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Ted Koppel
 Photo by J.D. Lasica A windsurfer at Plaka Beach on the west coast of Naxos. |
Naxos
“Naxos is one of my favorite places. Gorgeous beaches, a neat mix of Venetian & Cycladic houses in Naxos town. Make sure you go hiking in the Traghea valley, it is incredibly pastoral. ... Contact Despina on the pier — she is the goddess of the island and can give you lots of info.” — Ruth Savitz“On our first day in Naxos, we met Alexandros, as the Greeks call him. He is an American from Philly who fell in love with Naxos and moved there. His place, Papagolos has great food. Alexandros gave us some great ideas on places to see on the island.” — Nifa
We wondered if Despina and Alexandros really existed or whether they were electronic ciphers. But within an hour of our ferry docking at Naxos Town, Despina Kitinis had booked us two nights in the Chateau Zevrogli, a 13th-century Venetian fortress converted into a comfortable hotel. And an hour later we had found Alexandros in a chef's apron in the kitchen of Papagalos.
An expatriate American from Harrison, N.Y. (not Philadelphia), Alexandros — a.k.a. Marshall Alexander Monsell — sang the praises of Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades. "It's more authentically Greek here than on the more touristed islands," he said of this bucolic land of ancient silver olive trees, fruit orchards and 18,000 residents, who rely on tourism for only 20 percent of the local economy.
"There are villages where the shopkeepers stop you, sit you down and serve you Greek salads, homemade wine and homemade cheeses made the same way they've done it for hundreds of years," Monsell said. "There's one village so remote that the mayor offers to put up guests for free."
Monsell took our map and circled a half-dozen suggestions. We rented a car — unlike in Santorini, where we got around on scooters — and made it to three destinations, all of them worthwhile:
• In the Tragea Valley, we came across a shepherd leading two donkeys down a winding path to a watering hole. He greeted us in Greek, wiped his chiseled Old World face with a handkerchief, then entreated us to ride one of his donkeys. For Joseph and Mary, it seemed the thing to do, and we both took short rides.
• In the small hamlet of Danakos, we found Taverna Florakas at the foot of a steep, remote walkway. Yorgos, the proprietor, served us Greek salads, tzatziki (a yogurt dip) and octopus stewed in wine, and we ate our lunch happily in the small courtyard under the shade of a pomegranate tree. Yorgos learned of our honeymoon, and a German visitor at the next table translated Yorgos' tale of his tumultuous marriage, which lasted all of 57 days. Afterward, Yorgos let us pick some of the ripe green grapes hanging from his grape vine arbor and, for a small charge, he filled our water bottles with his homemade red wine, the best we tasted on the island.
• The next day we drove to Plaka Beach, a strip of golden sand 40 feet wide and miles long on the west side of the island. The beach, like many on our stay, was clothing-optional, and an international cast of sun-bathers in every manner of dress and undress frolicked on the uncrowded sands and in the warm, placid, startlingly clear aquamarine waters.
For the remainder of our stay, we settled into an easy routine: After breakfast, we would investigate a beach in the morning, then explore museums, shops and tavernas before returning to the beach for a late-afternoon swim. Then came the jockeying with other travelers for the best view of the sunset at the Temple of Apollo. The huge marble portal, connected to Naxos Town by a narrow causeway, was begun in 522 B.C. on the orders of the tyrant Lygdamis but never completed. At night we wandered the city's twisting, bewildering back alleys, exploring the fortified stone mansions left from the Venetian occupation, shopping for leather goods, then returning to the waterfront for dinner or a drink of ouzo or retsina while taking in the nightlife scene, which rambled on well past midnight.
Greece: An introduction |
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