Greece . The Peloponnese by bicycle

Bike tour of the Mani , of the Peloponnese and part of mainland Greece with Paolo Giopp.
In pure bike packing style we started from Athens , under the mythical acropolis dominated by the Parthenon,. The wheels then took us to Corinth and its incredible canal , then Epidaurus with its beautifully preserved theater then Monemvasia , Sparta , the Mani up to the lighthouse of Tennaro at cape Matapan the southernmost part of mainland Greece, then Olympia , Delphi , Thebes , cape Sounion with its temple dedicated to Poseidon and also dear to Lord Byron , to return after 1,500 kilometers and 18,000 meters of elevation gain to the Greek capital .

I love Greece I love its sea with those transparent Waters and its coasts with a Barren appearance sculpted by the Summer Wind the meltemi which when it blows dries up the Soil I love those houses which seem to be glued to the rocks and where you notice very white walls interrupted by the blue color of the roofs I love its food because it is made with simple and poor ingredients I also love its white wine which when you taste it the first time

Offends the pallet with that resinous taste I’m always fascinated in the presence of those monasteries that from epas to mount AOS the Greeks have built in the most inaccessible places as if to meditate was really indispensable to get away from the world I love the people of Greece who

Always joking with a smile remind you that I also love the history of Greece the history of Athens of Sparta and thieves wandering through the streets of this country one finds everywhere the evidence of a culture over 3,000 years old temples statues necropolises and stones are the remains of CI that

Disappeared centuries ago these are the vestages of a culture that has profoundly influenced the May nostrom wherever you rest your gaze you will Sprout something in the worst case a column with a Doric Capital but all this makes it difficult to bike around Greece if you mark with pencil on a

Paper the beautiful thing not to be missed when you then join the dots as in that game you played as a child what results is not a drawing but a set of meaningless lines difficult to follow unless you stay here for a year do you think it is enough to make a

Selection it is certainly not easy I have tried and in the end what follows is the following is the tale of a journey a pot Puri of History culture Gastronomy and entertainment and where could we start if not from the Acropolis of Athens that magical place where having passed

Through the Gateway you are catapulted back 25 Centuries on the hill of the Acropolis the Temple of the ereon presents one of the most beautiful ionic colonades in all Greece and at its back six koted support with their heads without apparent effort the roof of the loera but above all the Acropolis is the Parthenon perhaps the most famous

Monument in all of Greece a masterpiece in perfect Doric style that is towered over the city for 2,500 years a design by fidus and Tinus and calres carved the 92 mops that adorned the temple freeze which has miraculously survived Devastation over the centuries it was originally the Temple of Athens

Then it was a church then a mosque and finally an explosives Depot for the Turkish Army unfortunately it is useless today to look for the metopes they were taken away by the British and today are on display in the British museum the Acropolis the night before departure explodes in a Triumph of light

Hopefully we will see it again in a few weeks at the start Paul puts the cork of a famous local beer on the fork while I put the cork of my favorite Greek wine the red Cena and on a frosty spring morning with temperatures below zero and the unusual

Sight of snow whitening The Hills near Athens We Begin our 1 500 km long cakei along the roads of the pelones the first stop is the Corinth canal which connects the Gulf of Thessaloniki to the aian Sea the canal project was in ancient times an idea of Emperor nuron who also began excavations

But however the cut was not completed until the late 19th century from the bridge that disappears underwater placed at the end of the canal the work does not look like a great thing but certainly seen from above the effect is Impressive today’s destination is about 30 kilm from Corinth where we stopped for the night a colorful Greek Sunrise greets us before directing the wheels of the bicycles Westward moving some 20 km away from the coast that is the distance that separates us from the entrance to the ancient theater of

Epidor in this magical place where perfect Acoustics allowed that from the center of the stage the sound of the fall of a coin could be heard all the way up the last steps 14 ,000 Spectators were seated and to this day plays are still performed here with the most

Important actors of Greek tragedies and Shakespeare’s friends Romans countrymen I come to Bar are not to prising the noble Brutus told Caesar was ambitious and Brutus is a h men so are they all all Honorable [Applause] Men as some theatrical careers last a blink of an eye and are nipped in the bud we then resume pedaling on gravel roads and invariably we get lost but GPS is not an invention of the devil and diverting a little here a little there

We arrive in the evening at NAA a tiny village with fishing in its DNA although looking carefully along the embankment of the port the presence of the Falcone malt an 88 M yacht occupying almost the entire Pier suggests that tourism has now taken over from fishing however snow in Greece and

