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Published: December 24th 2022
He who plunders with a little boat is a pirate; he who plunders with a fleet is a conqueror… ~ Greek Proverb
HE SAID... Today we were continuing to explore the atmospheric town of
Nafplio.
We woke early and headed down to Hotel Agamemnon’s bright open breakfast area. We settled at a table with a view of the Argolic Gulf, mesmerised by the picturesque beauty of this quiet coastal city. As always, I started the day with Greek yoghurt and muesli. It’s a breakfast I’ll never tire of.
We left the hotel in the mid-morning and drove into the countryside on the outskirts of Nafplio, where fruit trees and grape vines stretched as far as the eye could see. The landscape was parched and arid, with stark mountains lining the horizon.
Our first destination was the Treasury of Atreus, which is also known as the Tomb of Agamemnon. This funerary chamber is regarded as the symbol of Mycenaean civilisation, and it is said to be the largest unsupported structure of that era. It was an amazing place, and once the busload of tourists in front of us had dawdled in and out of the cavernous stone vault, we had the place to ourselves. I loved its modesty. Burrowed into the hillside, the tomb was deliberately hidden in plain
sight, which is a significant departure from the exhibitionistic approach of so many sovereigns in the centuries since.
From the Tomb of Agamemnon we drove a short distance to the Mycenae Archaeological Site. I absolutely loved this place. Set in the windswept hills of the Peloponnese, the ruins of the ancient city of Mycenae are testament to the extraordinary skills of those who built its stone streets and structures. I stood silently, taking in the solace of the hills and surrounding mountains while gazing out over Nafplio and the distant Argolic Gulf. I loved the solitude of the ruins and the silence of the hills. I imagined Agamemnon, the mythological king of Mycenae, roaming the streets and pondering his future. I could so easily have joined him. This location, surrounded by mountains and overlooking the plateau below, would be an ideal philosophical retreat.
The site also houses a well-curated museum with some interesting frescos and ceramic artefacts, which we quickly browsed before exploring the ancient ruins. With time against us (as it always is), we wandered back to the carpark, jumped into our minibus and descended out of the hills to our next destination – Koroniotis Winery in
Argos. Arriving around midday, we were getting hungry, and I was very much looking forward to sampling a few wines. Before we did anything, however, we had to listen to old mate Kyriakos. This bloke knew everything about the local and global wine industry, and it came as no surprise that he’d named the winery after himself. His wife was lovely, and she’d put on an amazing spread of finger food – the perfect accompaniment to a wine tasting. The place was buzzing with flies, but it made little difference to our enjoyment of the food and wine on offer.
Now for some reason, I ended up sitting beside Kyriakos at the table where the tasting took place. He was in his element, explaining the intricacies of each of his wines before we tasted them. I smiled a lot as I sampled the wines, and I jotted down the name of each wine from its label. Because of this, Kyriakos decided I was a wine enthusiast. Which of course I am, but not the type he’d imagined. As a result, I found myself in a difficult and all too familiar situation. While I love to drink wine, I’m not
all that interested in talking about it. Kyriakos, on the other hand, loved talking about wine, and I felt very pressured to make intelligent observations following each tasting. He would say: ‘This wine has a rich, intense, velvety mouth with good balance’, and then look straight at me. I would reply: ‘Yep, I like this one’, and smile. By the end of the tasting, I think he’d blown my cover.
Anyway, Kyriakos was nice enough. He even opened a bottle of extraordinary syrah (which was not meant to be included as part of the tasting) because I’d told him shiraz was my favourite type of wine. He may have been intense, but he was also very funny, and I enjoyed his wine tasting immensely. The food was great, the wine was great, and the underground cellar was great – which we accessed via a mechanised platform with no sides. We thought it was a lift for people, but I’m pretty sure it was a lift for wine cartons and barrels. I doubt it would meet safety requirements for people transport…
Over the course of an hour, we sampled the following:
> Malvasia Aromatica (dry white)
> Assyrtiko (dry
white)
> Filion Moschofilero (dry white)
> Nemea (classic red)
> Argus Syrah (dry red)
> Roz Reve (dry rosé)
I enjoyed our time at this small boutique winery in Argos, and the standout wine (for me) was the Argus Syrah – a rich syrah to warm your soul on a cold winter night. On bidding farewell to Kyriakos and his friendly wife, we jumped into the minibus and headed back to Nafplio.
