and gather honey, including the special white ‘vanilla’ honey produced among the pine forests in its centre. The cooking may be simple, but it’s hard to beat for freshness and flavour. And there are plenty of delis where you can buy produce to take home too. Photos: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Places to eat in the Peloponnese O Thiasos, Kalamata Gournopoula, or roast suckling pig, is the specialty at this super-friendly cafe-ouzeri under the plane trees in Kalamata’s historical centre - the meat is meltingly soft and its crackling just the right level of crunchy. Owners Vasilis and Kostas follow the seasons, with many of the vegetables grown on Kostas’ own farm - so don’t ask for a typical Greek salad in December! Look out for local Greek specialities such as black-eyed beans with spinach, kagianas (eggs scrambled with grated tomatoes) or meat pie with wholewheat pastry. In autumn you might find pork with quinces, and moustalevria, a jelly-style dessert made from grape must, while at Christmas, pork with celery is the thing. Chrisanthi, Kalamata You’ll smell this pastry shop long before you get to it - enthusiastic owner Chrisanthi cooks everything from scratch in the morning, using ingredients (such as eggs, yoghurt and orange juice) that are sourced from local producers. Chrisanthi used to run a pastry shop in Athens, but moved to this pocket-sized shop five years ago. Specialities include her portokalopitta (orange cake), brioche-style tsoureki and lichnarachia (meaning little lamps) - Cretan cheesecake pies. If you’re lucky you might get a taste of her delicious inomelo (honey wine) made from wine, honey, cinammon and rose geranium. Spinos Coffee micro-roastery, Kalamata This cute family-owned micro-roastery, bang in the heart of Kalamata’s old city, has been going since 1957. It’s both a cafe and a place you can buy freshly roasted coffee beans or ground coffee to take home. Beans, sourced from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Malawi and Dominican Republic, are stored in vintage containers that are a delight in themselves. Come here for a traditional Greek coffee (made in a special pot called briki), for international versions such as expresso, capuccino or latte, or for young Greeks’ coffee of choice, the cold coffee frappe. There’s Swiss Water decaff too. spinosroastery.gr Oikonomakos charcuterie, Kalamata This charcuterie, which the Oikonomakos family have been running since 1871, specialises in traditional smoked pork, known as pasto. It’s de-boned, salted, then smoked with herbs and woods from the neighbouring mountains, before finally being gently simmered with spices, orange slices, olive oil and wine. Buy it fresh, ready to nibble and down with a glass of tsipouro, or vacuum-packed to take home. Today the shop is run by George and his brother Panos, but their father and mother still help out. You can buy other deli goods too, including several varieties of olive, preserved in vinegar. +30 2721 028718 Mantineia grocery shop, Kalamata This wonderful deli is a picnic-maker’s paradise, stocking the best of the southern Peloponnese’s produce. Start by stocking up on homemade yoghurt (the assistant will cut you a slab from a large steel tray), then pick up locally made pastas called hilopittes and traxana, extra virgin olive oils, pasteli (sesame and honey bars) and lalagia, sesame-scattered bread-stick ‘spaghetti’ that’s been fried in olive oil. The store is hot on local cheeses too, including sfela, a semi-soft PDO cheese made from goat and sheep’s milk that pairs brilliantly with the local dried figs or honeys. mantineia.gr Lela’s, Kardamili Lela who gives her name to this taverna in central Kardamili is sadly no longer alive, but she used to be housekeeper to writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who lived in the village, then cooked here until she died in her nineties. Today’s chefs continue her solid home cooking, with dishes such as moussaka or local fish - choose from the menu chalked on the blackboard. But you come here for the location as much as for the food. The taverna is right on the town’s rocky shore, so you can hear the waves lapping as you dine among the geranium pots. lelastaverna.com To Xani tis Kandilas The Greek word ‘xani’ means an inn, and this place - half inside, half outside under an awning - stands on the road to the market town of Levidi, a few kilometres away. Since 1996 it’s been run by two affable brothers, Costas and Vasilis, who serve rustic dishes cooked (and often foraged or grown too) by their mother Tasia. Look out for homemade pasto(salt pork), stuffed aubergines, lamb or chicken cooked with olive oil and oregano sauce, giant beans, and greens picked from the mountainside. They’re all made that morning from fresh ingredients and served with Tasia’s homemade bread. Fabulous. taverna-hani.gr Skourkos Taverna, Levidi Bang on the square of Levidi, in the northeastern foothills of Mount Mainalon, this simple taverna is a carnivore’s paradise. Try pasto (salt pork) combined with eggs and chips (surprisingly good), giant hand-made beefburgers, steaks cooked on the grill, or a stew of locally-hunted wild boar. Other specialities include Greek salad with capers and chunks of Cretan-style dakos rusks, pizzas, and