Ioannina (Yanina)

This part of Greece is lesser visited by Americans, but it's quite interesting. It was part of the Ottoman empire for centuries and this region of Epirus is the home of Pyrrhus, the namesake general king who "won" against the Romans but lost most of his army doing so, giving us the term "Pyrrhic victory ."

But it is a religious holiday weekend in August and there is no shortage of Greek, Albanian, and Italian tourists around. Italy is a short drive and ferry ride away. We stopped in Metsovo on the way on a Friday. It was described in our guidebook as a hidden gem. But today, it was a mess of cars, tourist buses, and pedestrians in a tiny mountain village with narrow cobblestone streets. After trying to find parking for a half hour, we just left town. Maybe we'll hit it on the way back.

A short while later, we checked into a hotel with parking in Ionnina, a decent sized college town and the capital of Epirus. It's on a large lake and there's an old Ottoman castle at the end of a peninsula. It's about 100F every day now, so a walk through the Kastro, a museum visit, and Cafe sitting just about did us in.

After some aircon therapy at our hotel, we were out and about at 7:30 pm or so. What a difference. The place seemed deserted in the mid afternoon heat but came alive after sunset with hundreds of families out walking, eating and drinking at the plentiful cafes along the lake and outside of the castle walls.

We opted for a place that specialized in the baked smoked Manouri cheese from nearby Metsovo. Wow. That was like crack and we're having it again! And again... It's even better than the flaming saganaki cheese back home. We also got a huge portion of Pork Souvlaki that could have fed 4.

In general, I'd say the food here is twice as good, twice the portion size and half the price as similar restaurants in the states. House wine is exceptionally good and a great value.

We went out again on Saturday night and the city was hopping near the Kastro (castle district). I just looked it up and Ioannina is about a third the size of Madison, Wisconsin. But there are dozens and dozens of restaurants in this area and most are doing a great business. We found one in an alley and had amazing trout and baked smoked cheese with white wine.

We had to stroll after that, which is popular and got delightfully lost within the Kastro walls. There are a lot of houses within the old castle, museums in the center, and businesses on the edge. No streets are straight. We found our way out of the Byzantine maze and made it back home. It was still in the 80s (upper 20s C) at 10 pm .

After booking another night at the hotel, we set out for our last day of sightseeing with a visit to the the Silversmithing museum. It was a well presented museum that explained how silver is melted and purified and then made into ingots, then wire, then into filigree or into other objects.

It's been dry and hot for weeks here, so it was a surprise when we got hours of rain and hail in the afternoon. Fortunately, we were home but then missed a boat ride across Lake Pamvotis to the small island where the tyrant Ali Pasha had a house. It's now a museum. He ran this area with an iron fist in the early 1800's for the Ottomans, but got too big for his britches and was assassinated by them. His head was later delivered to the Sultan in Istanbul.

Even though we missed all that, we loved seeing this part of Greece that we knew nothing about. We'll try Metsovo again tomorrow on the way to Kastoria in the north, not far from the Albanian border.

More photos and videos are here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HKaJNDiqadA8WQra7Читать далее