Napflio – the romantic capital of Greece

For me, planning for a trip is often more exciting than the actual travel, but this time it was rather confusing when we decided for our holiday destination to be Greece. We had ten full days dedicated for the trip; Athens being the historical treasure remained in the list with five days blocked for a leisurely visit. Now, we had five days for another place mainly for relaxing midst the exotic Mediterranean landscape. The islands being the obvious choice for the purpose offered too many options (Greece has 1400 islands out of which 230 are inhabited). Santorini, Mykonos and Zakynthos favourite among Indians could have been an easy choice with exotic location and useful feedback from friends, but beside the charm they are extremely touristy too. My affinity for a peaceful location with right blend of nature and city life made me zero down to Napflio after a thorough research. This Venetian Township, the old capital of modern Greece was recommended to me by a lot of my Greek friends from Trip Advisor. Its proximity to Athens (only one and half hour drive) and good bus connectivity was an added advantage, as Athens International Airport was to be our gateway to Greece.

We flew to Athens from Kolkata via Doha in Qatar Airways, unfortunately our flight to Doha (an early morning one) was two hours late, consequently leading us to miss the scheduled connecting flight and taking the next one from Doha which was scheduled for five hours later. We had a booking with Taxi Hellas for an Airport pick up, confirmed through mail. We managed to send another e-mail stating about the changed flight, though not sure whether the taxi would actually arrive at the changed time (it was a Napflio based agency). We landed at Athens finally next day evening, sleepless and haggard, with only a crisp bed in mind to crash on. None of us had enough courage to take a public transport to Napflio; we avoided eye contacts with each other while proceeding towards the arrival gate. A flashy yellow shirt and a placard with ‘PAL’ (our surname) written on it came into my vision among the cluster of foreign faces. A robust bearded man with happy face came forward, ‘Pal you are?’ he approached me, avoiding to pronounce my name (too complicated for him, as his was for me). ‘My name is Vangelis, it means good Angel’, indeed he was one for us. We started immediately for Napflio taking the Highway, giving the Athens city a miss to avoid traffic. In a few minutes, misty mountains emerged along the Highway creating an aura; an instant wellbeing engulfed my tired mind. Vangelis kept us entertained all through with his witty anecdotes and useful information enriching our ‘to do’ list. We were amazed by his knowledge not only about his own country, but also mine and his perspective towards life. On our way he took us to the historical canal at Karinthos without any additional charge.

Karinthos canal

By the time we approached the old city of Napflio, it was dusk; a glimpse of the sea and the Venetian houses looked like fairyland in the twilight with its old world charm. The city with its symmetrical floriated houses along the small lanes and old-style taverns in between was a reflection of Venice, of her younger days. We had booking in one of those houses now turned into a guest house with beautiful interior suited to the antique theme; the manager was a young lady, vivacious and helpful. Our suite had a balcony with hanging flower-bed facing a lane adorned with full bloomed Bougainvillea vines, a traditional Greek tavern was at stone throw distance. We had a quick dinner in one of those taverns before we hit the bed; a Greek salad with farm fresh vegetables, feta cheese and amazing homemade red wine was on the menu (everything was astonishingly cheap in comparison to any other EU country).

Flower bed in the balcony

Glimpse of the township

Our balcony view

The alleys with taverns 

Our first day at Napflio started with a hearty breakfast of freshly baked assorted breads, cakes, homemade jam, honey, fresh fruits and tall glasses of orange juice; breakfast was served at room only (we gradually realised later, Greek are hearty people and food has a definite role to play in that). Afterwards we started for the promenade which was two-three minutes’ walk from the guest house; an Orthodox Church (Greek are Orthodox Christians) came on our way with interesting design. It was a bright sunny morning, weather was tolerably warm; it felt like a dream the moment we reached the Promenade at the seaside. A deep blue water, crystal clear, almost like a giant swimming pool with mountains adorning it across the skyline and a pretty castle in the middle; my words would fall short to describe the trance I was in at the first sight. The serenity of the quiet township with hardly any tourist even at the promenade (though plenty of sea-facing restaurants were fully operational) made me feel like a queen. All through the morning we lazed around the promenade sitting on benches at different strategic points, even took a walk up the hill alongside the sea. At some distance across the hill there was a small sandy beach with few bathers, though we chose not to be among them (the water was cold by our standard), we satisfied ourselves sitting by a natural pool dipping our feet in it. We took lunch at a restaurant facing the sea at arm’s length with cool drinks, salads and some Greek Pizza. It seemed, time stood still at that vintage town, no was in hurry; one could even sit with a cup of coffee at a restaurant for eternity, no one would bother. The view of sea was different in the evening, with more current in the water and the colour even darker, in the twilight it transformed into a mystique blue; I felt the urge to fall in love with life afresh. We strolled around the town and its squares after sundown (at 9.30 pm.) with gelato in hand like school children, carefree, livelier than ever before, hardly speaking any word. A late dinner at a roadside tavern under candle light with some great local live music added to our boisterous mood.