home-made calzone-style cheese-filled breads. Wash it down with homemade tsipouro (raki). If you go at grape harvest time, you might get a chance to try moustalevria, a sweet jelly home-made from grape must. Tel: 2796022231 Faros, Karavostassi, Itylo, Mani With its tables lined along the shore overlooking Itylo bay, this fish restaurant is hard to beat for location. Its owners are fishermen, so the menu features whatever has been caught that day. Kick off with starters such as marinated anchovies, grilled sardines or fava puree, and for main order a simply grilled red snapper or gilt-head bream. Meat gets a look-in too - try a stew of mountain lamb or beef. Listen the waves lapping and feel the sea breeze in your hair as you eat - al fresco dining. Tel: +30 694 472 5480 O Ellinas, Mistras Overlooking the cobbled square and its plane tree, this taverna is the perfect place to watch the comings and goings of this small village nestled beneath Mistras’ ancient Byzantine settlement. O Ellinas mean The Greek, and nowhere could be more typically Greek: locals catch up over strong coffees, while vistors and residents alike enjoy no-nonsense Greek classics from rice-stuffed tomatoes to Greek salad, all produced with home-grown olive oil. It’s run by Ioannis Bourlokas who runs it with his mother. Ioannis’ parents are butchers, so meat features strongly on the menu - try the roast pork or lamb, with oven-baked potatoes. mystrasrestaurant.com Mateo’s, Monemvasia There’s no fuss or frills at this simple seafront cafe-restaurant in the quietly bustling heart of Monemvasia’s mainland town of Yefira, five minutes’ walk from the causeway to the medieval castle. Come here for a simple, well-priced Greek salad, a plate of fried sardines, or stewed locally caught octopus. There’s a good wine list too. Come here after a refreshing dip, and watch the boats coming and going in the harbour as you eat. If you want somewhere slightly smarter, eat at Acrogiali or Scorpios, both specialising in fish and a few minutes along the beach. Tel: +30 2732 061356 Matoula, Monemvasia In a location as touristy as the Monemvasia, it can be challenging to know which of the many restaurants to choose. Matoula, which has been going since 1950, is a sure bet and is as strong for its food as for its dreamy location right on the city walls of the Lower Town. Sit in its shady vine-draped garden overlooking the sea as you order a selection of Greek classics to share. The definite must-try is its saitia (spinach wraps), a speciality of Monemvasia. But the courgette patties, stuffed aubergines and super-fresh salads are equally delicious. matoula.gr Arbaroriza pastry shop, Stemnitsa This gorgeous new patisserie on the outskirts of the mountain village of Stemnitsa is run by a mother and daughter, both of whom also work as jewellers, and takes its name after a scented geranium that the pair use in many of their recipes. Look out for melomakarona (honey cookies) and walnut pie made from local walnuts and honey, as well as spoon sweets (preserved fruits) from walnuts, quince and tiny Firiki apples that grow on the lower slopes of Mount Mainalon. They make traditional Peloponnese specialities too, such as Diples, rolls of fried dough that are drenched in honey and nuts, and Arcadian milk pies. Tel: 30 2795 081538

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese, Clare Hargreaves picks out a selection of local activities in the great outdoors. With its lofty mountain ranges, extensive coastline and dramatic river gorges, the southern Peloponnese has plenty to keep you active. Explore the Mainalon, the vast massif at its heart, on foot, bike or horseback. Or test your inner Robinson Crusoe by joining a course in survival tactics - including creating fire with sticks. Swim, sail or kayak off the peninsula’s coastline, while enjoying its sandy beaches and crystalline turquoise waters as well as spectacular river gorges to raft down. Adventurous foodies will enjoy city food tours, olive oil tours and mountain mushroom-hunting. Photos: Richard Hammond and Clare Hargreaves Google map: shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, nearby visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to the Central and Southern Peloponnese: Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities Activities in the Peloponnese Sea Kayaking at Kardamili (pictured above) The great thing about kayaking is that it can get you to places that are otherwise inaccessible, and on this trip, run by Explore Messinia, that leaves from Kardamili’s old harbor, you’ll paddle out to hidden sea caves, rock gardens below spectacular, as well as stop off at a glorious sandy beach for delicious lunch of freshly baked bread organic, homemade olive oil, cheese and fruit. The highlight is the Blue Cave - a wonderful natural phenomenon where a shaft of sunlight through a crack in the cave reflects on the sea floor and bathes the cave in aquamarine light. Explore Messinia also run day tours and multi-day adventures in the region, including stand-up paddle boarding, river trekking, rafting, cycling and canyoning. exploremessinia.com Food tour of Kalamata You might not realise at first glance, but the historical centre of Kalamata hides a trove of food treasures, from charcutiers crafting