We arrived around 2pm and immediately set out to explore the old city area surrounding our hotel. Our primary plan? To slowly make our way up to Akronafplia Fortress, the oldest of the three castles that tower above the coastal city. Our secondary plan? To explore the narrow streets and beautiful old houses along the way. We had a sense of where to go – it was just a matter of following the map and looking up (at the fortifications) every so often.
We did manage to get lost a few times, but we kept ascending until we found a set of old stone stairs that led us to an expansive open leafy area with graffitied stone walls, crumbling turrets and redundant bell towers.
The panoramic views from this old decaying fortress were extraordinary. We had an amazing view of the old city below us, and we also had an incredible view of the sprawling Palamidi Fortress above us. The best view, however, was of Arvanitia Beach from the southern side of the fortress. This was picture-postcard stuff. As we peered over the ancient stone walls, we could see the calm blue water of the Argolic Gulf lapping against the barren rocks below us. There may have been no sand on the beach, but it was beautiful all the same.
It was time to leave the fortified walls of Akronafplia Fortress and make our way back to the waterfront. Our basic (but very helpful) map showed the main streets of the old city area, but it didn’t show any of the narrow streets that crossed and joined the main streets. So we followed our noses and hoped for the best. Despite a few detours into fascinating old churches along the way, our descent didn’t take long at all.
After freshening up in our room, we wandered out into the early evening air and made our way to a scheduled cheese tasting at
The Grocery Store of Nafplio. Run by an incredibly friendly couple in the old city area, this boutique grocery store prides itself on specialist local knowledge and extraordinary customer service. And it showed. The place had a very welcoming atmosphere, and it attracted a lot of local customers seeking traditional Greek products.
Now to the main event – the cheese platter. We’ve had a few in our time, many of which have been very good, but none have quite matched this. A large round wooden serving plate was placed before us, covered to the rim with a variety of cheeses, figs, walnuts and rusks. I’m secretly hoping Ren has managed to capture the detail of what we sampled, because I’m not overly confident in the accuracy of what I scribbled down during the tasting. The following is a verbatim extract from my notebook:
> a gruyere-type cheese
> a cheese with wild marjoram
> a cheese with pepper
> a parmesan-type cheese
> a goat (or possibly sheep) aged feta.
The aged feta was my favourite, followed closely by the cheese with wild marjoram. In addition to the cheese platter, another large round wooden serving plate was placed
before us, covered to the rim with a variety of cured meats, figs, walnuts and rusks. This was amazing local produce, provided by such affable young grocers. Just when I thought we’d finished our tasting experience, a final dish appeared – a feta-style cheese drizzled with a sweet syrup. Cheese as dessert! And it was amazing!
We bid farewell to our friendly grocers and made our way to the Liberty Hotel on the outskirts of the old city. We’d been told the hotel had a rooftop bar, and while we hoped it would have a reasonable view, we didn’t expect it to be as amazing as it was. We were basically in the shadow of the Palamidi Fortress, and the view of the castle and its surrounds was breathtaking. As an added bonus, the staff were particularly diligent and accommodating.
We enjoyed a few
ouzos (aniseed flavoured Greek spirit) and cocktails in the balmy night air, then wandered back to our hotel in the late evening. We were leaving Nafplio in the morning, so we organised our packs in readiness. I then sat out on our balcony overlooking Bourtzi (a small island fortress in the middle of Nafplio
harbour) and caught up on my travel notes with a cold beer. We travel for moments like these.
I loved our time in this calm, serene, atmospheric town with amazing hill castles. I wish we could have stayed longer.
SHE SAID... Our second day in
Nafplio started with a relatively early alarm. I had intended to go for an early morning walk along the pretty quay just outside our hotel, but we got distracted with writing travel notes and generally organising ourselves. The second-best option was to sit on our balcony and watch the changing colours of the dawn sky and water that framed my now-beloved view of the tiny Bourtzi fortress island. It was a fabulous way to start my day.
