Greece - Korina Miller [192]
Sleeping & Eating
Hotel Athina ( 22310 27700; lamiahotelathina@yahoo.gr; Rozaki Angeli 41; s/d/tr €40/50/60; ) The 2008-renovated and family-managed Athina sports modern tile-floored rooms, large bathrooms, comfortable beds and, remarkably, its own parking. It’s a short walk to Plateias Laou and Eleftherias.
Ouzerie Alaloum ( 22310 44470; Androutsou 24; mezedhes €2-5) You can nibble and sip your way through a meal at this prime people-watching spot, one of a cluster of inviting ouzeries 20m west of Plateia Laou, on a pedestrian lane.
Taverna Ilysia ( 22310 27006; Kalyva Bakogianni 10; mains €2.50-8) This large, no-frills taverna serves a huge range of tasty, oven-made, point-and-eat dishes, big salads included.
Fitilis Restaurant ( 22310 26761; Plateia Laou 6; mains €4.50-12) Upmarket Fitilis serves mostly classic mayirefta dishes, along with slow-cooked goat (€9), which sizzles over an open, antique wood oven. Vegie dishes are on hand, too (rice pilaf with leeks, €4.50).
Central Greece’s proclivity for grilled meats reaches the point of deification in Lamia. The southern end of Plateia Laou is a vegetarian’s nightmare, full of psistarias (restaurants serving grilled meat) with whole lambs, goats and pigs adorning the windows.
Getting There & Away
BUS
There are four long-distance bus terminals in Lamia, and one regional station.
From Papakyriazi station ( 22310 51345; cnr Satovriandou & Papakyriazi), buses depart for Athens (€18.40, three hours, hourly), Larissa (€9.60, 1½ hours, two daily) and Thessaloniki (€23.60, four hours, two daily, one on Saturday). The Athens-bound bus stops at Agios Konstantinos (€4.30, 50 minutes).
From Agrafon station ( 22310 22802; Agrafon 41), opposite Halliopouleio Sport Centre, buses go north to Trikala (€8.60, two hours, six daily) for Meteora and Kalambaka. Buses head south to Amfissa (€6.40, 1½ hours, three daily), Delphi (change in Amfissa; €8.20, two hours, three daily) and Patra (€16.90, three hours, four daily).
From Markou Botsari station ( 22310 28955; Markou Botsari 3) buses depart for Karpenisi (€6.40, 1¾ hours, five daily).
From the KTEL Stelidos station ( 22310 22627; Rozaki Angeli 69) you’ll find buses for Volos (€11.50, two hours, two daily).
The regional bus station ( 22310 51347; Konstantinoupoleos) has buses for western Fthiotida province, including Ipati (€2, 40 minutes, four daily) and Pavliani (€3.90, 90 minutes, on Monday and Friday), both near Mt Iti National Park.
TRAIN
Lamia’s main train station is 6km west of the town centre at Lianokladi. Train tickets should be purchased in Lamia from the OSE ticket office ( 22310 23201; Averof 28), where an OSE shuttle bus links up with the main Lianokladi train station.
Intercity trains run to Athens (€13, 2½ hours, six daily) and Thessaloniki (€27, three hours, six daily). Slower trains make both runs (Athens/Thessaloniki €10/22), and take an extra hour.
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ITI NATIONAL PARK
ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΔΡΥΜΟΣ ΟΙΤΗΣ
Iti is one of Greece’s most beautiful but least developed national parks, a verdant region with forests of fir and black pine, meadows and snow-melt pools fringed by marsh orchids, and home to woodpeckers, eagles, deer and boar. According to mythology, Hercules built his own funeral pyre on Mt Iti, before joining his divine peers on Mt Olympus.
Trails are not uniformly well-marked, though a good day-hike begins clearly at Ipati and climbs to a refuge (Trapeza at 1850m) near the Pyrgos summit (2152m). Other popular day-hikes reach the villages of Kastania and Kapnohori. For information about hikes in Mt Iti, contact the Hellenic Federation of Mountaineering ( 210 364 5904; info@eooa.gr) in Athens. Also, check out Road Editions Map No 43, Iti, or Anavasi Map No 2.3, Central Greece: Giona, Iti, Vardhousia.
The bordering village of Ipati, located 22km west of Lamia and 8km south of the Karpenisi–Lamia road, has the remains of a fortress and is (along with Pavliani to the south) a