The busy week back is almost over, though we don't have the day off on Friday as usual due to make-up classes. Did I mention how much I love my classes in Rome? Wednesday for art, we went to the church of San Clemente, which is multi-layered; we went underneath the current church to see what used to be the original chapel, from the 5th century, and even lower than that, two buildings from the 1st century of the Roman empire. Also today, we had a wine tasting in my literature class, so we were basically just sipping wine and taking notes...oh, the Roman life!
Anyway, allow me to continue with my chronicle of fall break:
Arahova and Delphi (Days 3-4)
We drove in our trusty tour bus for several hours to get from Athens to the deep mountains of Greece, our destination being the small mountainous town of Arahova where we stayed at a hotel which is apparently a popular ski lodge in the wintertime. The mountains were absolutely beautiful, but very cold, which we were not particularly prepared for given it is still summer weather in Rome. We bundled up as best we could and explored the town a little before dinner, stopping in some of the small shops along the way.
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| Arahova, the little mountain town |
Dinner was at a little tavern near the clock tower, which required us to hike up a mountain of stairs to get to! The restaurant was very small, so we Loyolans had the whole place to ourselves. The food was all local and very authentic Greek fare and I think I tried everything (I had really worked up an appetite after all those stairs)! Near the end of the meal, two of our guide Ioanna's Greek friends from a nearby monastery entertained us by playing some traditional Greek music on a mandolin. Our professor demonstrated some Greek dancing for us, to which Ioanna joined in, actually dancing at one point with a full wine carafe on her head! That takes some pretty intense concentration, I would say... Dinner was followed up by a delicious dessert in a nearby local cafe after which we headed home to get some sleep!
We departed for Delphi the next morning, which was a short drive away from our little mountain town. Delphi is a historic site to rival the Roman Forum; it was once thought to be the center of the universe by the Greeks, and was visited by figures such as Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Hadrian. The main attraction of Delphi was the oracle at the Temple of Apollo, which gave out prophesies similar to what you might find in a fortune cookie, but was apparently taken very seriously. We spent plenty of time climbing the mountain and seeing all the places of interest, including:
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| The Stadium |
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| The Amphitheater |
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| The Temple of Apollo (unfortunately there was no oracle to give us a prophecy) |
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| The Treasury of Athens |
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| Look Mom, I climbed a mountain! |
On our way from Delphi we passed by the Gulf of Itea and the world’s largest olive grove, which was basically a sea of olive trees blanketing this huge valley area of the mountains. I have to admit, it's going to be hard to come back to the cornfields of the Midwest after seeing all this! Our next stop was a visit to the monastery where Ioanna's friends who joined us at dinner the previous night were from. The monastery was called Hosios Loukas. It was very beautiful and incredibly serene.
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| The monastery |
Our final stop for the day was Nafplio, a coastal town that was the first capital of Greece. We had just enough time to drop our stuff in our hotel rooms and change for dinner, concluding the day with a laidback stroll around the town. More about Nafplio in my next post!
