LESVOS (Mytilíni), the third-largest Greek island after Crete and Évvia, is the birthplace of the ancient bards Sappho, Aesop, Arion and – more recently – primitive artist Theophilos and Nobel Laureate poet Odysseus Elytis. Despite these artistic associations, the island may not initially strike one as particularly beautiful or interesting: much of the landscape is rocky, volcanic terrain, encompassing vast grain fields, saltpans or even near-desert. But there are also oak and pine forests as well as endless olive groves, some more than five centuries old. With its balmy climate and suggestive contours, Lésvos tends to grow on you with prolonged exposure. Lovers of medieval and Ottoman architecture certainly won’t be disappointed, and castles survive at Mytilíni Town, Mólyvos, Eressós, Sígri and near Ándissa.

Social and political idiosyncrasies add to the island’s appeal: anyone who has attended one of the village paniyíria, with hours of music and tables groaning with food and drink, will not be surprised to learn that Lésvos has the highest alcoholism rate (and some of the worst driving habits) in Greece. There is a tendency to vote Communist (with usually at least one Red MP in office), a legacy of the Ottoman-era quasi-feudalism, 1880s conflicts between small and large olive producers and further disruption occasioned by the arrival of many refugees. Breeding livestock, especially horses, remains important, and organic production has been embraced enthusiastically as a way of making Lésvos’s agricultural products more competitive.

Historically, the olive plantations, ouzo distilleries, animal husbandry and fishing industry supported those who chose not to emigrate, but when these enterprises stalled in the 1980s, tourism made appreciable inroads. However, it still accounts for less than ten percent of the local economy: there are few large hotels outside the capital, Skála Kalloní or Mólyvos, and visitor numbers have dropped noticeably in recent years, except for a mini-boom in Turkish weekenders.

Brief history

In antiquity, Lésvos’s importance lay in its artistic and commercial connections rather than in historical events: being on the trade route to Asia Minor, it always attracted merchants and became quite wealthy during Roman times. During the late fourteenth century, Lésvos was given as a dowry to a Genoese prince of the Gattilusi clan following his marriage to the sister of one of the last Byzantine emperors – it’s from this period that most of its castles remain. The first two centuries of Ottoman rule were particularly harsh, with much of the Orthodox population sold into slavery or deported to the imperial capital – replaced by more tractable Muslim colonists, who populated even rural areas – and most physical evidence of the Genoese or Byzantine period demolished. Out in the countryside, Turks and Greeks got along, relatively speaking, right up until 1923; the Ottoman authorities favoured Greek kahayiádhes (overseers) to keep the peons in line. However, large numbers of the lower social classes, oppressed by the pashas and their Greek lackeys, fled across to Asia Minor during the nineteenth century, only to return again after the exchange of populations.

Hidden gems of Lesvos

The Kalloni wetlands, a birders’ paradise:
More than 252 species of birds find refuge in the Kalloni wetlands. Not surprisingly, it ranks among Europe’s ten most important habitats for avian diversity and rarity.

Thermal springs of Eftalous:
This island in the North Aegean is home to natural wonders. Between the brushwood-covered rocks – geological sculptures emerging from the sea – can be found the thermal waters of Eftalous. The water from the spring emerges from underwater springs at a temperature of 43.6-46.5 degrees Celsius and is renowned for its therapeutic.

The sacrifice of the bull:
A pagan holdover from ancient times, this island ritual is still enacted every July in the village of Agia Paraskevi. A healthy bull is decorated with wreaths of flowers and finery before being sacrificed and then cooked and eaten, amid parades on horseback, dancing and feasting for three days.

IKARIA, a narrow, windswept landmass between Sámos and Mýkonos, is comparatively little visited and sadly underestimated by many people. The name supposedly derives from Icarus, who in legend fell into the sea just offshore after the wax bindings on his wings melted. For years the only substantial tourism was generated by a few hot springs on the southeast coast; since the early 1990s, however, tourist facilities of some quantity and quality have sprung up in and around Armenistís, the only resort of note.

Ikaría, along with Thessaly, Lésvos and the Ionian islands, has traditionally been one of the Greek Left’s strongholds. This dates from long periods of right-wing domination in Greece, when, as in Byzantine times, the island was used as a place of exile for political dissidents, particularly Communists, who from 1946 to 1949 outnumbered native islanders. This house-arrest policy backfired, with the transportees (including Mikis Theodhorakis in 1946–47) favourably impressing their hosts as the most noble figures they had ever encountered, worthy of emulation. Earlier in the twentieth century, many Ikarians had emigrated to North America and ironically their capitalist remittances kept the island going for decades. Yet anti-establishment attitudes still predominate and local pride dictates that outside opinion matters little. Thus many Ikarians exhibit a lack of obsequiousness and a studied eccentricity, which some visitors mistake for hostility, making the island something of an acquired taste.

