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Arts & Lifestyle

At Avignon Festival, Resisting the Far Right

by NewsB
written by NewsB


There are two sides to Tiago Rodrigues, the Portuguese director who has led the Avignon Festival since last year. One — gentle, introspective, given to dissecting intimate human conflicts — has long been evident in his stage productions. That includes “Hecuba, Not Hecuba,” his latest premiere in Avignon, in which a mother fights for justice after her son is mistreated by a state institution.

On the other side, Rodrigues has also turned out to be a combative, politically outspoken leader for the French festival, a marquee event on the international theater calendar. Tension is running high in France since the far-right National Rally party came out ahead in the first round of snap parliamentary elections last weekend, and Rodrigues’s response was forceful: Avignon, he told the broadcaster France Info, would become a “festival of resistance.”

On Thursday, Rodrigues pulled together a last-minute night of programming aimed at “mobilizing against the far right” ahead of the second round of voting this Sunday. After a performance of Angélica Liddell’s “Dämon: El Funeral de Bergman,” the Cour d’Honneur, Avignon’s biggest stage, was given over to willing artists, politicians and union leaders from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.

The choreographer Boris Charmatz opened the evening with 100 or so dancers who performed a group reinterpretation of “Revolutionary,” a defiant 1922 dance by Isadora Duncan. JoeyStarr, a French rapper, recited a poem by Léon-Gontran Damas.

Despite the late hour, the nearly 2,000 seats were packed, and a roar filled the air when Rodrigues, whose father was an antifascist activist in Portugal, finally appeared onstage. “My name is Tiago Rodrigues, and I work for the Avignon Festival,” he said, modestly. “This is a night of democratic union, of strength and hope.”

Not long before, around midnight, a performance of his “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” had wrapped at the Boulbon quarry, an outdoor venue 10 miles from the city. The mood there was calmer: Before the show, as festivalgoers debated the merits of various artists over drinks, it felt like a regular night out in Avignon.

And the intricate structure of “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” invites a different kind of audience attention. Written by Rodrigues himself for the Paris-based Comédie-Française troupe, it weaves together two stories. The first is Euripides’ “Hecuba,” a rarely seen ancient Greek tragedy, whose central character seeks revenge after the death of her son. The second centers on a fictional actress, Nadia Roger, whose autistic son has been mistreated at a state-funded home for disabled minors (a story inspired by real events that took place in Switzerland, according to Rodrigues).

Nadia turns to the legal system for justice as she prepares to play Hecuba onstage — and slowly but surely, Rodrigues blurs the lines between the two characters. In the role, Elsa Lepoivre, a Comédie-Française stalwart, is phenomenal as she shifts between the two women’s subtly different ways of grieving, her facial expressions flickering back and forth.

Rodrigues is skilled at setting up multifaceted characters in a few quick strokes, and the rest of the Comédie-Française cast is playfully introduced in the opening scene, a table read of “Hecuba.” Loïc Corbery pokes fun at the process as the intense actor who immediately goes all out; Denis Podalydès, one of the troupe’s best-known members, leans effectively into his increasingly cantankerous onstage persona, complaining that “Euripides deserved better.”

The rest of the seven-strong cast often act as a Greek chorus, moving from their role in “Hecuba” to commenting on Nadia’s increasingly precarious mental state. Podalydès doubles as an initially taciturn state prosecutor who takes up Nadia’s case against the institution where her son, Otis, was kicked and threatened by staff members, along with other disabled children.

Like Hecuba, who ultimately takes matters into her own hands by attacking her son’s murderer, Nadia grapples throughout with what justice means. If the institution was chronically underfunded and understaffed, does responsibility lie with the employees who mistreated children, or with the state?

Some parts of “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” are convoluted by Rodrigues’s standards. He spins a story out of Otis’s favorite animated series, starring a dog, to set up Nadia’s “barking” — as she puts it — against the system. In some mythological tales, Hecuba is also turned into a dog, and a large canine statue is the only real element of décor in the Boulbon quarry, which felt too vast for the production. (In one funny aside, Corbéry, as one of the “Hecuba” actors, rightly quips about the set: “We don’t know what it’s for, but it’s impressive.”)

Yet as often in his theater work, Rodrigues expertly steers the audience toward empathy: for Nadia and Otis, but also for more complicated characters. At one point, underpaid, marginalized caregivers plead with the prosecutor to understand the working conditions that led to abuse.