The Church

Private boats

Sea side restaurants

From the promenade

The promenade

A closer look of the castle

Hilly walkway parallel to sea

The natural pool

restaurants at promenade

The city centre

Ostrich egg on sale

An interesting shop

Promenade at dusk

Twilight view

Night is young

Live music at Tavern

Next day as per Vangelis’s advice, we made a half day trip to Mycenae’s Acropolis, its museum with some wonderful 14^th century BC collections and the treasury of Atreus pertaining to the same era, discretely built at the hollow of a hill. We also visited the Epidaurus that consisted of a museum, a medicine centre, a theatre with natural acoustic sound and the temple of Asclepius (the God of medicine and healing). On our way back it started raining (a rarity in that region during summer), temperature dropped; the sky took the colour of dark grey and the sea of greyish blue. We went up to the Palamidi castle at hill top within the township; it was built by Venetian invaders during their second occupation and was an Ottoman stronghold during later part of the 400 years of Turkish rule. Finally the freedom of modern Greece was declared from this castle only in 1822; Napflio became the capital of Greece in 1829 and remained so for next 5 years, after that Athens became the new capital. The view from the castle was breath-taking; manoeuvring the steep stony stairs with an umbrella to be shared by three was breath-taking too. We came down partly drenched, both by rain and the magnetic charm. The evening, with overcast sky offered another magical view of the sea; a focus of sudden sunlight sipped through the cracks of the cloud created an angelic ring on the sea, the blessings of Almighty could be felt in the vastness.

The Acropolis

The Acropolis

Acropolis museum collections

Hidden treasury

It's beehive ceiling

The Theatre

The stage

Statues at museum

Inscription

Palamidi castle

view from castle

view from castle

view from castle

view from castle

View from Castle

His blessings

Again the day after we listened to our mascot Vangelis and took a full day cruise from nearby Tolos harbour to the Islands Hydra and Spetses. The description of the landscape during the journey would be very difficult to put in words; hence, I took help of few photographs taken by my novice hand.

View from cruise

The landscape on the way

The island Hydra posed unique because of its ravishing hilltop view; Donkey back was the only mode of conveyance there, automobiles being banned within the island. Spetses was a picturesque island township with a promenade, a small sandy beach, happening pubs and restaurants and a series of beautiful old fashioned bungalows (extremely well maintained), mostly owned by rich mainlanders as weekend abode.

Hydra

Hydra

Donkeys

Hydra

Hydra

Spetses

Spetses city centre

Beach

Alleyway

The last day of our stay at Napflio was a Saturday and posed quite a different picture of the quiet town. Like a sleeping volcano it emerged in life with sudden vivacity, as visitors from Athens and the nearby villages started pouring in for a weekend getaway. The Promenade became lively with children’s laughter, the sea more soulful with enchanted smile of young lovers. We witnessed the procession of a Greek wedding as it took place in the nearby Church, the handsome groom kissed his young bride at the Mediterranean backdrop; Napflio truly stood by its reputation ‘the romantic capital of Greece’.

Like all other days we (me and my husband) went for a long morning walk for the last time on the Sunday at the seaside, had coffee at a sea facing restaurant, did some tit bit shopping from an interesting organic shop and then said goodbye to the fairyland post breakfast. Our good Angel was ready with his chariot to escort us to our next destination Athen, the ancient jewel of Greece.  

   

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