Sunday, June 15, 2025
We met our new guide today. Her name is Ioanna (Yo-Ahnna) and she is
incredibly personable. Not that we did
not like Alfredo, but Ioanna is just effervescent. I think that we will like her. Alfredo was sent home to rest and
recover. He developed bronchitis and it
would not be a good thing for him to be talking too much anyway. We heard from him later in the day and he had
returned to Athens and was feeling better but still tired.
Our destination today is Monemvasia, but we traveling across the Mani Peninsula. The area is dotted with small villages some ancient, and some more recent. Small clans lived isolated in their individual communities, and clan wars were the norm rather than the exception.
On our first break we visited several small churches – very small. Our group is 25 people and we could all barely fit inside.
The first church, the Church of Ayios Ioannis (Saint Ioannis) is tiny. We didn’t go inside, but the picture shows the style of architecture used by the Mani people. The area was prone to earthquakes and the layers of stone and tile allowed the building to absorb the movement rather than collapsing.
The church of St Peter dates back to the late 12th century.
The interior is covered in colorful
paintings depicting the life of Christ and the Saints. The iconostasis always has a picture of Jesus
on the right and the Virgin Mary on the left.
Note the dragons atop the
iconostasis. For the early Christians,
dragons symbolized evil. Here they are
being vanquished by the saints.
The Orthodox churches are usually built
as an equilateral cross, with the altar on the east, and the entrance on the
west. Thus, the altar aligns with the
rising sun and reflects new life with Christ.
Sometimes, due to the landscape, this is not possible, but that is the
preference.
The alleyways weaving through the town were painted in crude geometric figures. Ioanna said that electricity did not come to this town until around 1970. The lines helped to light the way for people moving through the town in the darkness by lantern or candlelight.
In the tiny church of St Nikolas, the
roof was arched instead of having the traditional dome. Instead, they painted the dome on the
ceiling. This painting is particularly
interesting because it depicts the constellations of the zodiac. This was because they represented the yearly
cycle and the planting seasons, important to the congregation of farmers.
The iconostasis is particularly beautiful for such a tiny church.
After our tour of the churches, we walked up the hill to a little café to have Greek coffee. At home we would call is Turkish coffee, and it came to this region during the Ottoman occupation. However, we are in Greece, so it is Greek coffee. The very fine (powdered) coffee is added directly to the water, along with sugar if desired, and allowed to come to a boil. A special pitcher called an ibrik is used to heat the coffee and water mixture. Then it is decanted using the ibrik, allowing the coffee to pour out of the spout while retaining as much of the grounds as possible. After a little more settling time, the coffee is ready.
We see the restaurant owner on the left,
stirring the coffee in the ibrik, and that is Ioanna on the right.
Greek coffee is quite strong, and you never drink the last part, because there are still grounds settling to the bottom.
At Limeni, we had lunch as a group overlooking the harbor.
For starters we had Greek salad, country
bread, baba ghanoush, cheese, and the ever-present fries. The main course was red mullet, small fish
fried whole. Again we opened them and removed the bony skeleton. It was a good bit of work to get a small amount of
meat, but we were already quite full.
Dessert was a light yogurt with cookie crumbles.
Lace up those hiking shoes! In Monemvasia we go hiking again.