Mt. Pilion (Pilio, Pelio) Magnesia Prefecture

The Pilion Peninsula

East of the city of Volos, the Pilion peninsula, land of the centaurs, curves around the huge Pagassitic Bay. It is a sizeable, unique and beautiful world of its own within Greece. In common with the rest of the country It has the usual two distinct features: high mountains peaks-Mt Pilio (1551meters / 5,089feet), and Mt. Ossa to the north (1978meters/6488feet) and many miles of rugged coast line broken by enchanting swimming spots. The beaches of the Aegean side are longer, sandier and more wind swept and less popular but they are superior and worth the extra driving time.

What makes Pilion different is that it has orchards of cherry, peach, apple, pear, walnut and olive trees, and is forested with stands of pine, beech, oak and chestnut. With such wood at its disposal, its villages have developed a unique traditional architecture of timber-framed houses with projecting upper stories and balconies supported by wooden corbels, and slate roofs with overhanging eaves, and narrow cobbled streets.

The village churches also have stone roofs, and differ architecturally from those elsewhere in Greece, not so tall, and with carved wood inside and an outer narthex with wooden pillars. The houses are spread out, unlike more typical Greek villages elsewhere, with water everywhere, at least where the villages are most concentrated. With so much water, vegetation is also plentiful, though it varies between the two coasts, with gardenias and camellias on the moist east coast and drier Mediterranean plants on the drier west one).

Mount Pilion is much visited by Greeks from both Volos and Athens, especially in summer, when it is much cooler than the mainland to its west (though also more humid). They also come during the Christmas holidays and at Easter. As well as the plentiful fruit and nuts (sold all over Greece), Pelio is also noted for its local wine, honey, herbs, and attar of roses. Schist is quarried here, timber cut, and plant nurseries abound. Its has its own local cuisine as well. There is good hiking all over the peninsula, and some good beaches.

The Northeast Coast

Most of the villages are on the northeast coast, between which wind narrow, steep roads that require slow and careful driving. The main road crossing the north from Volos to Zagora passes within a few minutes through the town of Anakassia, with its wonderful museum dedicated to the famous folk artist) from the island of Mytilini/Lesvos, Theophilos Hadzimihali (known as Theophilos) (1873-1934). The museum is open Mon-Fri 8am-2:30; free). This odd character used to go around in costumes from the period of the Greek War of Independence (which began in 1821)-fustanella (short pleated skirt) and shoes with pom-poms (what the guards at Syntagma wear), painting frescoes on walls for money or food, or whatever was offered. It is said that he ran off to Pilio in 1894 after killing a Turk in Smyrna (in Asia Minor). (Right a work by Theophilos of hero Miltiadis Giataganas 1886)

He also liked to dress up as Alexander the Great . His paintings are described as 'naive, resembling the style in which children (or 'simple peasants') paint, and his themes also included scenes from Greek mythology. The museum is in an 18th century mansion, with frescoes of scenes from the War of Independence on the first floor, and other paintings are scattered around Pilio in various places, especially in tavernas and kafenia.

Portaria

The resort of Portaria is on the road that cuts east across the northern part of the island. Though it has a nice old main square with big plane trees, it isn't such an appealing place, having overdone the tourism a bit, but there are some nice old arkhondhika (old upper-crust mansions) converted to tourist rooms as well as hotels, and a frescoed church. From here one begins the three and a half hour climb to Pliasidhi at 1548 meters (5,077 feet) one of the main peaks in the Pilio range.

Makrinitsa a village with 600 inhabitants on a side-road to the north, is an exceptionally beautiful place sited on a vegetated slope facing in towards the bay to the west, Evia to the south, and Thessaly to the north, with lovely stenakia (narrow lanes) to wander in, a fine main platia (square) with a fountain and plane trees and the most beautiful of the village's six fine churches, Aghios Ioannis. There are restored arkhondhika in this town, an eighteenth-century monastery - Panaghia Makrinitissa, with beautiful marble work inside, Greek inscriptions and Byzantine carvings. There are Theophilos frescoes in a café near the church. A five-hour walk will take you to a deserted monastery with frescoes, the monastery of Sourvias. There is a shorter route as well. Ask the locals to point the way.

East from Portaria, you the road climbs to the Hania Pass, at 1200 meters (3,937 feet) with spectacular panoramic views. There is a chair lift from here up to Mt Pliasidhi and the Agriolefkes ski resort (open Jan-March (sometimes even into April). After the pass the road descends through chestnut,oaks, planes and beech forest to the orchards below.