The tone may be very different from Rodrigues’s impromptu night of performances against the far right, but his core beliefs are evident either way. What will “resistance” mean if the far-right party wins big in France on Sunday? Time will tell, but both Rodrigues the leader and Rodrigues the storyteller clearly have plenty of fight left in them.



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Arts & Lifestyle

At Avignon Festival, Resisting the Far Right

by NewsB
written by NewsB


There are two sides to Tiago Rodrigues, the Portuguese director who has led the Avignon Festival since last year. One — gentle, introspective, given to dissecting intimate human conflicts — has long been evident in his stage productions. That includes “Hecuba, Not Hecuba,” his latest premiere in Avignon, in which a mother fights for justice after her son is mistreated by a state institution.

On the other side, Rodrigues has also turned out to be a combative, politically outspoken leader for the French festival, a marquee event on the international theater calendar. Tension is running high in France since the far-right National Rally party came out ahead in the first round of snap parliamentary elections last weekend, and Rodrigues’s response was forceful: Avignon, he told the broadcaster France Info, would become a “festival of resistance.”

On Thursday, Rodrigues pulled together a last-minute night of programming aimed at “mobilizing against the far right” ahead of the second round of voting this Sunday. After a performance of Angélica Liddell’s “Dämon: El Funeral de Bergman,” the Cour d’Honneur, Avignon’s biggest stage, was given over to willing artists, politicians and union leaders from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.

The choreographer Boris Charmatz opened the evening with 100 or so dancers who performed a group reinterpretation of “Revolutionary,” a defiant 1922 dance by Isadora Duncan. JoeyStarr, a French rapper, recited a poem by Léon-Gontran Damas.

Despite the late hour, the nearly 2,000 seats were packed, and a roar filled the air when Rodrigues, whose father was an antifascist activist in Portugal, finally appeared onstage. “My name is Tiago Rodrigues, and I work for the Avignon Festival,” he said, modestly. “This is a night of democratic union, of strength and hope.”

Not long before, around midnight, a performance of his “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” had wrapped at the Boulbon quarry, an outdoor venue 10 miles from the city. The mood there was calmer: Before the show, as festivalgoers debated the merits of various artists over drinks, it felt like a regular night out in Avignon.

And the intricate structure of “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” invites a different kind of audience attention. Written by Rodrigues himself for the Paris-based Comédie-Française troupe, it weaves together two stories. The first is Euripides’ “Hecuba,” a rarely seen ancient Greek tragedy, whose central character seeks revenge after the death of her son. The second centers on a fictional actress, Nadia Roger, whose autistic son has been mistreated at a state-funded home for disabled minors (a story inspired by real events that took place in Switzerland, according to Rodrigues).

Nadia turns to the legal system for justice as she prepares to play Hecuba onstage — and slowly but surely, Rodrigues blurs the lines between the two characters. In the role, Elsa Lepoivre, a Comédie-Française stalwart, is phenomenal as she shifts between the two women’s subtly different ways of grieving, her facial expressions flickering back and forth.

Rodrigues is skilled at setting up multifaceted characters in a few quick strokes, and the rest of the Comédie-Française cast is playfully introduced in the opening scene, a table read of “Hecuba.” Loïc Corbery pokes fun at the process as the intense actor who immediately goes all out; Denis Podalydès, one of the troupe’s best-known members, leans effectively into his increasingly cantankerous onstage persona, complaining that “Euripides deserved better.”

The rest of the seven-strong cast often act as a Greek chorus, moving from their role in “Hecuba” to commenting on Nadia’s increasingly precarious mental state. Podalydès doubles as an initially taciturn state prosecutor who takes up Nadia’s case against the institution where her son, Otis, was kicked and threatened by staff members, along with other disabled children.

Like Hecuba, who ultimately takes matters into her own hands by attacking her son’s murderer, Nadia grapples throughout with what justice means. If the institution was chronically underfunded and understaffed, does responsibility lie with the employees who mistreated children, or with the state?

Some parts of “Hecuba, Not Hecuba” are convoluted by Rodrigues’s standards. He spins a story out of Otis’s favorite animated series, starring a dog, to set up Nadia’s “barking” — as she puts it — against the system. In some mythological tales, Hecuba is also turned into a dog, and a large canine statue is the only real element of décor in the Boulbon quarry, which felt too vast for the production. (In one funny aside, Corbéry, as one of the “Hecuba” actors, rightly quips about the set: “We don’t know what it’s for, but it’s impressive.”)

