Why I love summers in Chios Featured
(by Aspasia Kakari, journalist and travel blogger girandoperilmondo.it)
Chios is a blessed place, the more you get to know it, the more you want to explore it. From the cosmopolitan picturesque little ports of the east side, facing the Turkish coast, to the blue-green waters of the free beaches at the piney west coast, and from the wild beauty of the mountainous north side, to the soft hills hosting the famous Mastiha villages in the south, Chios is not just an island, it’s rather many islands in one. That’ s why the summers in Chios have something for everyone. For me, they have mastic perfumed promenades, swimming in the countless beaches, hiking on ancient trails, but also appetizers (greek “mezedes”), music, summer movies.
- In the summer the mastic tears sparkle under the sun, on the white-soiled hillsides, from Katarraktis to Patrika, and from Dotia to Lithi. These low bushes, with the soft green leaves and the rough grayish trunk, “hurt” for generations, make the scenery of the Mastic villages so unique, spreading their distinguished perfume over the paths and roads in South Chios. The Mastic Museum, near Pyrgi village, showcases in the best way the history of this unique product which determined the course of the island. However, the stories of mastic are still being written under the trees in these 21 villages. To listen to them, you can have a coffee at the village square, in your most favorite village.
- When you dive in the impressive Mavra Volia beach, under the ancient volcano in the southeast part of the island, you dream of the white pebbles of Jossonas in the northeast, or the small colorful pebbles of Gonia beach in Volissos, or those of Avlonia in Mesta. And then you miss playing on the sand and you go down to Komi for an evening drink, and the next day you long for calm and go up to Trachili, or Tigani, or even far north to Ezoussa. With mornings under the shade of the whitewashed rocks in the fascinating beach of Vroulidia with the turquoise waters, and the relaxed afternoons, when the sun is slowly setting in the sea at Apotheka beach, the summers go by very fast and you never have enough time to swim in all your favorite coves on Chios, more than 90. So, you set an appointment for next year.
- History meets you in many areas of the island, but especially in one neighborhood it gives you chills. When you pass through the Porta Maggiore, the main entrance to the Castle of Chios, the Dark Dungeon and Justiniani Palace, until you get to the square with the Ottoman cemetery, you think you will encounter some Ottoman pasha, or Venetian aristocrat. The Castle neighborhood is today, if not the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful, multicultural and gourmet neighborhoods of Chios town. Beside the Ottoman monuments, like the Ottoman Baths, Hamidye Mosque and Eski Mosque, now operating as a Christian church devoted to St. George, in the Castle you will find some of the most delicious “mezedes” you can savor on the island. Even if you visit Chios for one day, it is worth a walk in the narrow alleys of this fortress, which is still inhabited today.
- When the sun goes down, a real labyrinth among the orange and the mandarin trees invites you to explore it. Something like an open-air museum, Kampos is a valley with citrus gardens, which are surrounded by high walls to protect the trees and their fruits from the wind, as well as the people. In these citrus gardens, separated by very narrow and winding alleys, you will see magnificent mansions built with the characteristic local reddish stone, mosaic courtyards, marble mangans, grand verandas under pine trees and painted ceilings. A town within a town, Kampos, originally inhabited by Genoese merchants, is an ideal place for walking or cycling.
- Although summers are not suitable for hiking, full moon nights are always a good occasion to go to the mountains and see the island from a different perspective. An ideal summer hike on the brightest night of July and August is the short climb to the archaeological site of Emporio and the small church of Prophet Ilias at the top of the hill that bears the same name. Further north, also an easy climb up the Aipos Plateau brings you across a “blood moon” rising from the Turkish coast and above the thousand lights of the town of Cesme. Another reason to visit this barren, almost otherworldly rocky environment of Aipos, where Homer is said to have wandered, is to see the shooting stars, the Perseid shower that begins in mid-July and peaks between August 9 and 14 each year.
- In Chios in the summers, we have art for company. Usually in the first fortnight of August, we have the opportunity to enjoy concerts of classical, ethnic and jazz music, with international artists, thanks to the Chios Music Festival. Since 2017, when the festival began, it has been enriching our evenings with music in emblematic locations of the island, such as the Mastic Museum, the medieval village squares, mansions in the countryside, the neighborhood of the Castle, etc. Alternatively, for cinephiles, the Cinema Club of Chios organizes film screenings at Perivoli in Kampos, from the end of June to the beginning of September. Also, in the south of Chios, on the beach of Komi, there is a small and cool summer cinema that fills our evenings with new and old works of the seventh art.