the region’s famous pasto (salted pork) to pastry shops producing delicious orange cake, stores selling local herbs or home-made yoghurt, and a vibrant fruit and vegetable covered market. Kalamata Tours, run by the company Food Philosophy, takes you straight to the city’s most authentic food stores, enabling you to meet their owners and taste their foods. You end up with lunch in a local taverna where you taste the traditional gournopoula(roast pork) and wash it down with local wines or a glass of ouzo. kalamata.tours Olive tour in Androusa, near Kalamata Do you know your koroneiki from your kalamata? These are the key olive varieties grown on the Messinian plains around Kalamata, and you can learn all about their growing, harvesting and pressing on a tour run by Dimitra and Stathis Kontopoulos at Androusa, northwest of Kalamata. Dimitra’s husband’s family have been farming olives for generations, so there’s little they don’t know about the production of extra-virgin olive oil. Tours start at the family’s grove next to Androusa’s 13th-century castle, and you then travel to the mill for a guided tour and some serious tasting, followed by a light lunch of local produce (including home-grown olives!) and wines. theoliveroutes.com Mainalon ski centre Greece may not seem the obvious location for skiing, but Athenians and locals alike love this tiny resort hidden in the fir-clad Mainalon massif - known as the mountain of Pan - which covers the centre of the Peloponnese. Depending on weather conditions it’s usually open from December to March, but check the website before you go. There are seven slopes for all levels, and a chalet where you can get a hot drink after your exertions on the slopes. It’s a peaceful centre - very different from the huge industrial ski resorts in other parts of Europe. mainaloski.gr Horse-riding in Elati, Mainalon, with Christos Simopoulos Christos spends part of his time carving wood into fantastical sculptures and items of furniture, which he sells in Athens and elsewhere, but the rest of the time takes people into the Mainalon mountains on horseback. He has nine horses in all, provides all the equipment you need, including hard hats and saddles, and he can cater for all levels of expertise. It’s hard to think of a lovelier way of exploring Mainalon’s forests and grassy clearings, which are stunning at every time of the year. dimiourgies-xilou.gr (Greek only) Mushrooming, and survival tactics in the Mainalon mountains Menalo is a mountain range in the centre of the Peloponnese, that includes some spectacular landscapes and villages. Explore them on foot, mountain bike, or jeep, led by company founder Panos Panagopoulos who is based in the village of Vitina. Walks range from easy trails of just over an hour (3kms) to longer ones of 2.5 hours (6.6kms) or a half or whole day. Panos also runs courses in survival tactics and archery, and in autumn, mushrooming trips. During the latter, look out for milk-cap, boletus or St George mushrooms, then cook them up and get feasting. explore-menalo.gr Rafting in the Lousios gorge The Lousios river in Arcadia - and its densely vegetated gorge - is considered one of the most beautiful in Greece. According to Pausanias, the 2nd century AD Greek traveller and geographer, the Lousios is also where Zeus, the father of Olympian gods, bathed after his birth. Rafting is a fantastic way to experience its fast-running crystalline waters. This half-day trip, which starts at Maratha village, takes you three kilometres along the Lousios, which then enters a gorge where it falls into the River Alfios. The rapids on the descent are rated easy to moderate and in summer are suitable for beginners upwards. exploremessinia.com Hike the Mainalon Trail One of the loveliest ways of exploring the mountainous region of Gortynia, the western part of Arcadia, is by walking a 75-kilometre long-distance footpath called the Mainalon Trail. Starting in the historic village of Stemnitsa, it follows the gorge of the Lousios River (visit its rockface monasteries as you pass), then continues over the western slopes of Mt. Menalo, through the valley of the Mylaon River and over the northeast Gortynian mountains. This self-guided tour takes you through eight attractive mountain villages over seven days. You end up at the village of Lagkadia, known as the village of the stone builders. trekking.gr/en/product_en/hike-Mainalon-trail Trekking the River Neda The 31 km-long Neda often gets overlooked in favour of Arcadia's better-known Lousios river, but it’s just as spectacular. (It’s also unique in being the only river in Greece to have a feminine name!) This four-hour trek, which starts on the bridge between Platania and Figaleia, south of Andritsaina, takes you along the narrow cliffs bordering the gorge. When the gorge gets too narrow, you swim, finally ending up in natural river pools by the Neda’s magnificent waterfalls. There’s a chance to explore underwater caves too, and a picnic lunch is provided as part of the tour. https://trekking.gr/en/product_en/river-trekking-neda Climb Mount Taygetos Summit the mighty 2,407-metre Taygetos in one action-packed day, or over two with an overnight camping on the way. The longer route is 17 kilometres long, and includes around 10 hours of