Spring for me remains something Unthinkable this weather that has not yet taken off the clothes of the winter accompanies us along the road that leads to The High Ground of the ancient city of myi always looking for gravel roads we travel surrounded by long plantations of olive trees that alternate with

Plantations from oranges those oranges that picked at the side of the road still retain a Mediterranean scent that here seems even more intense than elsewhere oranges and snow on paper impossible marriage and yet this year it goes like this the story of ancient meini is a curious one indeed it was the

Amateur archaeologist Eric schleman who brought it at least partially to light schleman had long been known because fascinated by amero’s Tales he found the remains of ancient Troy a few years earlier and here he also recovered a treasure of gold objects which he attributed with much imagination to Old

King PRI what happened to much of the treasure is unclear however schleman not satisfied with success on Turkish soil also set out to dig in Greece and Unearthed the remains of ancient m and along with the remains he also found a long series of tombs the most impressive

One of all he thought he could attribute it without delay to King Agamemnon and the gold death mask found inside the tomb according to schleman was also the face of the Ancient King although many experts firmly doubt that the mask is an authentic artifact however the remains

Of the ancient city which is accessed through the gate of the two lions so named because of the decoration consisting of two lions arranged symmetrically on the entrance gate are truly impressive showing cyclonic stone walls traversed by long defensive paths along the walls overlooking a hill from the hill turning our gaze

There is a spectacular 360° view leaving the Lion’s gate we will have to retrace Southward the entire Valley until we reach the Sea and the village of Tios in the evening in the meantime the intense cold continues to freeze our hands and as spring is slow

To warm the air we can count ourselves lucky to find a guest house for the night night in freezing temperatures and in unheated and minimal accommodation but in the morning we can enjoy the luxury of a pleasant Awakening by enjoying a Greek coffee in the room

Before setting off again for a day full of surprises at any rate in the morning the Whimsical Sun of the previous days seemed to have decided to warm our backs a little more I don’t know if I had mentioned it pre previously but Greece despite having

No great relief is anything but flat and in search of little trotten roads we end up getting lost in a maze of little roads full of ups and downs that while Pleasant and little trodden with beautiful views forces to Pedal always pushing then damn it the bright Sun stops heating

Up then comes an intense icy headwind and finally we descend before approaching the sea again passing through Fields where the snow and we are in late spring has not yet disappeared we arrive towards evening at the medeval town of monasia here in summer the tourist presence is

Impressive it may be because of the cold the wind or the snow but the war leading up to the medieval Fortress is totally deserted as is deserted the access to the walls and the streets of the city where if it were possible to find an open place we would gladly order a hot

Punch instead of the classic ice cold beer but I repeat this climate is not of grease that I know it is almost warm on the way to Sparta perhaps spring has finally awakened we will see in the coming days a small Crossroads brings us with our wheels looking toward the ruins of what

Was once the legendary City and immediately the words of fuses come to mind if the city of the lonians remained deserted and only the temples and foundations of the buildings remained I think that after a long time posterity would not believe that the Spartan power was adequate to its Fame of the ancient

City and its Glory already from time immemorial nothing remains not even the theater has been saved a bucolic Journey takes us back to the Sea near the beach of glyfa here the wreck of the ship diosi seems to act as a gateway to the region of

Mani it is a ship about which mysterious stories have always hovered giving it a Sinister Appearance we arrive in the evening in the Tiny Village of scutari a church two houses and a small restaurant the weather is finally nice and clear but Greece’s weather forecast for tomorrow guarantees rain and thunderstorms and interestingly enough the weather forecast is for once accurate in Greece this is a rare event

The exploration of the Mani is therefore postponed for one day for those who have never been there the Mani is the most beautiful part to visit in the peloponese but if you do it by bicycle keep in mind that in the Mani there is not an inch of Flat Road it is either

All uphill or it is all downhill which puts a strain on your legs and tends to make your blood sugar plummet quickly in addition classic Greek taverns are scarce in this area so it’s it’s better not to linger too long before refresh yourself even to taste the Fantastic Greek wine the Rinaa the intense sense of Mediterranean vegetation accompany us to the southern end of the Mani it is here that for the Greeks hid the gateway to Hades and here we take a beautiful walk along the trail that leads to Cape matapan the extreme part of Mainland Greece the cape