Except for forested portions in the northwest, it’s not a strikingly beautiful island, with most of the landscape being scrub-covered granite and schist put to use as building material. The mostly desolate south coast is overawed by steep cliffs, while the less sheer north face is furrowed by deep canyons creating hairpin road-bends extreme even by Greek-island standards.

Hidden gems of Ikaria

Manganitis and Karkinagri: two villages you must discover:
On Ikaria the surprises begin where the road ends. In the remote village of Karkinagri, the inhabitants listened to their inner selves and drew up life’s essential values. They live happily without recourse to shops. In Manganitis you won’t believe the sculpted shapes of the rocks plunging into the Aegean or the ferocity with which they pierce the sky. Here everyone is at peace with nature and allows time to flow in their favour.

Rock-houses against pirates:
A rare architectural phenomenon, anti-pirate hideaways. They were created during a ‘dark age’ around 1700, when the inhabitants lived in constant fear of pirate raids. Necessity being the mother of invention, the locals made windowless, chimneyless houses that were completely camouflaged by huge round boulders, fortifying them with stones. Sometimes carefully hidden under trees, partially buried in the ground and roofed with large slabs of slate, they are marvels of ingenuity.

Health Spas:
Lady luck has blessed Ikaria with a wealth of health spas. Eight natural thermal springs, which surface at various points on the island, revitalise body and soul. Who knows, perhaps you too could discover the secret to the island’s famed longevity?

Lush, seductive and shaped like a pregnant guppy, Sámos seems to swim away from Asia Minor, to which the island was joined until Ice Age cataclysms sundered it from Mount Mykáli (Mycale) on the Turkish mainland. The resulting 2.5km strait provides the narrowest maritime distance between Greece and Turkey, except at Kastellórizo. In its variety of mountainous terrain, beaches and vegetation, Sámos has the feel of a much larger island, and despite recent development and wildfires taking their toll, it remains indisputably among the most beautiful in the Aegean.

Brief history

Sámos was during the Archaic era among the wealthiest islands in the Aegean and, under the patronage of tyrant Polykrates, home to a thriving intellectual community that included Epicurus, Pythagoras, Aristarcus and Aesop. Decline set in when Classical Athens rose, though Sámos’s status improved in Byzantine times when it formed its own imperial administrative district. Late in the fifteenth century, the ruling Genoese abandoned the island to the mercies of pirates and Sámos remained almost uninhabited until 1562, when it was repopulated with Greek Orthodox settlers from various corners of the empire.

The new Samians fought fiercely for independence during the 1820s, but despite notable land and sea victories against the Turks, the Great Powers handed the island back to the Ottomans in 1830, with the consoling proviso that it be semi-autonomous, ruled by an appointed Christian prince. This period, known as the Iyimonía (Hegemony), was marked by a renaissance in fortunes, courtesy of the hemp, leather-tanning and (especially) tobacco trades. However, union with Greece in 1912, an influx of refugees from Asia Minor in 1923 and the ravages of a bitter World War II occupation followed by mass emigration effectively reversed this recovery until tourism took over during the 1980s.

Hidden gems of Samos

Sturdy Samos ships:
The pine of Samos is harder and more resistant to weather than other types of the wood. Its excellent quality led to shipbuilding becoming a major occupation on the island.

A genuine shipyard from the past:
From the ancient Samaines, wooden biremes that dominated the Aegean in the 6^th century BC, until the advent of the steamship, the boats of Samos were always superior. You can still see one of the last tarsanas or shipyards from this period at Agios Isidoros.

Mountain villages, the aces up Samos’ sleeve:
Drag yourself off that beach you discovered and venture into the mountains. Here you’ll find delightful hamlets tucked into lush green slopes, idyllic holiday settings. Mt Kerketea and the area from Potami to Mikro and Megalo Seitani form a vast, undeclared natural park, just the place to enjoy the other side of Samos’ character. 

The cave of Pythagoras:
Found at the foothills of Mt Kerketea is a cave where, according to some sources, Pythagoras hid when the tyrant Polykratis was pursuing him. There is also another version of history which says that Pythagoras used the cave as a sanctuary to contemplate philosophical issues undisturbed. Some 320 steps lead to the entrance of the cave, from where the view is spectacular.