walking, whereas the one-day trip is just 9 kilometres and takes 6 to 7 hours. Both offer spectacular flora and fauna as well as views across the Messinian Gulf as far away (on a fine day) as the white mountains of Crete. The Kalamata-based company provides guides, provisions and all the equipment you will need. climbup.gr Rock climbing in Lagada climbing park If you fancy some ‘proper’ rock-climbing, the crag at Lagada, among the Alpine meadows and pine forests of Mount Taygetos, near Tripi, is a beautiful place to do it. The park lies at around 800 metres and has spectacular mountain views all around - and yet it’s only 14 kilometres from Sparta. With around 100 routes up its limestone cliffs, there’s something for every level of expertise and you can also choose sun or shade. A four-hour tour includes transfer, mountain guide, climbing instructor, climbing shoes and helmet and all the necessary climbing equipment. climbup.gr Sea kayaking in the southern Mani On this one-day trip you start by exploring the picturesque small coastal village of Gerolimenas (which means Old Harbour) then paddle south past impressive limestone cliffs and hidden beaches. You also get the chance to admire Mani’s historic tower houses, including the spectacular village of Vatheia, sadly now abandoned, and to stop at fishing villages such as Gialia, Almiros and Kiparissos. Before heading back north, kayakers enjoy a lunch made from fresh local produce. The trip lasts around six hours, with approximately 2.5 hours paddling, and is suitable for all levels. maniwaterports.com Hiking Navarino Bay This one-day hike starts from the beach of Divari then follows a path around the lagoon that’s the largest wetland in southern Greece and an important shelter for migrating birds. Hikers then cross the beautiful beach of Voidokilia and are free to bathe in its turqouise waters before continuing uphill to the peninsula of Koryfasio. En route there’s a chance to explore the cave of Nestor, the mythical “wise” king of Pylos. The climax is reaching the medieval castle of Paleocastro, from where there are magnificent 360-degree views which you can enjoy over a picnic lunch. aegeanoutdoors.com

As part of our Green Traveller's Guide to Athens, Clare Hargreaves joins a local street artist on an alternative tour of Athens Athens is reinventing itself. Yes, the majestic Acropolis, ivory or salmon pink depending on the time of day, still proudly keeps watch from its rocky perch on the hectic sprawl below; dazzling gold funerary masks still stare out hauntingly from the glass cases of the National Archaeological Museum; and terracotta-domed Byzantine churches meet your eye round every corner. But the city of culture is transforming. Thanks in part to the 2004 Olympics, Athens has been reborn, revitalized. Neighbourhoods such as Gazi, Keramikos and Psirri are now edgy, creative, with trendy cafes lining their streets, ad-hoc bands making music on their pavements, and vibrant street art rippling across the walls of the neo-classical houses and warehouses. Industrial installations are being turned into sleek designer hotels and state-of-the-art museums, while up-and-coming chefs dish out fusion street food from brightly painted vans or give creative twists to old Greek classics. Athens no longer defines itself as a collection of antiquities, although those remain in all their splendor, it’s being energised as an exciting modern city. But getting under the skin of this complex multi-layered city isn’t easy. So unless you want to risk wasting shoe leather and time, do your research before you go. Or join a tour like those run by Alternative Athens, a company whose purpose is to show you the secret corners, creative hotspots, and working-class neighbourhoods the guidebooks don’t tell you about. Tourists are reinventing themselves, just like the city, says Tina Kyriakis, who set up Alternative Athens in 2013. “Experienced travellers don’t just want to see. They want a deeper understanding of the places they visit and the people who live in them. Athens is a city in multiple layers that you need to uncover in order to truly understand and enjoy it. I decided to create tours around the modern side of Athens as an alternative to the antiquities, hence our name.” So where do you start? To get your bearings it makes sense to kick off at Monastiraki Square, from where you see both the Parthenon, sedate on its rocky hilltop, and the colonnaded remains of Roman emperor Hadrian’s Library. Pass the Roman Agora with its Tower of the Winds, the deliciously esoteric Museum of Greek Popular Instruments (listen through headphones to goatskin bagpipes and calls to prayer by the monks on Mount Athos) and a stunning state-of-the-art hammam, all in historic Plaka, then climb the steep steps towards the Acropolis. This is the district of Anafiotika. If its whitewashed cubist houses and winding alleys make you think you’ve been transported to a Cycladic island, you have. In the mid-19th century, King Otto hired the expert builders from the island of Anafi to construct him a palace. So they built themselves single-storey homes in the style of their island, and these remain today complete with bouganvillea, stray marmalade cats and men in vests sitting outside bead-string doors. Far from the