Wednesday May 21 was another beautiful day with a high of 25C. We have really lucked into some perfect summer weather for the six days we are in Naxos. It will continue to be nice weather after we leave the island, but the temperatures will be 3-5 degrees cooler.
We decided to visit two nearby mountainous villages. We boarded the 11:00 a.m. bus to Filoti, one of the most famous and beautiful villages on the island, known for its olive groves and small Byzantine churches. Filoti's name is ancient and believed to be of Ionian origin. Its population totals about 1,800 and the village is just 18km from Naxos Town (about a 30 minute bus ride). It is a traditional Cycladic village built amphitheatrically on the slopes of Mount Zas, with whitewashed houses and narrow flowered streets.
The main street is the centre of village life and there is a square surrounded by a number of cafés and taverna, a few of which are shadowed by a huge, majestic plane tree that is over 100 years old. Roughly 60,000 sheep are reared in this area and the village is well-known for the excellent quality of its livestock products and a wide variety of cheeses.
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| View from the main street |
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| Mount Zas |
Our bus let us off in the main square. We weren't ready for lunch yet and wanted to explore the village first. We walked down the Main Street and found Manolis Theonas's old market store, packed with baskets, pottery, glass, and lots of coffee makers. The owner was outside asking everyone where they were from.
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| Allan in the old store |
On a tree beside the store, was a sign with "Sights to visit in Filoti." It had an arrow directing us to climb up some stairs to visit the historic Old Town Fassolas neighbourhood.
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| Sights of Filoti |
We walked up two levels to the old commercial neighbourhood of Fassolas. It was once booming with many businesses until the mid 60s when the area was abandoned because the businesses were relocated on the new main road from Naxos Town to Apeiranthos.
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| Climbing up from the main street |
Fassolas, almost 200 years after its original establishment, has been restored with a number of the shops preserved in the state they looked in the 50s and 60s. One can wander into these shops and see the tools or items displayed as they might have been back in the day.
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| Tailor shop of Vassilis Manios- preserved in the state it was left by its last owner. There were a number of artefacts and even old fashion magazines. |
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| Barbershop of Tsakas-- atmosphere of the 50's. |
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| Outside of the Blacksmith shop |
Four generations of the Antonis family worked in the smithy and crafted tools and household equipment. Many of the original tools are now on display.
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| Blacksmith shop-- even an old calendar dating back to 1964-- orders and sales which show the business activities from its inception to its closing. |
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| Carpentry shop - each shop had signage outside |
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| Carpentry workshop of Katsouros with many traditional tools on display |
There were not very many people who had climbed up from the main street to explore this old neighbourhood. It was great wandering in and out of the old stores on our own. Everyone is very trusting that no one will take anything.
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| Allan heading down- many houses had decorated doors with dates on them |
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| A beautiful old church- had to take the photo from an angle as it is a very narrow street. |
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A man outside his store painting drums. The sign above the store said "Popular Traditional Art"
with the website of Nikolaos Moustakis.
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| A view of the village |
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| View of the 100 year old plane tree that provides shade to a number of cafés in the main square. |
We decided to have lunch at Ambrosia, which served more traditional cuisine. It's neighbouring restaurant served pizza.
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| Ambrosia-- under the plane tree |
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| We shared stuffed peppers with tomato rice and potatoes-- delicious |
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The corner store on the main street- vegetables displayed in baskets-
apricots are in season as well as very good strawberries |
We caught the 2:00 p.m. bus to Chalki (also known as Halki), another small mountainous village just about two km from Filoti. It is another beautiful village, hidden amongst centuries old olive trees and ancient Byzantine ruins. The bus stop is right in front of the Church of Panagia Protothronos. A sign said the church dates back to the 6-11th century.
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| Church of Panagia Protothronos (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) |
The main street and square were only a minute away from the bus stop. We stopped in at a lovely store featuring local products: honey, olive oil, herbs, spices and home made jams.
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| Outside of the store |
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| Lots of very interesting products and flavours |
We then stopped at Fish and Olive, a ceramic gallery and store. It is owned by Katharina Bolesch and Alexander Reichardt, a local couple creating exceptional ceramics, marble sculptures and homemade jewellery. The pieces are very, very pricey but quite beautiful. The woman working in the store was adamant about not taking pictures. The porcelain pieces and the jewellery were lovely. The artists live and work in Halki.
