Gythio & our Road Trip around the Mani Peninsular

14th August, looking across to the Port from our anchorage, it still looked pretty full, so rather than pick up our anchor to find there was no room in the inn, we dropped the dinghy and went ashore to check it out. There was 1 potential spot, if we could get one yacht to nudge over a little. He was very accommodating when we helped with his lines, so we raced back to the dinghy and Seaclusion to get into the Port before anyone could nick the spot!

30 minutes later we were all moored safe and sound, albeit without access to electricity (because we didn’t have a cable long enough), or water (because the office that sold them had run out!

But we were in, which is exactly what we wanted so we could have a bit of a boozy night ashore, finally celebrating our anniversary, and to hire a car to go exploring inland a little. We were in luck on that front too, as we managed to get one from that afternoon until 4 the following day!

So without further ado, we grabbed some water, some cables so we could have some sounds en- route and off we set, first stop being the Port Police of course!

We then took the wonderful winding coast road along the East coast of the Peninsular, our first stop being a sleepy village called:

Kotronas

We then headed further along with me very annoyingly asking David to stop every so often to take a shot of the view.

We then turned inland, missing a couple of places we intended to go to with Seaclusion anyway, to the ancient town of Aeropoli. For years it has been a financial and cultural center and played a crucial role in the development of the whole area. Pages of Greek history are written in this small town, which was a starting point for the revolution against the Ottoman empire. 

It is not clear when Areopoli was built, but the first historical sources talking about it are from the 18th century. At that time, the Mavromichalis family was the strong family of the area. They were among the pioneers who revolted against the Ottomans on March 17th, 1821. In the last decades, Mani and Areopoli specifically have become a pole of attraction for tourists from Greece and abroad to come here to admire the nature, culture, and overall experience of life in Mani. 

Whilst there is a new town apparently, we of course headed for old town which is picturesque, with stone-paved streets with charming traditional houses, taverns, restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops. The alleys with colourful doors surrounded by flowers. After a freddo cappuccino in the square we had a leisurely wander around soaking up the atmosphere.

Aeropolis

We then headed further along the coast, admiring all the old buildings and villages dotted in the hillside with their towers known as “Xemonia Towers”, about 800 in total on the Peninsular, built for the sole purpose of protecting the owners land and property.

We got as far as Karavostasi, which was a potential anchorage for us, before heading back to Gytheio, which we hadn’t explored yet, and to get ready for dinner!

Gytheio at Sunset

After a little drink on board, we dressed up for a change and headed to a wonderful fish Restaurant called Saga which David had found to celebrate 19 years! Sadly there was a table next to us, with one particular American lady who clearly loved the sound of her own voice, and thought the whole restaurant would too. She was just impossible to drown out,. so we wrapped up the dinner sooner than intended and went in search of a nice chilled out bar instead, much better!

The following morning, without a hangover thankfully, we got up early to head to the City of Sparti, or Sparta.

Sparti

In the ancient times, Sparti was a powerful town-state, known for its brave soldiers and tough way of life. The men of ancient Sparta were to create an unbeatable army, to rule over the rest of Greece with their military power. That is why the way of life and all customs in ancient Sparti were oriented to satisfy this vision.

But modern Sparti is nothing like that, for sure, whilst it is said to have nice architecture, based on three main axes with boulevards and parks, we were rather disappointed and didn’t stay long. I have pinched an image from the internet to show what it would look like if we had a drone, but from the ground it didn’t quite meet the expectation!

And from the ground ….

The modern statue of Leonidas, King of Sparta was quite spectacular though..

and we did find the ancient ruins of Sparti, but again not much to write home about.

From there we drove to the Unesco site of Mystras, the ‘wonder of the Morea’, it was built as an amphitheatre around the fortress erected in 1249 by the prince of Achaia, William of Villehardouin. Reconquered by the Byzantines, then occupied by the Turks and the Venetians, the city was abandoned in 1832, leaving only the breathtaking medieval ruins, standing in a beautiful landscape.

Mystras

It was quite a hike, but not too many people as there were no cruise ships in, and well worth it to see the old churches and the mosaics inside.

With that, we headed the long way round to Gythio to check out the Peloponnese version of Shipwreck bay, stopping for a milkshake only to find that American lady from the other night had followed us, or at least it certainly sounded like her!!!!

Gytheio Town

That evening, too tired to cook we decided on a cheap gyros, but found the most amazing piglet cooked on a spit, it was fantastic, we would say better than a spanish suckling pig and a fraction of the cost, so if we ever come back this way, we will be going in search for that as well as David’s orange cake!

So finally on the 17th August, we were ready to set sail again, along to the southern tip of the Peninsular and our next chapter, with excellent timing!

17th August 2022