Yet as often in his theater work, Rodrigues expertly steers the audience toward empathy: for Nadia and Otis, but also for more complicated characters. At one point, underpaid, marginalized caregivers plead with the prosecutor to understand the working conditions that led to abuse.

The tone may be very different from Rodrigues’s impromptu night of performances against the far right, but his core beliefs are evident either way. What will “resistance” mean if the far-right party wins big in France on Sunday? Time will tell, but both Rodrigues the leader and Rodrigues the storyteller clearly have plenty of fight left in them.



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Arts & Lifestyle

Michael Tracy, Artist Who Helped Restore a Texas Border Town, Dies at 80

by NewsB
written by NewsB


Michael Tracy, a flamboyant artist inspired by religion, violence and sensuality who dedicated much of his life to preserving neglected 19th-century architecture on the Texas-Mexico border, died on June 15 at his studio compound in San Ygnacio, Texas. He was 80.

Christopher Rincón, the executive director of the River Pierce Foundation, Mr. Tracy ’s historic preservation organization, said the cause was a heart attack.

Mr. Tracy’s baroque fusions of bright paint, wood, metals, knives, swords, religious images, hair, blood, urine, photographs and other detritus were in vogue 40 years ago; he had exhibitions in New York, Houston, San Francisco and elsewhere. His work was “as enthralling as it is gross,” the critic Bill Berkson wrote in Artforum of one such exhibit in 1989. Mr. Tracy once appeared on the magazine’s cover.

But by 2014 he had faded from view; that year he was described by the New York Times critic Roberta Smith as a “little-known artist from Texas who made torn and cut paintings and fetishlike sculptures fraught with intimations of religion and violence.”

As his fame in the art world diminished and his relations with gallery owners became prickly, Mr. Tracy turned his attention to the lonely spot on the U.S.-Mexico border that he had adopted as his workplace in 1978: San Ygnacio, a tiny, empty town on the Rio Grande, unique in its assemblage of mid-19th-century Mexican ranch-vernacular buildings.

Mr. Tracy, a turbulent, loud-voiced artist who favored knee-length tunics, fell in love with these 32 unassuming, low-slung sandstone structures, set on silent streets. “He was very excited about coming upon something so authentic and unmodified,” Mr. Rincón said. Mr. Tracy wound up restoring seven of them, including — through his foundation, and with help from the National Park Service — the 1830 Treviño-Uribe Rancho, a National Historic Landmark.

An outsider from Ohio, Mr. Tracy embraced the town. The town, with its diminutive population of around 500, many of them descendants of the original settlers, did not exactly embrace him.

They were disturbed, in 1990, by one of his more extravagant gestures: the ritual burning in the Rio Grande of a giant crosslike object that Mr. Tracy called “Cruz: La Pasión.” Video footage shows dozens of fashionably dressed spectators watching solemnly as it goes up in flames in the muddy river. Mr. Tracy called the spectacle “The River Pierce: Sacrifice II.”

Yet if San Ygnacio was baffled by Mr. Tracy, there were links between his artistic projects and the crumbling, forlorn outpost on the border that he was enamored of, in the view of Adam Weinberg, curator emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“His work is deeply embedded in Catholicism and Christianity,” Mr. Weinberg said in an interview, and “in the village you could have a mix between Indigenous religion and Catholicism” that was “away from the overbearing governance of churches.”

Mr. Weinberg said that Mr. Tracy’s work was “very edgy and transgressive,” and that it was “all about borders” — a notion the artist was both fascinated and repelled by. So his decision to settle near the Rio Grande, where he saw migrants desperately trying to cross and Border Patrol vehicles cruising, was, in Mr. Weinberg’s view, logical.

“His work is really about the slippage between borders, which means culture,” Mr. Weinberg said.

Mr. Tracy’s art breaks down barriers between religion and profanity, incorporating both “the dramatic sensuality of European baroque painting and the vivid pageantry of Catholic ritual,” the poet and critic Roberto Tejada wrote in an appreciation.

Mr. Tracy himself, as quoted by Mr. Tejada, wrote: “Living on the ‘northern’ edge of the Rio Grande, on what officially is the edge of Latin America, has had immeasurable impact on my life and work. I have had a front-row seat in the ongoing drama of two distinct cultures hemorrhaging into each other; the physical migration itself, the cultural nullity, the sociological angst and despair, and the legal miasma.”