The day got even better when we went down to Hotel Agamemnon’s breakfast room. The breakfast buffet had a gorgeous spread of fresh produce and
bougatsa (custard phyllo pies) for me, and Greek yoghurt and honey for Andrew; the staff were super friendly and efficient; and we enjoyed breakfast with a view of the beautiful Argolic Gulf. I really couldn’t fault Hotel Agamemnon.
After breakfast we met our minibus driver Spiros who
drove us to the ancient Mycenae archaeological site. We drove inland for about half an hour before arriving at the Mycenae city ruins. We met our local guide Katerina at the gates. Katerina had taken us through the Epidavros ruins the day before.
The older a civilisation is, the more guess work there is in the theories around when, why, and how it lived and breathed. It’s believed that the powerful city of Mycenae came into existence around 1600 BC. It grew and flourished for many centuries before declining as part of the Bronze Age Collapse around 1200 BC. The city gives its name to the entire Mycenae civilisation.
We started our tour at the very impressive Treasury of Atreus which sits buried in Panagitsa Hill, away from the rest of the city ruins. There was another tourist group before us, so while we waited for them to finish their visit, Katerina gave us a briefing on what is known of Mycenae and the very intriguing Treasury we were waiting to explore.
Even more so than the day before in Epidavros, I noticed that there was an overwhelming intermingling of historical fact with Greek mythology in Katerina’s
explanations. Trying to isolate the facts was even more baffling when I realised that the theories being proposed were still very exploratory, and based on a mix of archaeological finds, ancient literary references and conjecture.
According to mythology, Mycenae was the kingdom of the legendary King Agamemnon, and the city was supposed to have been built by giant Cyclopes (one-eyed beasts). Homer’s references to Agamemnon in the Iliad and Odyssey reference King Agamemnon as the son of Atreus, and when his brother’s wife, Helen, ran off with / was abducted by the handsome prince Paris of Troy, Agamemnon raised a huge Greek army and started the Trojan War to get her back.
In that context, an early archaeologist seemed to think that this was where Mycenae may have stored its wealth (hence the name Treasury of Atreus that’s still used). They later thought it may have been the vaulted tomb of King Agamemnon. In real terms though, the only thing modern day archaeologists are sure of, is that it’s a
tholos (a beehive tomb) that was built between 1350 and 1250 BC. It’s similar to other beehive tombs in the area, including the one we saw being restored
in Epidavros the day before. However, the identity of the occupant of the tomb is still a matter of debate.
I have always regarded Greek mythology as a mix of stories about the 12 Olympian gods and cultural fables that were used to explain complex concepts, teach lessons or document ancient traditions. Before I came to Greece I had thought of Greek mythology as purely folklore. But I’ve now started to understand that over time Greek literature started intermingling human narratives (both real and fictional) with the stories of the gods, and as a result it’s now hard to separate possible facts from the stories of gods and heroes. I suppose just like fairy tales and nursery rhythms, mythology can sometimes have a grain of truth in them.
Regardless of not getting as many hard historical facts about the Treasury as I would have liked, I was awestruck by this building. The architecture was not only beautiful, but the construction methods used, very much like the pyramids, were staggering for a pre-mechanised period.
The entry was via a path built up on both sides by high walls constructed into the hills. The entrance door was colossal, and
an enormous single piece of stone weighing an unbelievable 120 tonnes had been used as the lintel above the doorway. The large dark cavity within had the most intriguing conical stone roof. It’s thought to have been the biggest dome roof structure for many centuries. A small side chamber was probably the burial chamber, and they think the large main chamber was used for burial rituals. They also think the stone walls may have been decorated in red marble and bronze plaques. The British Museum, that well known repository of ‘other people’s stuff’, has two green limestone columns from this chamber.
I absolutely loved this structure, but just couldn’t figure out how to photograph the interior of it. I think I found it so immense and overwhelming that I was trying to capture the feeling of the entire space (and failed). It didn’t occur to me to take photos of the details.
