May 16: Itea
Today we walked the route that pilgrims visiting Delphi from Athens would’ve taken. Overland travel being difficult in Greece, if an ancient Athenian wanted to consult the oracle, the smart plan would be to take a ship from the isthmus west through the Gulf of Corinth to the town of Kirra, the port of Delphi. Then the walk to Delphi would straightforward, though there would be some climbing involved at the end. A Greek wouldn’t have been troubled by that….
The route we were doing today was the easy version of this trek, the homeward journey made by satisfied pilgrims, downhill all the way. Trekking Hellas even sells an “easy” version of out tour that is basically this walk plus a truncated walk into Delphi from above. Eleni told us that this particular day’s hike was easy enough for anyone to do, including small children and old people. Well-maybe! The trail is reasonably rocky and rough, and there is the usual complement of spiky plants. Also, it’s decently long, requiring a good four hours or so of steady walking.
We dropped down through fields where a herd of cows was being moved; we tried to stay out of their way! We crossed an irrigation canal and then entered the town of Chrisso.
The second half of the walk took us through acres upon acres of olive groves, the famous UNESCO-listed Amfissa olive grove, a veritable glacier of olive trees sliding down the rift valley to the gulf.
We strolled into Kirra around lunchtime. The town was gray and dead, and the water was flat.
Itea, our final destination, is about ten minutes walk to the west of Kirra.
The walls of our room held photos of Mount Parnassus, which is only an hour or so away by car. Itea apparently has a certain amount of winter tourism related to skiing. People can combine a ski vacation and a seashore vacation all in one!
That evening, we dined at Zephyros, a seafood restaurant on the water. The grandpa invited me into the kitchen to choose our fish from his fridge. We were nearly the only diners; Itea’s high season is in full summer, not May. Our server, Demitri, was a sweet 20-year-old with near-perfect English. He said he’d taught himself from movies and tv shows. The grandpa gave us a jar of local olives as a gift when we left.
