Go green, go Greek in a hilltop island idyll by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Poets through the centuries have made Ithaka, the island of Homer’s long-lost King Odysseus, a symbolic home for all wandering souls.
Travelers today might find more than symbolism in the appeal of one particular home on that island. A cottage high in the hills enjoys knee-weakening views of olive orchards, a picturesque harbor, and blue sea beyond.
Of course there’s solitude. Of course there’s tranquility. But the old cottage offers something else that’s hard to find anywhere except in this kind of place—an immediate sense of restoration, of finding things you might not even have known you’d lost.
Views from Erigoni’s house (Photo - Erigoni Simiri)
Agrotourism helps preserve the beaches
Erigoni’s House is one of several offered by the village of Perahori’s Agrotourism Cooperative to anyone seeking an authentic and remarkably inexpensive Greek experience as an alternative to the popular “sun and sand” type of holiday.
The nationwide agrotourism initiative came about as part of Greece’s effort to relieve some of the environmental pressures on the overdeveloped coasts. It lures vacationers away from the beaches—habitats for endangered loggerhead sea turtles and Mediterranean monk seals—into the scenic hills.
The effort also provides income sources to inland villagers, and helps preserve their agrarian way of life. Indeed, agrotourism might even help preserve the villages themselves, in these times when lack of employment causes rural populations to dwindle.
Meanwhile, agrotourism accommodations are shockingly kind to the visitor’s pocketbook. In Ithaca, during any month but high-season July and August, rates run in the range of $100 per night for homes that sleep entire families in comfort and inimitable Greek style.
The village experience
Built in the 1930s, Erigoni’s House is everyone’s image of an idyllic Greek cottage, located in everyone’s image of an idyllic Greek village. White-washed walls inside and out give its three bedrooms, dining room, enormous, well-equipped kitchen and full modern bathroom that uniquely Greek pristine feel.
Erigoni made the crisp white lace curtains and linens herself. Windows with their original ornate hardware open to the dizzying views, welcoming the village’s herb-scented mountain breezes. Colorful woven rugs warm the wooden floors. Flagstone patios shaded by olive and oak trees offer choice spots for meals, reading, or snoozing al fresco. And naturally, blessedly, no telephone, no television. Although, upon request, Erigoni may loan guests a cell phone for use during their stay.
Vacationers who fret they’ll miss the more posh facilities and services of the big beach hotels might find themselves astonished by what a stay in a Greek village provides instead. If desired, a guest might disappear entirely into the therapeutic solitude of the hilltop cottage. Or there’s an alternative: learn only a word or two of Greek, or just smile now and then on your morning stroll to the bakery, and you’ll find yourself embraced by surrogate family.
Greeks are bound by tradition to welcome strangers into their homes and into their hearts. A basket of fruit, a freshly-baked cake or a jar of olives might appear on your doorstep, tokens from a people whose word for hospitality is philoxenia, meaning love of strangers.
An elderly neighbor might offer to lead you up a hillside path to a tiny, exquisite chapel adorned with 500-year-old icons, which had lain in ruins until she and her husband re-roofed it with their own hands.
Activities around the island
The hills beyond call like the Sirens to anyone with a sturdy pair of shoes. Spectacular hiking trails lace Ithaca, some of them originating in Perahori. They lead to spots with names like Cave of the Nymphs, Arethousa’s Spring, and Penelope’s Baths, laying claim to settings in Homer’s tale.
Then there’s that sun and sand. From Perahori it’s twenty minutes by cab or car to hidden coves where in most months you’re likely to be the only swimmer or sunbather.
For fans of Homer, two archaeological museums exhibit artifacts related to the hero King Odysseus, and a nautical museum traces Ithaca’s long and important relationship with the sea.
Nights out can include gourmet meals at Symposium Restaurant, offering inventive takes on the island’s traditional dishes. Later, walk along the sleepy, crescent-shaped harbor. While away the wee hours over drinks or crepes at a 19th-century ship captain’s converted mansion on the waterfront.
Coming home
The ten-minute ride back up the hill to Perahori means, perhaps, getting to bed a tad later than guests in the beach hotels. It means a sky full of stars. It means an owl, the familiar of Athena, Odysseus’s patron goddess, hooting softly somewhere in the trees.
It also means receiving, instead of turn-down service and a chocolate on the pillow, the ultimate gift of Erigoni’s House and of Greece—the gift of peace, of quiet, and of coming home.
“Keep Ithaca always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, So you are old by the time you reach the island, Wealthy with all you have gained on the way, Not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.” --From “Ithaca”, by Constantine P. Cavavy
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog (The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time battling a severe addiction to dogs.
