Step Back in Time in This Little-Known Greek Town

On the island of Chios, the traditional Greek lifestyle is still in full swing.

Monday, Oct. 22, 2007
Chios, Greece

Read more about Greece in International Living Postcards--your daily escape

Blame the Greek weather gods, but I’ve only two nights and one full day to explore Chios. September can get windy in the Northeast Aegean. Very windy. The ferry I originally planned to take from neighboring Lesbos remained anchored in the mainland port of Piraeus.

As public transport is extremely limited on the island, you’ll need wheels; with a collision damage waiver included, it’s costing me 44 euro ($62) through Europacar. Chios is a working island that gets few foreign tourists. Thirty miles long, it’s home to around 30,000 inhabitants. Half live in Chios Town, which is chaotic during the day.

Many roads are narrow--with crazed locals practicing for the Grand Prix circuit. You’ll also encounter peasants riding mules. Certainly so when heading south from Chios Town, into what’s known as the Mastichoria. This area has 21 cobbled-street mastic villages. Used as whitening toothpaste by Ancient Greeks, mastic is a gum from the resin of mastic trees. Southern Chios is one of the few places where the tree thrives. Mastic toothpaste is still produced and it’s used in cosmetics, toiletries, and candies.

Two outstandingly photogenic mastic villages are Pyrgi and Mesta. A medieval fortified settlement built around a defense tower, Pyrgi’s houses are unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Greece.

Black, brown, white. Almost all buildings are decorated with xysta--geometric motifs scraped out after plastering walls with cement and black volcanic sand. This form of adornment dates from the 14th century when Chios was under Genoese rule. Adding splashes of scarlet, strings of tomatoes ripen in the sun.

But it’s not just the xysta houses that make it feel like you’ve stepped back into the Greece of black-and-white photos. Near the church, sit at one of the central square’s kafenions (Greek-style bars) and watch village life pass by. Most elderly women wear coverall dresses or black widows’ weeds from head to toe, reminiscent of the 1950s. Mesta is even more suggestive of villagers hiding away from pirate raids. Behind fortified walls, this is a secretive world of stern gray stone, labyrinthine alleys and arched passageways. No xysta decorations here, but it’s wildly atmospheric.

There's a marked path through the mastic groves from Mesta to Olympi village. But the prospect of a fish taverna lunch is far too tempting. So I round the coast and make for Lithi. Expect stunning Aegean views--if you dare take your eyes off the twisty road. Lithi has a gorgeous soft golden sand beach fringed by what I guess are tamarisk trees. Warmed by the sun, the water is so shallow you can wade out for yards.

Steenie Harvey,

Roving Europe Editor, International Living

P.S. Crossing from Lesbos to Chios takes three hours (12 euro ($17) with Nel Lines) and taxi from the port to Hotel Diana costs 3 euro ($4.25).

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