To me, it felt like an empty pyramid probably would. And the precarious looking corbel roof construction reminded me of the ancient Sambor Prei Kuk ruins we saw in Cambodia. I’m pretty crap with ancient dates, and I couldn’t remember enough of the Cambodian structures to
draw parallels at the time (I looked up our Cambodian blog later and they were a 7th / 8th century complex of pre-Angkorian red brick Hindu temples, but obviously the timelines were way out).
We then piled into the minibus and drove a few minutes to the main Mycenae site. Mycenae is thought to have had a population of about 30,000 during its peak in 1350 BC. The ancient citadel was once surrounded by gigantic walls. A narrow road leads to the main entrance of the city – Lion Gate – which has two grey stone lions carved above it. I can imagine how intimidating this gate would have seemed to visitors who were not welcome in the citadel. Incidentally, the Cambodian temples I’d remembered while at the Treasury were also guarded by lions (but sandstone ones).
Katerina changed her usual guiding routine and decided to take us to the onsite museum first (in order to beat the crowds that had just got off two big buses). I personally preferred this order of things, because it helped me to recognise what I was looking at when we later visited the city ruins.
The well-curated museum was an
enjoyable experience, with an assortment of ceramic vases, fragments of wall paintings and weapons. I especially loved the surprisingly intact collections of pottery figures. They were almost African in their form and colour. I was fascinated by them!
The Mycenae site sits high on a hill. It was unexpectedly beautiful and a joy to explore. We entered through the Lion Gate and walked around the hills, taking in the ruins and the archaeological digs in progress. I also appreciated the beautiful views of faraway blue tinged mountains, with a foreground of brown earth dotted with neat rows of green olive trees as far as the eye could see … to me, this view had become the quintessential Peloponnese view, and I loved it.
Irrespective of the intertwining of mythology and history in explanations about Mycenae; and regardless of whether Homer’s references to Agamemnon in the Iliad and Odyssey were based on legend or fact; it remains that Mycenae had a powerful and rich existence, and they built extraordinary structures.
I think our human arrogance makes it hard for us to imagine that the Mycenae civilisation (much like the Egyptian civilisation, the Angkor empire, the Mayans, Aztecs and
Incas etc.) could have built such amazing structures without our modern-day technology. Are we doomed to keep reinventing the wheel because for some bizarre reason we are unable to learn from the past?
While I was pondering what we’d just seen, Spiros drove us to the neighbouring town of Argos for a wine tasting and tour. Greece had a wine culture in ancient times, but it was abolished under the Muslim Ottoman rule. Slowly, over the last hundred years, vines have been reintroduced and the wine industry is taking hold again. And apparently, the Peloponnese region has taken a lead in grape growing in Greece.
As we drove up to it, the Koroniotis Estate Winery looked picture-perfect with a bright red villa set among grape vines and olive trees. It’s a family-owned boutique winery, and we met the owners Kyriakos and Yeula.
Kyriakos took us on a brief walk through the vineyard, and while discussing growing grapes, he described the microclimate on the peninsula as being perfect for the type of wine he produces. We walked back into the winery shed where he talked about his wine making process, after which we settled down to taste their
wines. The tasting room was in a corner of the winery shed which was full of stainless-steel fermentation vats and bottling apparatus. It was very atmospheric.
We tasted five of their wines which were served with a salad and delicious meze appetisers. We started with three dry whites – Malvasia Aromatica, Filion Moschofilero, followed by the 1300 BC Assyrtiko. They were lovely and fresh, but I definitely preferred the Assyrtiko. We then moved on to the reds – the Roz Reve, a dry Rosé (from the Moschofilero grape); followed by the Nemea Koroniotis (from the Agiorgitiko grape). I wasn’t a fan of either of the reds. However, on hearing that Andrew loves a full-bodied Australian Shiraz, Kyriakos opened a bottle of his Argus Syrah (which had recently won gold at an international competition). This was my favourite of all the wines we tasted.
At the end of the tasting, we also got a quick tour of the cellars, where French and American oak barrels sat in a row against a long wall. But the most interesting thing about the cellars to me was the shaftless open-sided lift that we weren’t warned about. Cramming nine slightly tipsy people into
one of those contraptions may not have ended well. But we all lived to laugh about it. 😊
Not knowing a single thing about Greek grapes or wines, I found the tasting to be very educational. I’m not sure what to make of this, but the white grape I liked (Assyrtiko) reminded me of a Sauvignon Blanc, and the red grape I liked (Syrah) is basically the ancestor of the Australian Shiraz. So I had to ask myself – do I only like new wines if they taste familiar? I hope not.
