1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  Medieval Splendor on a Seaside Rock

  MONEMVASSIA

  Peloponnese, Greece

  Monemvassia’s nickname, “the Greek Mont St-Michel,” conveys the charm of this walled medieval town that clings to the side of an islandlike rock jutting out of the southern Peloponnesian coast. As you approach along a causeway from the mainland, the rock seems to be uninhabited; then a lone Venetian gate, wide enough only for pedestrians and donkeys to pass through, appears in the side of the cliff. The name moni emvassia, the locals will tell you, means “single entrance.”

  Like Gibraltar, Monemvassia was once powerful thanks to its control of the sea lines between medieval Western Europe and the Levant during the time of the Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman empires. The number of beautiful Byzantine churches (40!) and façades adorned with elaborate stonework and marble attest to the town’s onetime prosperity, with the octagonal 12th-century Agia Sofia (Holy Wisdom) perhaps its most beloved. Venetians took control of the town in 1464 and built the jagged line of (now ruined) fortifications high on the mountaintop. Making it to the top during your stay to experience the views is an obligatory rite, especially for sunset over the Mirtoon Sea.

  In recent years second-home owners have been renovating once-crumbling ruins, but offseason, Monemvassia is nearly deserted. A collection of three centuries-old buildings has been converted into the comfortable and atmospheric Hotel Malvasia, one of the Peloponesse’s first boutique hotels. An unprecedented air of sophistication has recently arrived at the beautifully converted 13th-century mansion in the nearby hills above the sea—it is now the surpremely comfortable Kinsterna Hotel, where an opulent swimming pool is fed by an underground stream, and Ottoman-inspired lavender and rose scrubs are offered in the stylish spa.

  Agia Sofia is one of dozens of this peninsula’s churches.

  WHERE: 217 miles/350 km south of Athens. HOTEL MALVASIA: Tel 30/27320-63007; www.malvasia-hotel.gr. Cost: from $125. KINSTERNA HOTEL: Tel 30/27320-66300; www.kinsternahotel.gr. Cost: from $260 (off-peak), from $370 (peak). BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct for fine weather and fewer crowds; 5 days around Jul 23 to celebrate liberation from the Turks.

  Ancient Wonders Surround the Prettiest Town in the Peloponnese

  NAFPLION AND NEARBY CLASSICAL SITES

  Peloponnese, Greece

  Nafplion is tucked onto a peninsula jutting into the Bay of Argos and backed by a range of imposing mountains on the mainland Peloponnese. This beautiful and well-preserved city offers such simple pleasures as long walks along a seaside promenade where the miniature 15th-century Bourtzi island fortress looms offshore, and lingering in any of the cafés lining Syntagma (Constitution) Square. Allot at least a morning at the Peloponnesian Folklore museum and its rich collection of traditional Greek costumes. But it is the town’s proximity to some of the most evocative remains of ancient Greece that sets it apart.

  The perfectly preserved theater at Epidaurus, 25 miles east, retains the original stage of beaten earth and 54 tiers of seats that accommodate 14,000, just as when the theater was built in the 4th century B.C. The theater is an architectural wonder famous for its near-perfect acoustics and the perfect venue for the classics of Sophocles and Euripides and musical concerts held here during the summertime Athens and Epidaurus Festival.

  The oldest city on the Greek mainland (Knossos in Crete is older; see p. 160), Mycenae is located on a rocky hillside 12 miles north of Nafplion. It was the center of the Mycenaean civilization, which dominated the Mediterranean world from 1500 to 1100 B.C., and was the realm of the powerful King Agamemnon. Gold death masks and other treasures unearthed since the mid-19th century can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (see p. 158), though there are copies on view in the new Mycenae Archaeological Museum. You can continue 35 miles north of Nafplion to ancient Corinth, which once rivaled Athens in wealth and power. The landmark Temple of Apollo was constructed at the city’s height, in 550 B.C.; seven of the original 38 Doric columns still stand.

  Make your home the family-run Aetoma boutique hotel, an 18th-century mansion full of family heirlooms on one of Nafplion’s quiet squares. The same warm atmosphere envelops Paleo Archontika, serving traditional cooking in a stone-walled room and at tables on a narrow Old Town street. The Nafplia Palace, built in the 1970s on a cliff high above the Old Town, provides the most luxurious lodgings in town—its newer, handsome villas have private terraces and pools that look out on astounding views. At the Amphitryon, a sister property just below, chic rooms overlook the sea from contemporary teak-floored decks.

