An extraordinary place well worth a visit. There are Byzantine ruins on the top of the rock and a very beautiful town on the south side which has no vehicles. It’s composed of narrow winding streets and lots of steps going up up up. The countryside around is full of olive trees producing delicious olive oil.
Spending a few days in the campsite at Stoupa ( the only campsite down this coast – fortunately it’s fine) and went for a walk in the hills today. In the village of Kastania found an amazingly beautiful 1000 year old Byzantine church – Agios Petros.
And inside it was stunning. The first amazing thing was that it was unlocked and then it was covered in beautiful frescos!
It’s amazing to realise that this is how all these churches would have been
As we travel around I continually realise how little I know about so many things. We’ve just spent a day in Mystras an amazing ruined Byzantine city with a castle perched on top of a hill. Know about the Byzantine empire? Well I didn’t.
A very quick history lesson – whilst the western Roman Empire came to an end in AD476 when the last emperor of Rome was executed, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) continued until AD1204. It started when the Roman emperor Constantine I founded Constantinople (Istanbul) in AD330. The Byzantines made Mystras into their second city and this was maintained into the 15th century even though the knights of the Fourth Crusade and other Franks (any foreigner from NW Europe) had sacked Constantinople and taken over part of the Peloponnese.
The churches in Mystras and throughout this area of the Peloponnese have a very distinctive style and architecture, and internally and are filled with amazing frescos.
We stayed in a nearby campsite called Castle View and walked to the old Mystra site. There are two entrances and I recommend entering at the top ‘Fortress’ entrance as then you walk slowly down. If you entered at the Main entrance you’d have to walk up and would probably run out of legs before getting to the castle. It is a fantastic site and we spent the whole day there wandering around looking at the castle, houses, churches etc
(if you click on a photo in the gallery it will open in its own page)
When visiting Pompeii we decided not to stay at the campsite at the entrance (the reviews had put us off) but instead stayed at a campsite in Sorrento called Santa Fortunata. Beautiful views over the bay and the campsite itself was very leafy with terraces. It was good for a few nights. Very easy to get to Pompeii – a bus to Sorrento station and then a train, all for €2.80.
And we had a great spot for our encampment
with Vesuvius in the distance
And Sorrento itself was really beautiful
Found some ladies making lace in the winding streets of Locorotondo
Whilst Cisternino was a lovely town with white-washed houses, a market and a great cafe
Alberobello is a truly extraordinary town. it contains large numbers of buildings called Trulli.
I felt as though I was in hobbit-land.
I had never been to Pompeii and it was a revelation. I had no idea of the size and that it was a city. It had an amphitheatre which held 20,000 people and a large theatre for plays which held 5,000. It is huge and amazing in terms of the preservation and how you can visualise the lives of the people living there. I’ve now started to read Mary Beard’s ‘Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town’ which is very readable, and they’re just like us. Here are some photos.
And then of course there’s the canals 
