ocean-pilgrim

I’m starting a shorter series here where I highlight places to showcase what we have loved about them.

Last year we visited the town of Old Epidavros a few times and took a few short visits ashore.  It’s a lovely town full of waterfront taverna’s, charming traditional bakeries, cats (of course) and a beautiful church overlooking the town and the harbour.

It’d be easy, if just visiting overnight to think that’s all there is.  High on the hill, 10 kilometres from town is an ancient amphitheatre built in 400BC with capacity for 14000 people.  It’s part of the Asclepieion which was built on the remains of an earlier temple to a Goddess in the Mycenian era. It became the biggest sacred healing centre of the Greek Classical period named after Asclepius who was the son of Apollo. Music along with prophetic dreams were part of the science of ancient medicine practised here. Today there is a summer festival where they perform Greek tragedies and have musical performances continuing traditions started aeons ago. 

We haven’t managed to visit here yet as a 20 k walk was a bit much given most is straight uphill, but we did find Epidavros’s second, smaller theatre and the ruins of another smaller healing sanctuary. They also hold summertime performances here.  This one is just a fantastic stroll from town dinghy dock through the orange and olive groves. I walked through them enveloped by the scent of orange blossom in the late afternoon sun. The olive trees were ancient and covered in blossom and tiny olives, pollen floating on the gentle breeze.  The amphitheatre sits on a headland but faces inward towards the town.

Above it on the hilltop are the remains of the ancient acropolis and a newer edition of a small chapel to Mary. As I opened the door (it’s rare that churches are locked here) and entered I could immediately smell the earthiness of incense and see the still burning taper candles. It was as if the priest had just left.

The acropolis has largely gone, perhaps the stones have been repurposed into more modern buildings or toppled by earthquakes over the centuries. The citadel walls remain and standing on them gives a fabulous view over the whole region.

I dragged Rick back the following day and we walked further down the beach to the sunken villa.  It’s situated just offshore, again probably sliding under the surface after an earthquake. You can snorkel over it and look down upon huge amphora, most broken off at the top but still sitting in what is the remains of the villa walls.  It’s quite extraordinary really. It seemed as if a few of the giant amphora and urns had ended up in peoples private gardens too!

We strolled back through fields and fields of ripe oranges, the road twisting and winding around them and along the beach and the rocky headlands to a chapel on the rocks overlooking the sea. I can never resist poking my nose inside. 

Modern elegant villas were tucked away behind fences covered with bougainvillea and night jasmine. There’s something incredibly abundant about this area and we found ourselves wandering through grove after grove, eating oranges as we went and foraging wild thyme, rosemary, lemons and oranges.

We happened to be here over Orthodox Easter. On the Saturday night at midnight we watched the fireworks from the boat and enjoyed the local customs of sending paper lanterns skyward and lighting candles at the church to take home to their hearths, blessing the home.

On Sunday we loved hearing large family groups enjoying their traditional lunch (of lamb on a spit) repeated over and over as we walked. It was tantalising hearing raucous laughter and excited shouting coming from some of these gatherings without being able to see them as they were obscured by olive trees, oranges and abundant night jasmine plants. We occasionally got glimpses of trestle tables lined up, covered with flowers and many people sitting in the shade laughing and eating. The taverna on the beach was so busy they barely had room for us but we stopped for a restorative rosé after 10k’s of walking and a few more kilometres ahead of walking to get home to the boat!

It really does feel like an abundant place. I have never seen Olive trees with so many blossoms on them so perhaps Asclepius really did choose wisely when he created his healing sanctuary here and perhaps that energy lives on to today.