Zagora

The left fork goes northeast to Zagora, major apple producer and fruit packer of Greece. Sadly, overuse of pesticides and soil depletion have brought the orchards close to their demise (according to government research). Monoculture has contributed to the problem, and other crops (including raspberries) have been proposed. There is strong local resistance to tourism, coupled with the commitment to the successful orchard farming that made independence from it possible. The village has a population of around 3000, with four hamlets on the east coast facing the Aegean, each with beautiful neoclassical mansions, and its own platia with a huge plane tree above.

Aghia Kyriaki is the central hamlet. Despite the predominance of the apple, the countryside surrounding Zagora is also noted for a variety of other fruits, including plums, damsons, pears, peaches, fraises de bois, and for its wine. North of Zagora is Pouri, in a stunning setting up over the sea, with two beautiful, uncrowded beaches down below: Elitsa and Ovrios (but you get to them on a dirt-road from Horefto). There are some rugged hikes that begin in Pouri for the very energetic and fit.

A good sandy beach lies below Zagora 8km (about 5miles down) at Horefto (beach right), and on the road to it, a gallery/folk museum open during July and August. There are actually several beaches, a very good one in front of the village, and others at Aghia Saranda and Analypsi, the latter with coves, one of which has a spring to drink from. Horefto was once a fishing village (like many tourist spots by the sea all over Greece), but now there are quite a few rooms and a number of hotels there. South of Zagora is Kissos, but you have to go back to the fork to reach it and turn left to get to it and the other villages to the south. Kissos (which means 'ivy') is a very green place in a very lovely area, with houses on terraced hills and the 18th century church of Aghia Marina, which is one of Pilio's best. Unfortunately, it's locked up (pictured above left).

The main resort in east Pilio is at Aghios Ioannis, a place which got built very fast and without much taste or environmental discretion. There is a campsite to the south, and Plaka beach to the north, where one can escape the worst of it somewhat.  The all important village square with its plane tree left.

Nearby Damouhari is a little village with a pretty port, but it too has been discovered, and the usual kind of development ensued, though sparing the seafront area itself with its pebble beach, Venetian castle, and some good eating places.

From here you can walk to Tsangaradha in about an hour, along an old kalderimi (cobbled road) with views of villages along the way.

Tsangarada

Tsangarada, at an altitude of 499 meters (1636 feet), is set in oak and plane forests, and is the second biggest village in northeast Pilio, divided, like Zagora, into four different neighborhoods. In the one called Aghia Paraskevi yet another claim to having the biggest plane tree in Greece is made. To the northwest Mouressi, has good tavernas. You can walk to Mylopotamos in about 1 ½ hours via a couple of different paths. There are two coves with natural tunnels in the rocks between them, and Falistra Beach to the north (also accessible on foot from Damouhari). To the southeast are Limnionas and Lambinou, the former being the larger and better, but requiring some walking, either from the village of Lambinou or along the coast. Nearby Xourikhti (which you can walk to from Tsangaradha) is the hub for more treks, one of which crosses the peninsula westward and ends up in the village of Milies (which means 'apple trees'). This hike takes about three hours.

The Southeast Coast

Accessible from the west coast roads to the south of Kala Nera and Milies.

Milies has plenty of mansions (right) , a folk museum (June-Sept Tues-Sun 10am-2pm and 6:30-9:30pm; Oct-May Tues-Fri 10am-2pm; Sat and Sun 10am to 5pm; free) and a frescoed church (the Taxiarkhis). Three miles to the north is Vyzitsa village, which has streams and aqueducts and trailheads to the coast. Pinakates on the coast is set in a thick wooded ravine, and is a place that has been gentrified (by Greeks who restored mansions there). It boasts a taverna that offers free-range local poultry and meat-Taverna tou Papa by name.

Other villages reachable on foot are Aghios Yeorgious Nilias, Dhrakia, and Lavrendios. The west coast itself is drier and more Mediterranean than the east, being in the rain shadow of the Pilio mountain range. To the south of Milies and Kala Nera there were serious fires during the 1990s, the area least damaged being near Neohori. Along the coast, Afetes is nice, with a huge square and several plane trees, interesting church. Argalasti, close to the Pagasitic Gulf, is the biggest town in the south. The coast in this area is touristic, and there are few good beaches, but Paralia Paou is decent. The resort of Horto, to the south 7km (23miles) is low-key, but lacks nice beaches. At Milina there is one end of a kalderimi linking the coast with the village of Lafkhos inland, a walk which takes about an hour. Lafkhos is a village built on a ridge with another nice platia with plane trees, and a wood-fired bakery (one of the last in the area).

