Greece - Korina Miller [495]
Citrus Memories ( 22710 31513; www.citrus-chios.gr; Argenti 9-11, Chios Town), a museum and shop founded in 2008, aims to revive the history of citrus fruit production in Kampos over the centuries, including organised visits, and tastings, of local desserts made from citrus fruits, like marzipan, lemon and vanilla sweets. The museum’s atmospheric lodgings are on an estate dating from 1742. Other dignified Kampos mansions are being transformed into atmospheric guesthouses.
The nearby resort of Karfas (6km south of Chios Town) has accommodation and eating, but gets hectic.
At the island’s centre is Nea Moni (admission free; 8am-1pm & 4-8pm), a World Heritage–listed 11th-century Byzantine monastery. Since it’s undergoing renovations, some buildings may be closed. Nea Moni was built to commemorate the miraculous appearance of an icon of the Virgin Mary before three shepherds. Once one of Greece’s richest monasteries, Nea Moni attracted pre-eminent Byzantine artists to create the mosaics in its katholikon (principal church of the monastic complex).
Disastrously, during the Greek War of Independence, the Turks torched the monastery and massacred its monks. Macabre monastic skulls are lined in the ossuary at the little chapel. Another catastrophe occurred with an 1881 earthquake that demolished the katholikon dome, damaging mosaics. Despite this, they still rank among Greece’s greatest surviving examples of Byzantine art. Nea Moni is now a nunnery.
Another solemn site lies 10km northwest, at the end of a silent road. Anavatos, filled with abandoned grey-stone houses, was built on a precipitous cliff over which villagers hurled themselves to avoid capture during Turkish reprisals in 1822. Note that the narrow, stepped pathways leading between the houses to the summit can be dangerous, and the route is often closed.
More happily, nearby Avgonyma village, distinguished by mediaeval stone architecture, is currently enjoying a revival, and offers accommodation.
The central-west-coast beaches are quiet and good for solitude seekers, though they’re not Chios’ most spectacular. Lithi Beach, the southernmost of these, is most popular.
Sleeping
Perleas Mansion ( 22710 32217; www.perleas.gr; Vitiadou, Kampos; s/d/tr incl breakfast €90/120/150; ) One of Kampos’ best restored mansion guesthouses, the Perleas offers seven well-appointed apartments. This relaxing estate, built in 1640, exemplifies high Genoese architecture. The restaurant serves traditional Greek cuisine, using homegrown organic produce.
Spitakia ( 22710 81200; www.spitakia.com; Avgonyma village; r from €90; ) This collection of studios and cottages, spread across five locations in a striking village of mediaeval stone houses surrounded by olive and pine forests, has fantastic ambience. Although traditional, all rooms have kitchenettes and mod cons like air conditioning, TV and central heating (in winter); some have sublime sea views.
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NORTHERN CHIOS
Lonesome northern Chios, once home of shipping barons, features craggy peaks (Mt Pelineo, Mt Oros and Mt Amani), deserted villages and barren hillsides. The drive north from Chios Town along the east coast is an astonishing trip through bizarre, boulder-strewn mountains that seem from some other planet.
After the small coastal settlements of Vrontados and Langada are the main villages, Kardamyla and Marmaro, ancestral homes of many wealthy ship-owning families – though you wouldn’t know it from the humble architecture. Streets are so narrow, in fact, that some buildings have lines painted on the walls so buses won’t barge into them. Marmaro has an earthy sand beach, but there are better pebble beaches 5km further at Nagos fishing village, and at Giosonas, 1km beyond. The beaches