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| Fourth Century Church of Panagia Drosiani, Naxos |
We made our arrangements for both (as well as for our airport drop off on our final day). with the Zas tourist agency, which had a couple of offices along the Chora waterfront. We hired both a driver and a guide, and woman named Mina, for our tour of the island. I would say that our tour guide was OK, but only OK. She seemed to know what she was talking about, and she was animated with a deep pride in her island. She was a bit repetitive, and she had plainly her own ideas about what we should see. She was I think a bit taken aback by the fact that I had prepared for our visit by researching the possible sights of Naxos, as well as by the extent of my knowledge about ancient Greece. She was somewhat willing to take direction to head to some of the sights about which I had read on preparation for our trip. Not enough direction, perhaps.
On the way out of and back to Chora, we passed these terraced hillsides
with a view of the village of Sangri
and ruined windmills
before reaching my first goal for the trip the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, a hilltop site dating from the 8th Century BC. Mina remarked how sensible it was that a temple to the goddess of fertility should be located in such a fertile valley. As we approached, she talked about Naxos' major cash crops, including olives (and we saw many olive orchards), lemons and potatoes (we saw one potato field and no lemon orchards).
Walking toward the actual ruins, we passed enormous bushes of herbs such as thyme and rosemary
On the site were the temple to Demeter, on the left below, and a small Christian church
The ruins of the temple, built in about 530 BC, have been partly restored
This is one of two pits that were used for offerings to the goddess of fertility
I had wanted to visit the museum on the site; Mina told me that it was closed, but I could not help wondering whether taking time to see the museum did not comport with her sense of what was important enough to take our limited time on the tour. Similarly, our guide told us that the Dionysian Sanctuary at Iria could not be visited within the time frame for our road tour. Given that it is only a couple of miles from Chora, I wondered about how accurate that claim was. Toward the end of the tour, the actual story became apparent: she was booked for a second tour that same day, and plainly she did not want to risk missing that second appointment. She said that the normal policy of the touring company for which she works to extend trips for an hour or so as the clients might need, to see more sights, but that this would not be possible today. I am not sure the children could have handled another hour in the car, considering that it was approaching their nap time by the time we were finished with lunch, but I was disappointed with this lack of flexibility
From this ruin, our next objective was the Byzantine Church of Panagia Drosiani
Along the way, we passed this road sign which noted destinations not in numbers of miles or numbers of kilometers, but the estimated numbers of minutes to the destinations
We passed Moni here
We passed a church that had a number of pennants flying; Mina explained that some churches are opened only once each year, on the saint’s day for the saint after which the church is named. The pennants were hung in celebration of this church’s opening day.
We reached the Panagia Drosiani, a Byzantine church whose origins date to the 4th century AD; Mina said it was the oldest Christian Church oldest in the Balkans (although, literally, Greece is part of the Balkan Peninsula, I confess I had never thought of Greece as being a Balkan country)
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Mina explained that the cemetery outside the church serves as only temporary cemetery for the village of Moni; the bodies will be moved eventually to make room for the newly deceased
Stepping inside, this chart illustrated the older and newer sections of the building
On the exterior, the bell towers represented the later parts
These icons decorated the inside
And these frescoes from the 7th and 8th centuries were on the walls and the dome
Mina said that some of the figures in the frescoes had their eyes scratched out by the Ottomans after their conquest of the island
now used to store icons still in need of repair
Mina explained that the blue and white color scheme for most of the houses on Naxos represented the blue of the water and sky, combined with white representing purity
On a hilltop in the distance, with a road leading up to it, was the church of Agios Elias
We stopped for lunch in Apeiranthos, a village where the buildings, sidewalks and and even the stairways were built of Naxian marble
We had lunch in Taverna Platanos, with a dining area overlooking valley
Mina took us to a very nice restaurant. Our dishes included rosto, a pork chop stuffed with garlic, rosemary, in tomato and wine sauce; rooster chops, a salad with ksinotyro, a local cheese, beef stew with eggplant and cheese atop, sausage saganaki and grilled local sausage.
In the local language, the name of village is Aparenthou – here is the primary school bearing that name
Mina did not mention the many reasons besides lunch to visit Apeiranthos – the four museums, the two fortified Venetian mansions, and the archeological museum – they were not on our tour, and I guess she did not want to disappoint us.
As we drove back from lunch, we could see Chora in distance, with the Kastro atop
Visible above in the distance on the left is the island of Paros, where we would be stopping the following day on the way to and from Delos
As we were dropped off, I took a closer look at the playground area of the high school right near our apartment
For dinner, we walked through the narrow lanes of Chora
to find Typografio Restaurant
It has a lovely setting at the foot of the Kastro
Abe said he would like to meet the chef; so Sam had a nice chat with the chef while we waited for our dinner; apparently, the chef was tickled that we expressed an interest in meeting him (and, at 6 PM, it was really before the main dinner hour)
Our meal was, once again, truly excellent. One appetizer was a cheese ball made with a local soft cheese (Xinomyzithra), with seed crust and drizzled with a sauce made of caramelized figs;
(it was the most popular appetizer judging by trays going by us)
and a rocket salad with flakes of aged local goat cheese (flaky like romano).
Restaurants commonly listed rocket salads on their menus, featuring that along with other green leaves, but this one was really a rocket salad for a change: most of the leaves were arugula); it was drizzled with had a strawberry vinaigrette
Our mains included pulled pork set over baked Naxian potatoes
lamb shank with wild greens
My choice was tuna with wild greens and fava puree and lemon/olive oil herb sauce
while Nancy had a vegetarian moussaka, made with grilled zucchini, eggplant and tomato, along with organic buckwheat and that same Xinomyzithra
The “kids meal” was chicken fillet with Naxian gruyere sauce and risotto – unusually delicious as well, could easily have been for the adults.
The house red was genuinely good; but for a change, no “treat” was offered after the meal. So, instead, on the way back from dinner, we stopped at the “Waffle House” to let the children have ice cream as a treat to end a very nice day together. This place featured waffle cones whose manufacture continues throughout the evening, and a large variety of homemade ice creams.
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