The south east coast has nicer beaches with less tourism, and also views over to the Sporades islands-to Skiathos and Skopelos mainly. It also has more caravans, mostly those of German tourists. From Argalasti it is only 10km (6.2 miles0 over to Potistika, past the village of Xynovrisi. Potistika is beautiful, if wind-swept, and is separated from Melani to the south by rocky promontories. Paltsi/Aghios Konstandinos, further to the south, has a sandy beach, with a reef in the middle and islets to swim to and some tavernas and rooms.

East of Lafkos you pass through Promyri, which lies along a slope well-concealed from the sea (and during previous centuries, pirate attacks). In three hours you can walk from here to Platania on the southernmost coast near the middle of the boot that forms the bottom of Pilio peninsula. Paralia Mourtia, on down the road towards the east and the heel of the boot, is a very small beach, but there's a better (and more visited one) to the south at Paralia Lyris. Katiyiorgis is the biggest place around down in these parts, with many fishing boats and yachts, and some package tourism, as well as tavernas and rooms. The cove of Vlahorema can be reached by path from near there, and offers more seclusion and a sandy beach. From there you can continue on foot to Vromoneri. This part of the boot is only three nautical miles from Skiathos and the northern tip of long Evia is just across the water as well. Kastri, at the bottom of the heel of Pilio, is set in a sandy bay, a taverna and a campsite, as well as some rooms.

Platania/Platanis (beach left) is named for the plane trees (called 'platania' in Greek), which hem the stream which has its estuary here. Plane trees are, in fact, found almost everywhere in Greece along streams and are very beautiful with their large knobbly trunks and their broad deciduous canopies and fuzzy seed-pods. Platania is a big resort, with some apartment complexes, and a predictably crowded beach (not overly large), but there's a campsite nearby, and a path inland and along the coast which will take you in ten minutes to a better one at Mikro beach (which means, ironically, 'small' in Greek.

The 'boot' at the tip of Pilio peninsula appears to have either sharply bent-up toes in its southwestern-most tip, as it curves around and up to form yet a second diminutive peninsula, with Trikeri and its port (Aghia Kyriaki) at its bottom. Political prisoners were exiled here after the Greek civil war (1946-1949), and also to the Paleo Trikeri islet. During the Greek War of Independence (which began in 1821), the ships from this seaside village served in the struggle. Though now only a half-hour drive to Milina on the best road in Pilio, it used to be inaccessible except by paths and dirt tracks, up until a few years ago. Despite some moderate development that came with the new road, the place has happily not been turned into a tourist resort. Nor has Aghia Kyriaki (a few kilometers down below by winding road), which has remained a fishing village (and one of the prettiest places on the coast in these parts). There is a boatyard here as well where traditional methods of construction are used. Large kaikia (caiques) are built , and to a lesser extent, yachts. Lacking a good beach, and seemingly uninterested in building a lot of tourist-oriented facilities and rooms, it is a place that has kept its soul.

You can walk from here to Kottes, a little to the north, which sits on the indented inner curl of the up-bent 'toes' of the boot, and is the winter port for Aghia Kyriaki. An alternative walk of two hours will take you to Alogoporos at the top of the curling toes, facing to the north (and across from the islet). The name means 'horse's ford'. At the cove here is the crossing to the Paleo Trikeri islet /or Nisi Trikeri (Trikeri island). Trikeri village was here first, and from prehistoric times. The move to 'Horio' in the sixteenth century (which means 'village', and in this case Trikeri) was prompted by pirate attacks (a common story in Greek coastal history, with settlements being moved to higher ground, often inland). It's a tiny island (about 2.5km long-1 ½ miles) with about one hundred inhabitants, but it does have a few places to stay and a couple of tavernas. Olive orchards and rocky beaches make up the picture, with the one village (also the port) of Ai Yianni and the nineteenth century monastery Evangelistrias uphill from the port (open daily 8am to 3pm and 6pm to 8pm). Up until recently there was no regular boat service out to Paleo Trikeri, and one had to get someone with a small boat to take you. For Pilion hotels