  The Mycenae Archaeological Museum holds frescoes and other artifacts that illustrate daily life in ancient times.

  WHERE: 85 miles/136 km southwest of Athens. FESTIVAL INFO: Contact Hellenic Festivals, tel 30/210-928-2900; www.greekfestival.gr. When: weekends Jun–Aug. HOTEL AETOMA: Tel 30/27250-27373; www.nafplionhotel.com. Cost: from $160. PALEO ARCHONTIKA: Tel 30/27520-22449. Cost: lunch $20. NAFPLIA PALACE AND AMPHITRYON: Tel 30/27520-70700; www.helioshotels.gr. Cost: from $315; villas from $600. BEST TIMES: May–Jun and Sep–Oct to explore ruins but avoid summer heat; Jun for Nafplion Music Festival.

  Monasteries Suspended Between Heaven and Earth

  METÉORA

  Thessaly, Greece

  Perched on seemingly inaccessible pinnacles of rock 1,000 feet above the flat Piniós Valley, the six remaining monasteries of Metéora are as removed from earthly distractions as possible. Metéora means, literally, “in midair,” and there are more than 60 pinnacles, looking like chimney-top storks’ nests. The spikes, cones, and cliffs of this rock-forest landscape were created by thrusts of the seafloor and were then etched by the elements over the ages into curious and otherworldly shapes.

  Hermit monks began living in caves in the rocks in the 9th century. As Turks took over the mainland, the monks discovered that the inaccessible pinnacles were safe refuges and by the 16th century had built 24 monasteries and hermitages, every stone or piece of lumber being hoisted up by ropes and pulleys. Until the 1920s, the only way for monks or visitors to reach them was by retractable ladders or nets. Since then steps to the monasteries have been hewn into the rocks, and some are now accessible by paths and roads as well.

  Unlike the male-only domain of Mount Athos (see p. 167), the Metéora monasteries are open to all visitors for daytime (but not overnight) visits. On an energetic day you can visit all six, though most pilgrims settle for two or three. Within their hallowed walls are spartan living quarters, contrasted by churches decorated with frescoes and icons and libraries filled with ancient books and manuscripts. Megálou Meteórou is the grandest and the highest and possibly the oldest, having held sway over the area since it was built of massive rocks on the highest peak (1,360 feet) in the 14th century. Agia Triada may hold claim to the most spectacular position. All the monasteries are worth visiting for the religious artworks collected over the centuries, the views, and the chance to experience some of the most peculiar real estate on the planet. You are also likely to enjoy pleasant encounters with the few monks and nuns who continue to live in these unique surroundings.

  Roussanou Monastery is surrounded by rocks of ever-higher elevations.

  WHERE: 220 miles/356 km northwest of Athens. WHERE TO STAY: The new and stylish Dellas Hotel is near Kalambaka on the way to Metéora. Tel 30/24320-78260; www.dellasboutiquehotel.com. Cost: from $90. BEST TIMES: The feast days of the patron saints of the various monasteries: Agia Triada, Jun 2; Agios Stefanos, last Sun of Aug; Agia Varvara, Dec 4; Agios Nikolaos, Dec 6.

  Byzantine Wonders on Aphrodite’s Island

  CYPRUS’S PAINTED CHURCHES

  Troodos Mountains, Cyprus

  Cyprus is a land divided, historically between Greece and Turkey and these days also between crowded beach resorts and quieter, off-the-beaten-path places in its interior. Get away to the pine-scented Troodos mountain range, stretching across the Greek-controlled southwest corner of the island and largely preserved as a national park. Above se
aside Lemosos and on the eastern flank of 6,500-foot Mt. Olympus, you’ll also find ten magnificent medieval churches and monasteries, whose modest exteriors stand in contrast to their rich interiors, embellished with some of the finest Byzantine frescoes and icons in the Mediterranean.

  At the ornate 11th-century Kykkos Monastery, even the cloisters are richly frescoed and a golden icon of the Virgin ascribed to St. Luke is said to work miracles. Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis (St. Nicholas of the Roof) is covered entirely in wall paintings.