din of the city you see sprawled out below, it’s as peaceful as it’s improbable. Catch your breath as you climb at the 10th-century Byzantine church of Ayii Apostoli Solaki (Holy Apostles of Solaki) or the white-washed Ayios Georgios tou Vrachou (St George of the Rock). Walking west from Monastiraki, you reach another equally fascinating oasis, the area of Keramikos, named after the potteries that once dominated the area thanks to its abundance of clay. It’s also the site of an 11-acre cemetery, unearthed when the main road was laid in 1861, whose tombs date back as far as the Early Bronze Age. Today it’s a tranquil and touching spot, far from the city hubbub and rich in wildlife, where you’ll find poignant memorials in stone (like the grandmother with grandchild on her knee) and a tiny museum containing a 4th-century marble bull. Nearby you spot the skeletons of Gazohori, or ‘gas-lands’, monuments to a very different age, the age of 19th-century industrialisation. Gas was needed to provide the city with streetlighting. Gazi, as the district is called, is now upwardly mobile, in an edgy kind of way, and the magnificent gasometers built by Lyon’s Bonnet-Spazin in the early twentieth century have been converted into a superb cultural centre called Technopolis. Modern art and old photos nestle amid its heavy industrial machinery and theatre brings alive the history of the city’s gasworks. (Another inspiring modern art-industry fusion is the National Museum of Contemporary Art, housed in the former Fix Brewery, south of the Acropolis.) In early summer Gazi’s old bus yard hosts the Athens Street Food Festival at which you can check out for yourself what’s cool on the city’s street-food scene. Gazi’s walls also display a harsher, rawer face of Athens in the form of politically and socially conscious street art and there’s been a surge of creative energy that’s transformed it into what The New York Times dubbed a ‘contemporary Mecca for street art in Europe.’ The more you look the more you see, and much of it is good. Foremost among Athens’ street artists is Ino, born in the city’s port of Piraeus, and along the walls bordering busy Pireos Road you see his spoofs on works by Leonardo da Vinci. Walking from Gazi through the tranquil and little-touristed area of Metaxourgio, and on to Psirri, ambitiously dubbed Athens’ “Soho”, you’ll see works by street artists ranging from Bali-born WD (WD stands for Wild Drawing) to Jason (initially a graffiti artist but now doing street art too), the Blaqk graphic designer duo, Polish-born Dimitris Taxis, and UK-based Alex Martinez aka SHINE.Look out too for Barba Dee who could be dubbed the pyromaniac artist given that fire rips through all his works. Their street art is now so accomplished that home-owners are not only tolerating the artists but actually commissioning them, so you’ll see entire apartment blocks covered. If walking the streets tires, head (via a stroll through Athens’ much-needed green lungs, its vast National Gardens) to the new gallery of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, just north of Syntagma Square. Take the opportunity to see works by Monet, Picasso, Paul Klee, Francis Bacon, El Greco, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin among others and two floors of Greek contemporary art with the latter including the famous A Wonderful Day (The Morning Cyclist) by living Greek artist Alekos Fassianos. Fassianos frequently combines modern subjects (often bicycles, which fascinate him) with motifs from mythology, and this painting, like so many of his works, deliberately adopts a two-dimensional Byzantine style, using gold as his main material. Don’t leave the Foundation without eating in its cool courtyard cafe, run with aplomb by the same team who run the Ohh Boy bistro in Pagkrati. “We want our food to be a contemporary version of Greek cuisine,” says Margarita Sideridou, who masterminded its creation. Ingredients in its well-priced dishes are sourced from small Mediterranean producers, including striftoudi (homemade Cretan pasta) that’s combined with feta, spinach and thyme. The highlight, though, is the stellar dessert of kaimaki (mastic) ice cream, stretchy as melted mozzarella, and topped with homemade rose-petal jam. The city’s latest cultural triumph, and a stunning symbol of hope, is the shimmering centre funded by Greek multi-billionaire shipping magnate and philanthropist Stavros Niarchos. Designed by Renzo Piano (of Shard fame), it combines opera house, concert hall, exhibition centre and National Library. After a spin through the 21-hectare park at Stavros Niarchos, head to the natural lake at Vouliagmeni, on the “Athenian Riviera”, for a bathe in its soothing thermal waters while watching the evening sun illuminate the pink limestone cliffs cradling it. There’s definitely more to Athens than the Acropoli. More info: Alternative Athens: www.alternativeathens.com Words and Photos (unless otherwise indicated) by Clare Hargreaves. == Disclosure: Clare Hargreaves was a guest of the Greece National Tourism Organisation. Clare had full editorial control of the review, which is written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Athens in October 2019 for Green Traveller's Guide to Athens. All opinions are the author's own.