I really enjoyed the few hours we spent at the wine tasting. Yeula was very welcoming of us, and her pours were extremely generous. On the other hand, even though Kyriakos was very passionate about his wines and loved talking to us about them, I have to say that he was very much like every other winemaker I’ve met. And I’ve never met a down to earth winemaker anywhere in the world. 😉
On returning to Nafplio that afternoon, Andrew and I were excited about exploring the old town area, including the fortress that sat imposingly just above our hotel. Nafplio has three fortresses –
the huge Palamidi Fortress on the eastern side of town (that we’d driven up to the evening before), the tiny Bourtzi fortress on an island (that we could see from our hotel), and the Akronafplia Fortress on the western side of town. We were very drawn to the way the Akronafplia Fortress walls ran all along the hills around us, so we decided to make our way up to them.
We first explored the small old town. As I mentioned in our last blog, I really loved the narrow stone lanes and small squares full of colourful Venetian houses, neoclassical buildings, vibrant shops, many restaurants and cafes, and churches of all sizes.
Our first mission was to find a small church near our hotel. Our local guide at Epidavros had talked about people in the orthodox churches making offerings of ‘votives’. She described the votives as models of whatever they were praying for. None of us knew what she was talking about, but I’d received a message from Marianna the night before that they’d found a small church with the votive offerings that Katerina had described. I had pictured these to be three dimensional objects, but they turned
out to be small pressed tin plates with pictorial depictions of legs, arms, houses etc. It was quite interesting, and it wasn’t that dissimilar to a practice I’d seen in Buddhist temples in Asia.
We looked in a few shops, explored a few more churches and ‘researched’ the gelato in two Italian gelaterias – I had the banana gelato from the Lonely Planet recommended Antica Gelateria di Roma, and the chocolate and pineapple gelato from Da Roberto as recommended by Georgia (our group leader). They were both brilliant, but the Da Roberto quality was better.
Nafplio’s history is pitted with being captured, conquered and colonised by various parties. Given its strategic harbour setting, that’s probably not very surprising. The most recent colonisers were the Venetians and Ottomans, and there’s still a very palpable Italian Influence in Nafplio. It’s very visible in the architecture and the food, and also in the number of Catholic churches we saw. The Ottoman influences are a lot more subtle. However, I was rather intrigued by the Catholic church (Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour) that used to be a mosque.
We also visited Agios Spyridon church, where the first Governor of
the Greek State had been assassinated. Georgia had talked about the assassination the night before when we passed a square with a statue of Ioannis Kapodistrias. We’d stumbled upon the church, and with no real signage in English, we pieced the information together when Andrew noticed an odd painting depicting the assassination. The painting was rather incongruously positioned at the back of the church among all the usual religious iconography.
We gradually made our way up various stone steps from the old town to the Akronafplia Fortress. The route wasn’t always clear, with some steps taking us on paths that meandered through people’s front yards! Akronafplia is the oldest of the three fortresses in Nafplio, and existed as a town of its own before the Venetians arrived and merged it into Nafplio’s fortification. Most of the fortress walls are now dilapidated and possibly even a safety hazard in parts, but the sweeping views from its walls were even more stunning than from the nearby Palamidi Fortress.
I was very surprised to see a hotel in one part of the fortress, but it was hidden from view and I couldn’t get a sense of it. However, given the well-manicured
gardens and plush hotel cars driving through the gates, I’d guess it would be a lovely place to relax in for a day or so; especially with that gorgeous view.
It was a very hot and sunny afternoon, and we slowly made our way back to the hotel to relax for a while before the evening’s activity of a cheese tasting. It was still warm when we met the group at 6:20pm in the hotel foyer and walked to T’Anapliotiko Mpakaliko deli in the old town.