  The monks who lived here were not only gifted artists but also master vintners, following a 5,500-year-old wine-making tradition in Cyprus. Stop at Chrysorrogiatissa Monastery for a visit to the region’s oldest wine-making site. The dark amber–colored Commandaria, a sweet wine that was a favorite elixir of medieval crusaders, is thought to be the world’s oldest appellation and is made from centuries-old vines in the Troodos foothills. For something with a little more kick, stop in any village bar for a glass of zivania, a centuries-old Cypriot beverage produced from the residue of grapes. With a 45 percent (and up) alcohol content, it is also used to treat wounds and sore throats.

  It is only fitting that Cyprus is so well entrenched in the sensual arts, being the birthplace of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty and protectress of the island. She allegedly arose from sea foam at Paphos, on the southwestern coast where the massive Rock of Aphrodite marks the spot and where a temple was built in her honor. Among the many antiquities in and around Paphos connected with the goddess and her cult is a wealth of colorful mosaics—including a rich cycle from the villa of a Roman nobleman, depicting the wine god Dionysus.

  WHERE: Most of the monasteries and churches are within a 25 mile/40 km radius of Lemosos, in southwest Cyprus. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun, when heat is not yet intense and wildflowers are in bloom; Jul–Aug for International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama in Paphos.

  Whimsical Trulli and Golden Beaches

  ALBEROBELLO AND THE SALENTO PENINSULA

  Apulia, Italy

  In Alberobello, a town with a peculiar charm, the zona monumentale of whitewashed, conical roofed houses known as trulli takes visitors inside a child’s storybook—imagine Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as interpreted by Tolkien. There are as many as 1,500 of these unique beehive structures in Alberobello and the surrounding Valle d’Itria, where they crop up in clusters like mushrooms.

  The unique, rather eerie trulli have primitive shapes and mysterious rooftop decorations that give the impression that they are ancient, when in fact most date to the 18th century. Today the trulli are used as homes, stores, storage space—even the church of Sant’Antonio is in the form of a trullo. If you fancy eating in an 18th-century barn, the region’s most elegant restaurant is II Poeta Contadino, offering one of the area’s best renditions of the simple cucina pugliese. Among the other charms of Apulia, on the heel of the Italian “boot,” are unspoiled sunny landscapes, golden sands, and lavish Baroque monuments.

  Fortified farmhouses called masseri are also unique to the region. Just east of Alberobello, two have been converted to comfortable hotels: Whitewashed Masseria San Domenico is one of the south’s finest resorts, with a golf course, private beach, spa, and highly acclaimed restaurant, while Masseria Il Frantoio provides a more rustic charm, with rooms overlooking olive groves and meals made from the bounty of the working farm enjoyed alfresco.

  In the heart of the Salento Peninsula, Lecce is a whimsical place: A sun-drenched theater set, it is known as the Florence of the South, where Baroque palazzos and churches are ornately carved in golden stone. Every inch of the façade of the Basilica di Santa Croce swirls with saints, demons, and imaginary creatures. If you stay at the Patria Palace Hotel, the basilica will be just out the front door. You’ll also be close to Trattoria Cucina Casereccia (aka Le Zie, “the aunts”), which serves homemade pastas and other dishes deceptively known as cucina povera, poor man’s cooking, in a no-frills, old-fashioned setting.

  The cone-shaped trulli, still inhabited today, are found nowhere else in the world.

  WHERE: 37 miles/60 km southeast of Bari. IL POETA CONTADINO: Tel 39/080-432-1917; www.ilpoetacontadino.it. Cost: dinner $50. MASSERIA SAN DOMENICO: Tel 39/080-482-7769; www.masseriasandomenico.com. Cost: from $500 (off-peak), from $700 (peak). When: closed mid-Jan–Mar. MASSERIA IL FRANTOIO: Tel 39/0831-330276; www.masseriailfrantoio.it. Cost: $200 (off-peak), $315 (peak). HOTEL PATRIA PALACE: Tel 39/0832-245111; www.patriapalacelecce.com. Cost: $190. TRATTORIA CUCINA CASERECCIA: Tel 39/0832-245-178; www.lezie.it. Cost: dinner $25. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–early Oct for nicest weather; in Lecce: mid-Jul for Jazz in Puglia festival; late Aug for Fiera di Sant’ Oronzo, celebrating the city’s patron saint.