Charles Michael Tracy was born on Sept. 30, 1943, in Bellevue, Ohio, the son of Charles Louis Tracy, a journalist who wrote about aviation, and Justine (Oehm) Tracy. He studied literature and art at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and received a B.A. in 1964. He did further study at the Cleveland Institute of Art, from 1964 to 1967, and received an M.F.A. in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969.

His first major show was “Seven Gold Paintings,” at the McNay Art Institute in San Antonio in 1971. Two exhibitions followed in 1972: “Six Paintings,” at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, and “Paintings and Drawings,” at the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston.

PS1 (now MoMA PS1) in Queens mounted a major exhibition of his work in 1987, when his reputation was at its height. The Times art critic Michael Brenson wrote that Mr. Tracy was “determined to violate the pictorial and sculptural skin and release every feeling that may have been sealed or pent up inside it.”

“The surfaces of his devotional paintings and sculptures — as small as reliquaries or as big as walls — may be torn, stabbed or cut,” Mr. Brenson wrote.

But then “the art world moved on,” Mr. Tejada said in an interview, and Mr. Tracy’s relations with the gatekeepers in the galleries soured.

“He would always depart from the normal way of doing business in the gallery world,” Mr. Rincón said. “He would be the first to speak out against rules he didn’t feel he should abide by.”

Mr. Tracy is survived by two brothers, Daniel and Christopher.

In the 1990s, Mr. Tracy moved to Mexico City, where Mr. Tejada encountered him — “larger than life, bold gestures, very dramatic persona,” he recalled.

He also had his refuge in San Ygnacio by then, a place to which he was drawn as if by electromagnetic fields, he told The Times in 2018.

“He chose to be off the grid in terms of where he lived, but not in terms of how he worked,” Mr. Weinberg said. “He was one of those people left out of the story of contemporary art history, but who has to be rethought. He was deeply committed, and deeply sophisticated.”



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First private tour in Acropolis: Russian couple pays €5,000

by NewsB
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A Russian couple were the first tourists to enjoy the first private tour in the Acropolis of Athens. For this exclusive service they paid of 5,000 euros.

The first private tour of the Acropolis took place on Saturday night, June 29, media reported.

A Russian couple reportedly made the first personalized visit to the Acropolis on Saturday night.

The service of personalized tours will be offered every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, while the possibility may also be given to the newly established Museum of Modern Greek Culture.

The personalized tour service is offered for 5,000 euros from April 1st to October 31st.

Available to anyone who wants it and can afford it is now the personalized visit service to the Holy Rock of the Acropolis.

The program was created by the Culture Ministry months ago as part of the review of the tariff policy for the archaeological sites, museums and monuments. The initiative caused somee reactions regarding the ways of utilizing the monument.

According to sources from the Organization for the Management and Development of Cultural Resources, a personalized visit was made to the Acropolis as early as last Saturday by two people, namely a Russian couple, who chose to climb the monument in the evening zone available, accompanied by their own tour guide. The couple were given, as expected, souvenirs for their visit.

The same sources also said that some individual visits have been booked for July and August, while soon there will be staff  from the cultural resources organization staff in charge of welcoming those who participate.

The service offered, for 5,000 euros, from April 1 to October 31, every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, at 7-9 am. and 8-10 p.m.

It concerns groups of visitors up to five people each and with the total number of groups not exceeding four per visiting zone.

Those interested can book their VIP visit on the hhticket.gr platform, specifically in the “The Acropolis Experience” option.

The service appears to be available without a guided tour from 9 July and with a guided tour (in seven languages) only from the beginning of August, in order to allow the necessary time to plan the guided tours.

It also seems that this particular service will be promoted more in the next period by the Ministry of Culture, while it may be extended to other sites as well.

Τhe Central Archaeological Council is expected today to give an opinion on the implementation of the personalized visit to the newly established Museum of Modern Greek Culture, in Monastiraki. According to information, the visits will only take place in the evening, will concern two groups and the price will be around 1,000 euros.

source: kathimerini.gr



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World’s Oldest Figurative Cave Art Found in Indonesia

by NewsB
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World’s Oldest Figurative Cave Art Found in Indonesia
World’s oldest figurative cave art discovered in Indonesia. Credit: ArchaeologyTravel. CC BY 2.0/flickr

A team of Australian and Indonesian scientists have discovered the oldest figurative cave art in Indonesia, believed to be more than 50,000 years old.