As soon as we walked into the deli, I knew we were going to have a good time. They specialised in artisanal products from small producers around Greece, with a focus on the surrounding Peloponnese area. It was nice to see the
ouzo (an aniseed flavoured Greek spirit) from Karonis Distilleries and wine from Koroniotis Estate Winery on their shelves.
A table had been laid out with wooden platters full of delicious cheeses, cured meats, tomato rusks, dried figs and walnuts. We met our fabulous hosts George and Nicole who gave us interesting tasting notes on everything on offer. They were very knowledgeable and very patient with our questions. I enjoyed
this tasting immensely. However, I didn’t fully retain all the details of what we had, and had to contact them via social media on our return. They were very gracious in identifying all the cheeses for me.
We tasted the following: Graviera; Melanotyri with black pepper from Naxos; Lazaretto with wild marjoram; Graviera with black truffle; and Tsemberi – a feta that had been aged in a cave for 36 months. The cured meats were Louza (pork marinated in red wine, spices and herbs) and a black boar prosciutto. The tasting ended with a white cheese called Anthotyros (flowery cheese) with spoon fruit (fruit preserved in a syrup).
I loved all the cheeses we tasted, but the Lazaretto with wild marjoram and the crumbly white Anthotyros as a dessert cheese stood out because I hadn’t had anything like these before. And I particularly loved the Graviera (which resembles a Swiss gruyere cheese) with black truffle too. Before this trip, I knew nothing about the hundreds of Greek cheeses available. I have been very surprised to find out that not only do the Greeks produce such beautiful and varied cheeses, but they are also one of the largest consumers
of cheese in the world. The French and Italians are obviously better at marketing their cheese products to Australia.
Dusk was fast approaching by the time we finished at the tasting. None of us felt like having dinner yet, so when Andrew had a brainwave about having drinks at a rooftop bar, we sought directions from George and Nicole on how to get to the nearest one. We were directed to the Liberty Hotel in the new town, and after a walk of about 20 minutes, we arrived at a plush looking hotel.
The seven of us just about had the rooftop bar to ourselves. There was a beautiful view of the fortress walls and hills surrounding us, with lovely sunset colours lighting up the sky. I had a very pleasant cocktail with gin, tonic, cucumber juice and lime. I had hoped it would be as lovely as the one from our cooking class in Poros, but unsurprisingly it wasn’t the same. Andrew enjoyed a couple of local
ouzos…
ouzo has fast become his drink of choice (when he isn’t cooling down with a beer).
Our group was getting along quite well, so while we were all
together, I felt I had to cheekily address something that had been said at dinner the night before. The ages in our group ranged from four in their 30s, me on the very edge of my 40s, and two in their 50s. Keeping in mind that the two in their 50s were super fit individuals and were probably fitter than most in the group… I had to bring up the fact that someone had announced that they preferred not to travel with ‘old’ people over 50. I had to casually mention that in our vast experience travelling in small groups, age had never been a determining factor in how well people travelled. In fact, it had zero to do with all the things that make someone a good travel companion. There was a bit of attempted back-peddling by the individual, but it was good naturedly drowned out by our raucous laughter! Ah, I Iove a group with a sense of humour. 😊
We were a noisy bunch by the time we left the hotel. We probably needed some food, but despite the long walk back to the old town, some of us were still not hungry. So while a
few people went looking for some fast food, we walked back to the hotel with Dani. We stopped at a kiosk to buy a beer for Andrew and packets of potato chips (crisps). I love these small kiosks in Greece… they are so handy for drinks and late-night snacks. Back at the hotel we wrote some travel notes while snacking on paprika flavoured chips, before I collapsed into bed.
As you’ve probably already gathered, I love Nafplio! From the first moment I set eyes on it, I had a strong feeling about how fabulous it was going to be… and it totally lived up to all my expectations. It’s not only a very beautiful and picturesque city to look at, it’s also a very romantic and graceful place to be in. Andrew and I both agree that we could easily live here. 😊
Next we travel southwest to the village of Kardamyli via Kalamata, the home of Greek olives.
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Chris L.
non-member comment
Ancient Greece
The discovery and preservation of ancient artefacts is crucial to our knowledge of ourselves. Thank you for sharing your Mycenae experience. Merry Christmas.