Was feared by the Ancients because in the presence of the meltemi ships could not sail up the wind this meant being Shipwrecked on the coast of Africa but for us Italians too Cape matam evokes sad memories on the night of March 29th 1941 the British military Fleet collided

With the Italian Fleet they sank three of our Cruisers the fume the POA and the Zara and two destroyers the Alfieri and the kuchi which now lie somewhere off the cape at a depth of 4,000 M it takes a few more ups and downs to get out of

The peninsula of the Mani that ends after the almost completely abandoned houses of the village of vti the last few days have been intense with significant elevation changes and the legs require some care and attention with gymnastics and stretching foree spee Foree Foree H What leaving the money Peninsula the road becomes less nervous always alternating climbs and descents but easier and the views of the Panorama remain Spectacular the wheels Now take us toward the legendary site of Olympia the site of the ancient Olympic Games we leave dense vegetation on the right that hides the Waters of the river anteus famous because Heracles in his fifth effort diverted the course of the river and used its Waters to clean AIA Stables

By sweeping away all the manure the legend does not say whether Heracles put the riverbed back where it belonged I think not because given the Lush vegetation I think some of the manure is still lying around along the river banks to understand how important the Olympics were just think that for the ancient

Greeks the year zero corresponded to the year of the first Olympic Games on 776 BC for more than a thousand years this this place was held sacred during the Olympia’s Wars lawsuits and even death sentences were suspended there were 100 bulls that were sacrificed to Zeus on the first day in

The Temple dedicated to him past the arch leading to the track where 45,000 Spectators were seated the competitions began initially it was only running Barefoot starting from that marble line that served as the starting block at the sound of a trumpet the athletes would Sprint the length of the track which was

192 M and 27 CM 600 times the length of the foot of the god Heracles from which it is understood that the size of Heracles his foot was 14.5 then over the centuries wrestling Boxing Javelin and throwing and finally horse racing were added to the winner awaited only Glory a laurel wreath and

The right to put his statue in the enclosure of the sanctuary of Zeus this place breathes an area of Legends of epic Feats like that of Malone the wrestler Who won six times he brought from home on his shoulders the statue that portrayed him to put it in the

Enclosure dedicated to the winners never again did anyone win the Olympic six times neither then nor Nowto People who ride bikes know that the wind always blows in the opposite direction to the direction of travel and the approach to Patra is no exception to this rule where once two fortresses prevented with cannon shots access to the Gulf of C Corinth and the port of Lepanto now stands a bridge connecting

The pelonis with Central Greece the bridge is off limits to bicycles but fortunately fairies have remained active with our Wheels now pointing decidedly East we leave the ancient Port of the city of Lepanto following a coastline where small fishing villages alternate with uninhabited stretches with spectacular views Then at Mount Parnassus which appears in the background Begins the long climb that moving away from the coast takes us to the archaeological site of the delic Oracle embedded among the mountains the history of the Oracle is lost in the centuries while maintaining a central position in helenic Tradition it knows a

Long vicissitude of modifications and remodeling until its Oblivion around the 5th Century ad the Reconstruction of the Athenians Treasury and the remains of the most important Temple the one dedicated to the god Apollo are clearly Visible impressive is the theater where the pythian games precursors to Olympic games were held periodically and a little further down the remains of the Temple of the Goddess Athens from time immemorial anyone could ask for the services of the Oracle upon payment of an offering and provided they knew the Greek language the only language with which the orle grants Responses For it takes 20 km of ascent to overcome the heights of Mount panassus the last relevant obstacle standing between us and the Waters of the aian sea just under 200 km away it would take much less than that to return to Athens but it has been since we left that we plan

To stop at Cape Sunan where there is the Temple dedicated to posidon that stands right on the face of the Sea on the slopes of the Cape of the original 42 columns only 16 have survived the ravages of centuries and the vandals who over the years have enjoyed carving their names on the columns including a certain Lord Byron and yet it is easy to notice that there are 15 columns and not 16 y it was the

Venetians who stole one and placed it inside K foscari after placing above the abacas a lion of St Marco that on the surface looks more like a fluffy kitten in the waters in front of the cape plowed today by Pleasure boats The Story Goes that with an arrow shot by Apollo

Frony the Helmsman of manalus was killed and found his final resting place here the stretch of road that se separates us from the arrival is a pleasant routine but I still have a task to accomplish I have to figure out if Paul has finally converted to grease and its flavors There