The rock art cave in Indonesia

The painting of a wild pig and three human-like beings is at least 51,200 years old, which is more than 5,000 years older than the oldest cave art previously known. The discovery reverses the clock on when modern humans were first capable of creative thought.

Professor Maxime Aubert from Griffith University in Australia told BBC News that the discovery would change the playing field when it comes to human evolution. “The painting tells a complex story. It is the oldest evidence we have for storytelling. It shows that humans at the time had the capacity to think in abstract terms,” he said.

In the painting, a pig is standing still with its mouth partly open next to three human figures. The largest human has both arms extended and seems to be holding a staff. The second is right in front of the pig with its head close to the snout. It also appears to be wielding a rod, one end of which may be touching the pig’s throat.

The final figure appears to be upside down with its legs facing up and spread out, and it has one hand stretched out and touching the pig’s head. The team of researchers was led by Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a rock/cave art specialist from Indonesia, working for the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in Jakarta. He said that narrative storytelling was a crucial part of early human culture in Indonesia from a very early point in time, as per BBC News.

“Humans have probably been telling stories for much longer than 51,200 years, but as words do not fossilize we can only go by indirect proxies like depictions of scenes in art – and the Sulawesi art is now the oldest such evidence by far that is known to archaeology,” he said.

Ancient drawing

The earliest evidence for the activity of drawing was found on rocks in the Blombos Cave in southern Africa and dates back to between 75,000 to 100,000 years ago. These sketches comprise geometric patterns.

The new painting discovery, found in the limestone cave of Leang Karampuang in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, conveys representational art—an abstract depiction of the world around the person or people that produced it.

Thus, it conveys an evolution in the though processes of human beings that gave rise to art and science. The point of interest is around what brought on this awakening of the human mind, as per Dr. Henry Gee, a senior editor at the journal Nature, where the study was published.

“Something seems to have happened around 50,000 years ago, shortly after which all other species of human such as Neanderthals and the so-called Hobbit died out,” he said.

“It is very romantic to think that at some point in that time something happened in the human brain, but I think it is more likely that there are even earlier examples of representational art,” Gee said in speaking to BBC News.




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Alternative Greece: six of the best holidays beyond the sunlounger | Greece holidays

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Explore the Axios delta and stay in Thessaloniki

A neat line of wooden houses on stilts sits over water, with fishing boats tied up between them. Marshland stretches as far as the eye can see, blending with the sky. In a mirror-like lagoon, salmon-pink flamingos stalk the shallows, their beaks trawling for crustaceans.

This waterlogged world is the Axios delta, where the Axios River, flowing from North Macedonia near the Albania-Kosovo border, meets Greece’s longest river, the Aliakmon, and the Loudias, to form a basin on the Thermaic Gulf just west of Thessaloniki. Now a national park, its mosaic of fresh waters, brackish lagoons, salt marshes, reed beds and mudflats is an important refuge for millions of migrating and nesting birds, including glossy ibis, dalmatian pelicans and rare white-tailed eagles. It’s a photographer’s dream and a wonderful place to explore on foot.

A car is still useful to get from point to point, though local buses from Thessaloniki run to Kalochori lagoon in the eastern section and the birdwatching tower in Nea Agathoupoli in the south. The best place to see flamingos is around the salt pans of Alyki Kitros in the south. A map and advice on the best routes depending on the time of year are available from the information centre in Chalastra. Local group ecoroutes.gr occasionally organises day tours, including a boat trip (€30pp).

The delta is an important refuge for wildlife and birds, including flamingos. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

Besides about 300 bird species, the delta is home to spotted turtles, tortoises, wildcats, sousliks (a type of squirrel), recently reintroduced water buffalo and wild horses. Dykes divide wide, flat paddy fields, while mussels are cultivated on ropes and gathered in by fishers. Most of the country’s rice and mussels are harvested here; and its salt pans produce one of the largest outputs in Greece after Messolonghi.

There’s basic accommodation on the delta outskirts, but it’s best to base yourself in Thessaloniki. Greece’s second-largest city has plenty of ancient sites, too. Bustling but laid-back, restaurant tables crowd its squares and nightlife lasts until morning.