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to West Macedonia and Thessaloniki, Sarah Baxter selects a range of places to eat selling local, seasonal food in this beautiful part of northern Greece. Thessaloniki is the hub for the region and is a great place to spend a few days before and after exploring the rest of West Macedonia. Photos: Richard Hammond Food tour of Thessaloniki The food scene in Thessaloniki is sizzling. You can easily spend several days exploring the local markets, tasting local delicacies and the best regional cuisine. Don't miss the Bougatsa at the Kozani Pastry Shop, Trigono Panoramatos pastries at Elenidis, cheese and salami from the Terpsis Deli, traditional Tiropita Greek feta cheese pie from ΟΙ ΠΙΤΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΒΟΥΛΑΣ, washed down with superb coffee at Lena's Bistro. Local tour guide Sassa Panagiotopoulou runs guided tours of to all of these places, including stalls selling fresh fish, olives, fruit and vegetables. She also runs specialised cultural tailor-made tours including religious, urban and various other thematic tours adapted to adults and children of all interests and backgrounds. yourtouristguide.net Photos: Richard Hammond Agios Ahilios Taverna, Agios Ahilios, Prespa National Park This homely family-run taverna sits on the tiny islet of Agios Achillios (population: circa 25), in the middle of Lesser Prespa Lake. Which means the views from its wrap-around balcony are excellent, looking out across the water and the footbridge that connects the island to the shore. The interior is a characterful and artistic space, decorated with the original works left behind by patrons who’ve attended the art symposiums held here over the years. The food is excellent too (see photos above), with every dish created from fresh, natural, local ingredients, including vegetables from the family’s own gardens, meat and cheese from their free-range animals and fresh fish straight from the lake; the Prespa beans, baked with red peppers, are particularly good. All the sweets and liqueurs are homemade too, to recipes perfected over decades. agiosahilios.gr Kontosoros, Xino Nero, Florina Kontosoros is perhaps not the sort of restaurant you expect to find in a rural village in the foothills of northern Greece. Founded by chef Nikos Kontosoros, and now helmed by his talented daughter Iliana, this unexpectedly sophisticated spot puts a modern spin on traditional Macedonian recipes. That includes sout makalo, a poor man’s comfort food of meatballs in a porridge-like stew, given a classy update here, as well as dishes centred on regional ingredients: zingy aivar relish made with Florina peppers, baked Florinela cheese with marmalade, local beef expertly grilled, plus plenty of fruit, herbs and veggies grown in the garden out back. The wine cellar is state-of-the-art and stocks 200 Greek labels, many from nearby vineyards; wine tastings can be arranged. If you drink too much to drive, there’s a handful of smart guest rooms on site. kontosoros.gr Prespeion, Agios Germanos, Prespa National Park Nikos has been a chef for four decades, mostly in the Cyclades, but he moved to Agios Germanos in around 2010 because, he says, he’s always the loved mountains. Now, his taverna on Agios Germanos’s central square is the best in the village. He serves traditional food done well – baked peppers, spicy feta, Greek pies, lake trout, kebabs and beef burgers made from the variety of dwarf cows that graze the fields around the lakes and are renowned for their delicious, low-fat meat. But his real speciality is firing up the spit. On busy days and weekends, he’ll light the charcoal early, season hunks of lamb and pork with oregano, salt and pepper, and let it slow cook for a few hours, until its succulent and tender. It pairs perfectly with a Macedonia-brewed Vergina lager or a tsipouro or two. Central Square, Agios Germanos Ta Psaradika, Mikrolimni, Prespa National Park Zenia and Kiriakos have created a small slice of heaven in little Mikrolimni. Their restaurant, Ta Psaradika, lies by the lakeside in this serene end-of-the-road fishing village; its wide west-facing deck sits on stilts above the water, gazing across to Mount Vrondero, next to a small sandy beach and reedbeds bursting with birds. Zenia’s grandfather founded the place back in 1952, establishing its reputation; it closed for a while, but the couple took over around seven years ago, moving up from Athens and injecting fresh energy and a supremely laidback, cosmopolitan vibe. Cool, chill-out tunes play as a small, thoughtful, changing menu of meze dishes is served: plates like spiced Prespa beans, pickled tsironi (small lake fish), grilled carp caught fresh, local feta and sausage, excellent chips. Finish up with a shot of Kiriakos’s own-recipe tsipouro as the sun sets. facebook.com/groups/psaradika Syntrofia Tavern, Psarades, Prespa National Park Lazaros and Georgia Christianopoulou set up this taverna at the end of Psarades little harbourfront in 1988. Now their children – Eleni, Christina and Germanos – have taken over the reins, revamping the building but continuing the same high standards of food and hospitality. Only the best quality ingredients are used, including lots of lake fish, fresh from the family’s own boat – choose from the selection swimming in the tank outside. The menu features traditional local recipes but changes with the seasons. In summer you can sit on the waterside veranda and enjoy mushroom souvlaki, tzatziki-stuffed pumpkins, crisp salads (using vegetables grown in the family garden), grilled carp and friend tsironi fish. In winter, you can retreat into the fire-warmed restaurant for smoked pork, soutzoukaki meatballs, Florina pepper pasta, home-distilled tsipouro and homemade red wine. syntrofia-prespes.gr