  A City Carved Out of Stone

  THE SASSI OF MATERA

  Matera, Basilicata, Italy

  Walking through Matera, one of the oldest inhabited cities on earth, is like stepping back into the primitive past. Some of the cave houses (or sassi, Italian for “stones”) etched out of the soft tufa walls of a ravine have been inhabited for the past 9,000 years. The jumble of houses and churches are so evocative of biblical times that the town has served as a backdrop for dozens of movies including Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 classic The Gospel According to St. Matthew and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

  Families and their livestock once lived in the single-room caverns, while other caves were churches where the rock walls have been covered with frescoes. Some of these chiese rupestri (rock churches), such as the Crypt of Original Sin, are found outside the city center. Here, the crypt is so elaborately covered with images of colorful saints that it is known as the Sistine Chapel of cave churches.

  In the 1950s, the Italian government moved some 20,000 impoverished cave dwellers to accommodations in the modern town. Since the 1970s, the sassi have slowly been reclaimed, used as homes, hotels, and restaurants.

  Travelers can now bed down in stylishly refurbished caves at the Locanda di San Martino, where amenities include a swimming pool and thermal baths fashioned out of subterranean cisterns. At the Sassi di Matera Albergo Diffuso, caves are much the same way entrepreneur Daniele Kihlgren found them, with rough stone flooring and pitted walls chiseled by shepherds millennia ago; the sparse, simple furnishings are authentic and include vintage wrought-iron beds. Le Botteghe is one of many Matera restaurants that focus on the simple, distinctive flavors of the hilly, sparsely populated Basilicata region. Great antipasti, pasta with fried peppers and bread crumbs, delicious full-flavored cheeses, and crusty bread make for simple meals you won’t forget.

  WHERE: 124 miles/199 km southeast of Naples. LOCANDA DI SAN MARTINO: Tel 39/0835-256600; www.locandadisanmartino.it. Cost: from $135. SASSI DI MATERA ALBERGO DIFFUSO: Tel 39/0835-332744; www.sassidimatera.com. Cost: from $295. LE BOTTEGHE: Tel 39/0835-344072; www.hotelamatera.it. Cost: dinner $45. BEST TIME: Jul 2 for Festa per la Madonna della Bruna (Festival of the Brown Madonna), when an elaborately decorated cart is paraded through the streets, then torn to shreds, representing destroying the old to usher in the new.

  La Dolce Vita and Italy’s Dream Drive

  THE AMALFI COAST

  Campania, Italy

  The vertiginous Amalfi Drive is a 30-mile stretch of hairpin curves that unfurls between Amalfi and Sorrento. Cliffs plunge into an impossibly blue Mediterranean, as a coastline of seaside towns and some of Italy’s most precipitously-sited and glamorous retreats unfold among terraced olive and lemon groves and umbrella pines.

  Tiny, picturesque Amalfi was the heart of a powerful maritime republic as early as the 9th century. A hint of the east shows up in its Duomo di Sant’Andrea: Mosaics adorn the cathedral’s façade and the Moorish cloister suggests an Arabian courtyard. Some of that magic permeates the informally luxurious and character-filled Hotel Santa Caterina, tucked high above the coast in lemon-scented gardens; an elevator descends to a seaside swimming platform and the thatch-roofed Ristorante al Mare.

  Ravello, perched 1,100 f
eet above Amalfi, is aptly described as “the place where poets go to die.” Two romantic gardens—the Villa Rufolo and the Villa Cimbrone—are a stroll away from the 12th-century Moorish-inspired Palazzo Sasso hotel. You can get lost in the limitless views of the cerulean sea and sky from the balconies and floor-to-ceiling windows of the beautifully appointed guest rooms. The wraparound views from the infinity pool of the nearby Hotel Caruso make it appear to float above the sea from the highest point in town and are reason enough to make this your home. For the best trattoria fare in town, follow the aroma of simmering tomato sauce and roast lamb to Cumpà Cosimo for delicious, full-flavored Neapolitan cooking and local white wines.

  Cliffside Positano is a jumble of converted whitewashed and colored fishermen’s houses that spill down a maze of narrow alleyways to the pebbly umbrella-lined beach. The Hotel le Sirenuse, a Pompeiian-red 18th-century villa draped in bougainvillea and honeysuckle, is operated by the same aristocratic family whose summer retreat this once was. Floors are paved in cool, hand-painted tiles, and a mingling of precious antiques enhances the hotel’s personal elegance. Or travel just minutes out of town to the Hotel San Pietro, carved dramatically into a precipitous cliff. An elevator cut into solid rock descends to the airy lobby, terraced guest rooms, and the vest-pocket-size beach for guests. For a more affordable stay, few places have the views and charms of the family-run Casa Albertina.