A longer trip could take in mountainous Florina (a region and town) about two hours’ drive west from Thessaloniki: stay at the Lynx Mountain Resort (doubles from €135 B&B). Just outside the scenic mountain villages of Agrapidies and Nymfaio, Arcturos’s rescued bear, wolf and lynx sanctuaries give visitors the chance to see the animals up close on guided tours that run hourly.

Eat The delta’s previously rough-and-ready eateries are being replaced by fashionable tavernas serving local salt- and freshwater fish. Navagio has a veranda on the lagoon at Kalochori; Sourotiri in Chalastra serves a local take on paella.

Stay In central Thessaloniki, Noa Hotel offers urban cool (doubles from €110 room-only). The Zeus is Loose hostel has twin rooms from €74 room-only.

Wine tasting on the Pelion peninsula

Grapes from the family-run Patisti vineyard on the Pelion peninsula.

In the south of the Pelion, a peninsula 100 miles or so north of Athens with panoramic views of lush wooded hills and the Aegean, the family-run Patisti vineyard started going organic in 1980 to improve the health of the vines and complexity of the grapes.

Now, with a range of organic and biodynamic wines made with local varieties roditis, limnio and xinomavro, as well as syrah, cabernet sauvignon and more, Patisti estate offers winery tours as well as olive oil tasting. Just outside the red-roofed village of Argalasti, it’s a delightful spot to taste the terroir, and the slopes covered in vines give the region the look of a little Tuscany.

Milea Winery, also in the village, is open to visitors too. Chardonnay, merlot and pinot noir are cultivated using a dry-farm technique, making the vines dig deep for water, building character and resilience. Milonas nearby focuses on quality, small volume production with its red, white and rosé available in the village, and plans to open to visitors in the future.

Beyond wine, the Pelion, with the Aegean on one side and the Pagasetic Gulf on the other, has lots to offer. From regional capital Volos, the coast road winds up into villages of slate-roofed stone houses and plane-tree-shaded squares. There’s a narrow-gauge train from Ano Lechonia to Milies, or hikers can follow the Pelion Routes, a network of paths developed by the local community. Among the best beach options are Mylopotamos, the mile-and-a-half long Horefto, Plaka and Potistika.

Skiathos can be reached by ferry from Volos on the Pelion peninsula. Photograph: Robert Breitpaul/Getty Images

From Volos there are ferries to Skiathos and Skopelos. Continuing the wine theme, on Skiathos, Parissis Winery, on the island’s highest hill overlooking the harbour, uses entirely Greek varietals and is another example of a new generation of winemakers.

Eat Pelion is known for its produce, including olives and fruit, all available at Argalasti farmers’ market, which has tavernas around the square. Specialities include oregano-flavoured “meatballs” made of potato and feta, and sauteed wild greens with eggs.

Stay Within easy reach of Argalasti, Lafkos Guesthouse is traditional and charming (doubles from €70 a night), while Nikoleri Studios (doubles from €52) are right on the water at peaceful Lefokastro.

Karpathos, an authentic taste of island life

Colourful houses in the village of Olympos on Karpathos. Photograph: Anyarnia/Getty Images

Whether you approach the north of Karpathos island on the vertigo-inducing narrow road that winds up the coast or by ferry to the tiny port of Diafani, there’s a sense of a big, dramatic landscape, with mountain peaks covered with wind-bent pines falling away to the deep blue. Amid these slopes, the village of Olympos comes as a surprise: tiers of colourful houses, crumbling windmills above and a green valley below.

This remote and long self-sufficient community has preserved its customs where many islands lost theirs. Traces of ancient language remain in the dialect, and older women wear traditional dresses, headscarves and leather boots, carrying heavy loads on sticks across their shoulders and baking bread in outdoor wood-fired ovens. Men play an ancient form of bagpipes and sing improvised rhymes.

In mid-summer, Olympos is a tourism honeypot with groups thronging the main alleyway – but a glimpse of authentic life is on offer from Evangelia of Ecotourism Karpathos, who is passionate about her heritage. In her cooking class, visitors learn how to make makarounes pasta with goat’s cheese in the kitchen of a house decorated with carved wooden furniture and embroideries.

She also guides walks to the chapel at the summit of the mountain above the village, where the winds that Karpathos is known for keep hikers cool enough to enjoy panoramic views to Rhodes, Halki and even Crete.