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Outside of Fish and Olive
Inside of gallery (pic from their website)
Ceramics by Katharina Bolesch (pic from the website); Alexander Reichardt is the jewellery designer.
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We stopped at the historic M.G. Vallindras distillery, founded in 1896 and home to Naxos' most famous citron liqueur. Still family-owned, Kitron has apparently become a cult liqueur, especially in Athen's famous cocktail bars! We had already visited the store selling Kitron in Naxos Town and had a Kitron cocktail at Kitron 1896 on the Naxos Town sea front.
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| Going into the old distillery |
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Small tasting station- we sampled the yellow (strongest and very good); the clear, which we had already had in Naxos Town and the green, which is the sweetest. We liked the yellow and clear the best.
We also sampled a raki from the distillery made with cloves and cinnamon. Very good. |
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| Display of the liqueurs |
There were a few small rooms which showcases the family history and distilling process.
The distillery still uses the same equipment that is found in the building we visited. There is also a more modern part of the operation nearby that does that bottling and packaging.
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| Old containers |
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| There was a video about the process; which showed the harvesting of the leaves from the citron fruit and their placement in the copper still, which is still used today. |
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Still used today.
We wandered down a street that lead out to a beautiful olive grove. This was the start of a six km circular path which we decided to take a pass on. |
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| Heading out of the village. |
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| Beautiful olive trees |
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| A lizard |
We headed back into the village. Someone was grilling kebabs for a nearby restaurant.
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| Outdoor grill |
We decided to stop at 4 Tastes. I had a wonderful home made lemonade and Allan had a cappuccino.
We had a wonderful visit to the two villages. Allan said it was very tranquil and that North American chaos all seemed very far away. We caught the last bus at 4:30 p.m. back to Naxos Town.
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| Old Windmills en route |
We got back to the Port just after 5:00 p.m. and then started our climb back to the
Kastro (Venetian fortress) to pick up the painting that Allan purchased on Wednesday.
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| Church and building with the gallery on the right. The archbishop has his residence above the gallery. |
We then continued our ascent to reach Avaton 1739, where we were going for dinner. We had dropped by on Tuesday for the view and decided to come back for dinner on Wednesday evening.
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| Passing a lot of buildings with crests and designs |
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Part of the walls of the Venetian Kastro
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| Winding our way through the narrow streets |
The restaurant is located atop the historic Old Monastery of Ursulines and the School of Ursulines of Naxos. It is in the same building as the Archaeological Museum of Naxos. There is also a room of artefacts from the monastery and Ursulines School which one walks through to get to the restaurant.
The Ursulines Monastery opened in 1739. It operated to the standards of the Ursuline Convent in Paris. As it was the first French Girls' school in Greece, it accepted girls from areas outside the island as well. For many years, it was one of the most famous educational institutes of Greece. It closed in the 1970s.
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| Artefacts from the School |
The restaurant is on the Terrace.
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| My reflection taking a picture of the saying on the glass. |
The sign by the sink in the washroom said "250 years before in the Old Monastery, the Ursulines washed their hands in this traditional way."
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| Very clever-- water poured from the pottery jug |
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| View from our table on one part of the terrace |
The menu was interesting, but unfortunately while most Greek cooking only uses olive oil, the chef at Avaton 1739 uses a lot of butter. Being lactose intolerant (though I can eat sheep cheese) meant a very limited choice of items on the menu. We had a glass of a local wine from Paros; a peach salad; and a cauliflower steak (the one non-dairy item). The meal was quite tasty. We had primarily decided to eat at Avaton for the view, which was spectacular.
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The view
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We met a very nice young couple with their three year old. The wife had taken our picture and once we discovered we were all from downtown Toronto, they invited us to sit at their table just as we were heading out. We stayed and had a nice chat. They had rented a car and had visited the villages we were at today.
As we were leaving the restaurant, there was an opening one could peak in to see the Old Kitchen of the Ursulines. A plaque noted that the walls of the Venetian Castle were 800 years old.
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| Recreated kitchen of the Ursulines |
We headed back to the harbour. Lots of shops were still open at 9:30 p.m. and the restaurants in the old part of town as well as those on the waterfront were hopping!
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| The harbour at night |
We walked back to the apartment. Naxos Town has been a wonderful base for exploring the island. The two villages we visited today were very tranquil, yet only 30 minutes from the Town. Thursday is going to be a beach day.
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