The Fefes Adventure Collective

Most of Europe takes holiday in August – and the beaches and islands of Greece are a popular destination. Demetri’s been interested in Rhodes (Rodos in Greek) for many reasons, so our August holiday is a week here.  We rented a lovely house in the village of Koskinou with a swimming pool and room for 8 of us – Papou, Theodoris and Mina and us five.

Rhodes is the capital of and largest island in the Dodecanse islands.  It’s less than 10 km from Turkey, in fact on clear days we could see the Turkish coast from our kitchen. The first settlers look to have arrived in 500 BC; Rhodes became a strong power in the years to follow.  The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was constructed in the harbor of Rhodes town.

The island was under Roman rule for 300 years starting in 70 A.D., and then occupied by Venetians and Turks. It was controlled by Italy until 1947 when it was transferred to Greece.  There’s a great deal of Italian influence here – architecture, food, leather, residents, gelato …. we had some lovely dinners inside the old city in the taverna gardens.

The town of Rhodes has an amazing walled old city fortified by the Knights of Saint John in 1309. Their initial role was to care for wounded and ailing crusaders, and they built a large hospital.  The Knights represented all of the major European catholic countries – a total of 8 ‘houses’ — and they restored and built about 30 castles on the island.  The old city was the main fortress; during foreign attacks each group of Knights was assigned to defend certain sections.  The large moat is now a public park.  Rhodes was finally captured by the Turks in 1522, but because the Knights had fought so valiantly, they were given safe passage out (significant —  this is not the way the Ottoman Empire rolled).  Thousands of Rhodians departed with them; many settled in Crete which is southeast of Rhodes.  The Knights themselves found a new home in Malta.

The Palace of Grand Masters, built in the 14^th century by the Knights, has 150+ rooms. 24 are open to the public now & they’re filled with mosaics, multicolored marble, frescoes, beautiful tile and antique furniture from the 16^th century (Peter called one collection of tall seats the “knight cubbies”).  Because the Italians occupied and controlled Rhodes until after WWII, they were the ones who restored the castle in the early 20^th century.  The Palace served as holiday residence for King Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini.  There’s a grand plaque in the front hall honoring both men … and Fascism. It has a beautiful inner courtyard full of statues from the Greek and Roman periods.  Today, the Palace and the fabulous archaeological museum around the corner belong to the Greek state.

Walking through this old city is amazingly cool.  The streets are cobblestone, the sidewalks are full of mosaics and there are fountains and springs for a quick drink or a splash on the face.

The purchase of a car necessitated a road trip.  We returned the car (story in a future post) but we went on the road trip anyway in a rental.  The Peloponnese are the ‘fingers’ to the west of the mainland.  It is a beautiful area.  We spent time on the far west coast (Pilos, Stupa, Kalamata, Costa Navarino) in 2014. In 2016, we spent a long weekend in Loutraki, near the Corinth canal.  The Peloponnese region was quite significant in Greek history — the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC) essentially took power away from the Athens city-state, and established Sparta, the leading power of the Peloponnesian League as the dominant force. These wars were the abrupt end of the golden age of ancient Greece.

This time, our destination was a town called Korfos, a village on the sea.  Papou and Sandy came too and we had a little townhouse with a lovely garden that was just up from the water.  We crossed the Corinth canal, stopping to watch some boats travel through, arrived about 5 pm, swam at the pool, had some wine and snacks, and went to dinner later at a little Taverna on the water.

The next morning, the four of us drove to the ancient Theater of Epidavros. Built in the 6th Century BC, it is one of the most perfectly preserved sites from its time.  The acoustics are terrific — we could hear a coin drop on the stage while we were at the very top.  In the same site was a temple dedicated to Apollo Meleatas, a god with healing properties, and the Asclepieion, the seat of antiquity’s physician god — people started worshipping him in the 6th century. There were also dormitories, a stadium, and ancient market.

We left Epidavros and drove to Porto Cheli, a little harbor town. From there we took a water taxi to the island of Spetsis, one the Saronic islands.  Spetsis is adorable. No cars are allowed, so you get around by motor scooter, taxi or horse carriage. We stopped for a late lunch near the harbor and wandered down the streets lined with lovely boutiques and shops.  Then we took a quick swim, diving into the ocean from a pier.  It was terribly hot so our tempers and bodies cooled down nicely with a little swimming.  Then we took a water taxi back to Porto Cheli and the car, and drove along the coast back to Korfos.  Papou and Sandy spent the day closer to home at Metamorfosi and other towns.  Demetri, Sandy and I have all just finished Blue Skies and Black Olives, a really funny father/son account of building a house in Greece.  Demetri found the house on our way back, and though Papou felt we should knock on the door and tell him how much we enjoyed the read, we didn’t.  We stopped for ice cream in Galatsas and headed home.

Saturday we woke late, swam in the pool for a little while, and drove to Drepano Beach. Saw many goats and goat herders along the way.  Papou’s first cousin Elena — a Greek who has lived in Florence since birth — spends summers in Drepano.  Elena is funny, charismatic, and full of life.  The perfect mix of what an Italian Greek should be.  The water in Drepano is the best I’ve ever seen. The beach is rocky, but the water in the ocean has soft sand for miles.  The water was so clear it looked like a swimming pool with a sand bottom.  We swam for a bit, then went back to Elena’s apartment for a linguine with mushrooms and truffles pasta lunch.  It was her husband’s birthday (Massimo).  There was champagne, fresh cheese from Florence and Greece, and the most beautiful fruit tart birthday cake with grapes, figs, apples and plums.  Elena’s brother (Renato) and his wife (Ornella) also joined us.  I didn’t know until yesterday that Papou speaks Italian, so he was the hardest working guy at the party, translating from Greek to English to Italian to English and back to Greek.

Next stop, Rodos.