Since most tourists leave Olympos mid-afternoon, those who stay a few nights can enjoy the cool of the evening as clouds sweep over the peak of Profitis Ilias. The village is car-free so, in the morning, cockerels and sheep are the only sounds. For breakfast, Kalliope’s bakery serves hortopita (spinach pie) from its wood-fired oven built into the mountainside.

Kalliope’s bakery in Olympos serves spinach pie from a wood-fired oven. Photograph: Alamy

Boats run regularly along the coast from Diafani in the summer, and are worth a trip for views of the island from the water. Passengers can jump off at a wild beach for swimming and snorkelling. Excursions from here (and from the main town of Pigadia) include the abandoned island of Saria, for swimming and ancient ruins.

Karpathos is a large island of high mountains and pine trees, with several pretty resorts: heading south from Olympos on the east coast road are peaceful Ayios Nikolaos and lush Kyra Panagia, while further south beyond the town of Pigadia lie the shallow pale waters of Amoopi Bay. Beyond there, the windsurfing around Afiartis draws aficionados. Traditional island villages worth seeing include Mesochori, Othos and Menetes.

Eat On the tiny square next to the main church in Olympos, Parthenon, run by Nikos Filippakis, offers good food year-round and also functions as a locals’ bar. The most famous taverna is Mylos, with terraces around the old windmill, while Drosia, run by Evgenia and her mother, Sophia, serves goat from their own herd.

Stay Anemos Guesthouse in Olympos (from €76) has three suites whose windows and large balconies have views of the coastline and village houses clinging to the mountain.

Astypalea, a laid-back jewel of the Aegean

Windmills on the island of Astypalea. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

Astypalea is one of the Dodecanese islands, but has a strong flavour of the Cyclades to the west. Its relative isolation has helped it retain its wild side and authentic charm, with most of its 1,000 permanent inhabitants living in the village of Chora, the capital and a jewel of the Aegean, with white houses clustered around a conical hill rising from the sea, topped by the Venetian-built Querini Castle. The old town offers just the right blend of laid-back and sophisticated, with great bars and stylish boutiques. The local biscotti-like biscuits called paximadia with almonds or saffron are not to missed.

Chora gets lively in summer, but in Maltezana, five miles away, you wake to the sound of goat bells and, if you’re staying at Akrotiri Studios, the gentle lapping of the sea. Fishing cottages around a tiny church right on the bay have been restored into holiday houses with views across the sheltered bay.

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Maltezana, named for the Maltese pirates who once wrought havoc here, is one of Astypalea’s three main villages and has plenty of holiday accommodation, a handful of tavernas, cafes, a mini-market and a bakery; but still feels pleasantly rural, with low white buildings set amid trees and bamboo, and gentle hills. Ducks and peacocks strut along the waterfront; at night owls can be heard.

The popular swimming spot of Ble Limanaki is 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the village, and a strip of sand and shady trees fringes the bay. Captain Antonis operates boat trips to the islets nearby. Inland, past the windmill, is Agia Varvara, an early Christian basilica with intricate mosaic floors.

After the sun sets, Kafenes Maltezos, run by Panayiotis, has a welcoming atmosphere, good music and great food: tomato fritters, skordalia (garlic potato mash), big prawns pan-fried in a rich sauce with onions and peppers, and fresh chlori cheese with deliciously moist and springy bread. Drop in for a drink and you may still be dancing in the early hours.

The village of Chora topped by its Venetian-built castle. Photograph: Getty Images

North-east of Maltezana, the road heads up into the wild emptiness of Mesa Nisi, the eastern part of the island, which has secluded bays, an eerie military station from the second world war, and the inlet of Vathy, with a few ancient ruins and an old lime kiln that supported the community until the 1970s.

In the other direction, the road leading south-west passes the beaches of Stenó, where the island narrows to 100 metres across, before reaching Chora. South of Chora, Livadi has a wide stretch of sand and pebbles with accommodation unobtrusively set back behind a row of tavernas, and is a peaceful place to swim and eat with sand between your toes. From here, the road passes hotels and bays on the way to Exo Nisi – the rugged, empty western part of the butterfly-shaped island.

Eat Kafenes Maltezos is the place to head in Maltezana; in Pera Gialos, Chora’s harbour, Argo offers great local food with a view, and pretty Maistrali is open all day (lobster with spaghetti is the speciality).

Stay Akrotiri in Maltezana has sea-view studios from €50 a night. Kallichoron is a lovely boutique hotel in Chora (doubles from about €110 B&B, three-night minimum).