Taverna Thomas, Amyntaio, Florina Ask anyone in the Florina region for a restaurant recommendation and they’ll likely say this place. Run by the Paspalis family since 1970, Taverna Thomas serves up exceptionally good food using local products from carefully selected producers. The wine cellar stocks 500 Greek wines too. agonari.gr/en/taverna-thomas Prespes Farm, Prespa National Park The Dimitropoulos family farm has been producing beans in the Prespa region since the 1930s. Nurtured by the nutrient-rich lake waters and special microclimate, they’re considered some of the best in Greece. Products can be ordered online; you can also walk amid their bean fields on the lake’s eastern shore. kingbeans.gr Naoumidis Restaurant, St Panteleimonas, Florina Naoumidis serves up traditional dishes, accompanied by wines from its own vineyard, in a great location. In the warmer months, dine in the courtyard or on the balcony overlooking Lake Vegoritida; if it’s cool, head for the hall, which is warmed by a traditional fireplace and local music. naoumidis.gr Samaras, Xino Nero, Florina This traditional, family-run coffee and tsipouro place has a relaxed atmosphere, great service and a wide array of handmade, good-value meze dishes. Sit out on the pavement, under the blossom tree, or inside, where the walls are hung with old photos and vintage posters. tsipouradiko-samaras.business.site Omegas Tigris, Nymfaio, Florina The name of this small restaurant translates as ‘the greatest tiger’, the nickname of owner Dimitris – quite the character. Sit at a pavement table or in the art-hung interior and tuck into a selection of local dishes – try the kebabs, bean salad and sausage with melted cheese. Village square, Nymfaio Nonas Stergios Legumes & Beans of Prespa, Laimos, Prespa National Park This traditional store on the main road is pretty as a picture, with its picket fence, bright-yellow facade and potted flowers. It sells a selection of high-quality, pesticide-free legumes, from giant beans and elephant beans to lentils and chickpeas. prespesfasolia.gr == The Google map below shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to West Macedonia and Thessaloniki Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities

As we launch our Green Traveller's Guide to West Macedonia and Thessaloniki, Sarah Baxter selects a range of visitor attractions and other places of interest in this beautiful part of northern Greece. Agios Ahilios, Prespa National Park Measuring 1.6km long by 400m wide, the islet of Agios Ahilios sits at the northern end of Lesser Prespa Lake, connected to the mainland by a floating footbridge. The tiny village has only 11 houses – according to local legend, if any more are built, and old one would collapse. Another story goes that, when the waters are very clear, the ruins of the lost city of Lyka can be seen at the bottom of the lake. You might not see that, but on a walk around the island you will come across the impressive ruins of the 10th-century Agios Ahilios basilica, the deserted monastery of Panagia Porphyra and the 11th-century Church of the 12 Apostles. You may also spot the Prepsa dwarf short-horned cattle that are reared here, as well as a bevy of birds. spp.gr Arcturos Bear Sanctuary, Nymfaio, Florina Arcturos is a pioneering non-profit environmental organisation that was established in 1992 by Yiannis Boutaris (former mayor of Thessaloniki) after his son was appalled by the sight of a dancing bear. Since then, Arcturos has successfully campaigned for a ban on such practices and has provided a spacious sanctuary for ill-treated captive bears from across the continent that can’t be reintroduced into the wild. At the visitor centre, on the edge of Nymfaio, you can learn about the organisation’s work, which focuses on addressing illegal wildlife captivity, educating landowners and the public, and protecting wildlife and natural habitats. You can also get thrillingly close to the bears. There are around 20 animals in the large, leafy, hillside enclosures; a guide will lead you around the inner fence and introduce you to any residents that lollop over. The centre is open year-round, excluding January-March, when the bears are in hibernation. arcturos.gr Photos across from top left: wolf, lynx, wolf, and bear. Sarah's guide took her to a bear camera in the woods. Photos: Richard Hammond Wolf & Lynx Conservation Area, Agrapidies, Florina Arcturos isn’t all about bears. Its sister sanctuary in the nearby village of Agrapidies, below Nymfaio, provides a lush, spacious retirement home for wolves and lynx that have been orphaned or rescued from badly run zoos and private collections and are too habituated to humans to be returned to the wild. Importantly, no wild species are bred on site but the sanctuary does breed traditional Greek shepherd dogs. These dogs, which are known to be especially effective at protecting livestock (they never leave their flocks), are being donated to farmers in an attempt to reduce human-wolf conflict and thus safeguard the country’s wild wolf population. A single ticket covers entry to both the bear and wolf sanctuaries. Note, the best time to visit the wolf area is early in the morning – the wolves often retreat into the trees as the day heats up. arcturos.gr Alpha Estate, Amydeo, Florina The viticulturists at Alpha Wine Estate have one aim: to ensure their wines truly reflect the ecosystem in which they are produced – that is, a prehistoric lakebed, surrounded by mountains, that is the coldest, driest appellation in Greece. But while the goal is simple, the operation is not, with cutting edge techniques employed to create some of the country’s most highly rated wines. These are mainly from Greek grape varieties (xinomavro, malagouzia, assyrtiko), and include a smoky, complex