Mani

The Mani Peninsula is a wild, mountainous region in the south of the Peloponnese ⛰️. Its people have always been known for their independence: Mani was the only part of Greece never fully conquered by the Ottomans and later played a crucial role in the Greek War of Independence 🇬🇷.

You can clearly feel that history of resistance while driving around. Villages are dotted with stone tower houses, once built as defensive structures. Many are abandoned now, but their silhouettes against the rugged hills are still beautiful 🏰.

At the very tip of Mani lies Cape Tenaro, the southernmost point of mainland Europe and famous in Greek mythology as the gateway to the underworld.

Sadly, we couldn’t explore as much of the peninsula as we’d hoped. Laura came down with a bad case of food poisoning so we swapped Otto for a cozy seaside apartment to recover in 🤒.Read more