Hike the Menalon trail, Peloponnese

Lousios gorge on the Menalon Trail. Photograph: andronosh/Alamy

The 46-mile Menalon Trail winds through the centre of the Peloponnese, crossing forested mountain scenery dotted with hilltop villages and churches in a region rich in religious and revolutionary history. It has been named one of the best hiking paths in Europe by the European Ramblers Association, yet still attracts a fraction of the crowds of more famous routes.

The trail starts in Stemnitsa, with its stone tower-houses perched at more than 1,000 metres, and the eight stages range from 2½ to 8 ½ miles, finishing in Lagkadia. It’s possible to complete the route in four or five days – some people even run it – though a more leisurely approach is recommended. It can be walked independently using the official website and signage, or on a guided tour with operators such as Trekking Hellas or No Footprint.

The first 7½ miles to Dimitsana are tough yet rewarding, descending into the Lousios gorge. The monastery of Saint John the Baptist – probably built in the 16th century – clings to the canyon wall and served as a refuge, secret school and hospital during the Greek Revolution of 1821 against the Ottomans. Dimitsana is a beautiful and popular stop, with places to stay and tavernas.

From here, the trail ascends to Zygovisti, straddles the Menalon massif via springs and chapels to reach Elati, then descends to the Milaon River, with its abandoned watermills. Look out for swimming spots close to the village of Vytina.

The Peloponnese village of Dimitsana is a popular stop on the Menalon Trail. Photograph: Charalambos Andronos/Getty Images

Other route highlights include the Panagia Kernitsa monastery and the cave hermitage of Sphyrida; Magouliana, one of the highest villages in the Peloponnese; and the wood-carving village of Valtesiniko. The final nine miles leads to a ridge with ruins of a Byzantine fortress before meandering down to Lagkadia.

It’s best to avoid the height of summer when temperatures soar. Though some sections are well shaded, walk early in the morning or late in the afternoon, regularly topping up on water. The official website gives information on local temperatures and what you need for a safe hike. Taxis are easily available if needed – phone numbers are posted along the route.

Eat Many tavernas have been family run for generations and focus on local produce and traditional cuisine, such as wild boar stew with local pasta (hilopites). To Tsipouradiko tou Panteli in Nymfasia is worth a try, and Iosif in Maglouliana uses meat and cheese from its own farm.

Stay Spend the first night in Stemnitsa at Tsarbou Guesthouse (doubles from €75 room-only), rest weary bones at Anastasia’s Suites Arcadia in Vytina (doubles from €110), and celebrate the end of the trail at Gileri Eco and Design (from €102) in Lagdakia.

Cargo sailing eco-adventure

Visitors can join small cargo sailing boats that transport artisan products across the Aegean

Imagine setting sail in a small boat across the Aegean with a cargo of island honeys, wines and cheeses, maybe stopping to pick up locally brewed beer and jars of rock samphire in Ikaria or acorn pasta in Kea.

Aegean Cargo Sailing allows guests to do just that by joining sailing boats that transport artisan products around the region. Having first begun reviving commercial sailing on millennia-old routes, the company then started inviting paying guests for a unique holiday as “crew”.

The boat has five double cabins and guests help with docking, loading and cleaning, as well as practising sailing skills and enjoying the sea, sunsets and stars. Powered almost entirely by the wind (the diesel engine is not used unless necessary), it is a low-impact way of exploring that helps local entrepreneurs too.

This August there’s a choice of four week-long itineraries on board Lafri as she sails the north Aegean, starting and ending in Andros, with Chios, Psara, Lesbos, Lemnos and Skiathos among the stops en route.

Produce transported may include sustainably fished tuna from Alonissos in the Sporades – the speciality of family business Alelma – or delicious cheese from Diaseli on Ios in the Cyclades. Guests have opportunities to visit producers, as well as to relax on deserted beaches, visit ancient sites or join in local festivals.

Lafri’s operator also has a smaller boat: Pelago, a solar electric-powered sailing boat with crewing opportunities from March to October, and basic accommodation that’s “more like camping sailing”.

Eat Breakfast with local island products is included, and for lunch and dinner, guests can cook on board or go to a restaurant on shore.

Stay Six nights on Lafri including accommodation in a double cabin, meals on board, visits to producers and tastings costs from €1,200; a second person sharing the cabin gets a 40% discount.



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