xinomavro reserve made from a vine that’s over 100 years old. Visits and tastings at the large, elegant winery are free. Staff will show you around the cellars and pour you a selection of wines to try. There are plans to create walking and cycling routes around the estate, as well as to build a restaurant and boutique hotel. alpha-estate.com Watermill, Agios Germanos, Prespa National Park Down a leafy track, past the 11th-century Byzantine church, lies the old Agios Germanos watermill. There were once around 20 mills on the Agios Germanos River, which runs from the summit of Mount Varnous into Great Prespa Lake. The small stone mill here, originally built in 1930, is the only one that has been fully restored, thanks to the committed efforts of the Society for the Protection of Prespa. It serves as a living monument to the area’s industrial heritage; in 2016 it was recognised with a European Heritage Europa Nostra Award. It is also fully operational, with three different functions: there’s fulling tub for washing fabrics, a fulling mill for textile finishing and a grain mill for grinding flour, using an internal horizontal waterwheel. Behind the mill you can see the headraces and flumes that divert the water inside. It is open to visitors on Saturdays. spp.gr; europeanheritageawards.eu/winners/traditional-watermil-agios-germanos-prespes Hermitages, Prespa National Park The steep cliffs flanking the southern shores of Great Prespa Lake provided a refuge for Christian hermits after the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Hard-to-reach hermitages were created, tucked into the rocks, where monks could find spiritual solace. Three remain: the 13th-century Hermitage of the Metamorphosis, the crevice-tucked Hermitage of Mikri Analipsi and the Hermitage of Panagia Eleoussa. The latter, a stone’s throw from the Albanian and Northern Macedonia borders, is only accessible by boat. Disembarking on a pebble beach, it’s a stiff climb up a zigzagging staircase to reach the small chapel at the top, which is decorated with frescoes; you’ll also find icons and offerings tucked into nooks in the rock walls. The views back out are spectacular, with the lake and mountains framed by the cave’s gaping mouth. spp.gr Naoumidis Farm, Agios Panteleimonas, Florina They don’t just grow any old veg at Naoumidis. This farm near the shores of Lake Vegoritida specialises in deep-red, horn-shaped Florina peppers, famed for their rich, sweet flavour. They are only cultivated in Florina, nurtured by the region’s special soil and microclimate, and have Protected Designation of Origin status. The Naoumidis family use their own seeds and their own stone-built Piperadiko processing planet where they employ traditional processing methods – peppers are peeled by hand, cooked at low temperatures, and wood-smoked or grilled on charcoal. Naoumidis makes a range of different products: whole pickled peppers, pepper caviar spreads, sauces infused with herbs and wild garlic, sweet and spicy pepper ketchup and hot sun-dried Piperokama powder. It’s possible to visit the crop fields, workshop, and cellar, where you can taste and buy the spoils. There is also a small Pepper Museum. piperiesflorinis.gr Domaine Karanika, Karanika, Florina These organic and biodynamic vineyards on the Amyndeo plateau produce a range of quality sparkling and still wines from assyrtiko, old xinomavro and rare limniona vines. Winery tours, winemaking seminars and accommodation in the tent in the middle of the vineyard can be arranged. karanika.com Ktima Kir-Yianni, Naoussa, Florina Located in the eastern foothills of Mount Vermion, Ktima is focused on both great wines and sustainability. The vineyard is carbon neutral, thanks to tree planting and solar panels. It’s open for tours and tastings, and the wider estate can be explored via two cycling trails. kiryianni.gr Museum of Gold and Silver-smithery, Folklore and History, Nymfaio, Florina Housed in a three-storey townhouse in the centre of the village, this small museum displays an eclectic array of objects – letters, jewellery, snuff-boxes – that showcase both the craftsmanship and history of the region. www.museumsofmacedonia.gr/Folklore/Mouseio_Nymfaioy Lake Zazari, Florina There are four lakes in the Florina region. Zazari is the smallest but probably the best set up for visitors. Come for the brilliant birdlife (it’s an important breeding site, part of the Natura 2000 network), canoe excursions and to grab a drink at the lakeside bar. artemisoe.gr Vrondero, Prespa National Park The remote farming village of Vrondero lies at western edge of Prespa. From here you can take a path to the ruined village of Angathoto on the lakeshore; it runs via the Cave of Kokkalis, which was used as a field hospital by the partisans during the Civil War. spp.gr Koula Beach, Prespa National Park There are several swimming spots on the shores of Great Prespa Lake, including the long, sandy beach at Koula. This is also where the channel connecting the Lesser and Great lakes flows, and it’s an excellent place to watch large numbers of pelicans, herons and other birds flying between the two. spp.gr Prespa Visitor Centre, Agios Germanos, Prespa National Park Occupying a restored traditional building near the village square, this centre (open Monday-Saturday) provides useful information about the nature and culture of Prespa. It has a small exhibition plus maps and leaflets detailing hiking route, cycle trails and bird-watching points. fdepap.gr/en/information-centers == The Google map below shows the location and details of all the places to stay, local food and drink, visitor attractions and activities in our Green Traveller's Guide to West Macedonia and Thessaloniki Green = Places to stay Blue = Local food & drink Yellow = Attractions Purple = Activities