Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
popping peaks including
Mt Trapezitsa
(2022m),
Mt Astraka
(2436m) and
Mt Gamila
(2497m). Beneath them, the 12km-long Vikos Gorge may be the world's deepest.
While hikers comprise the majority of visitors to Vikos-Aoös National Park, semino-
madic Vlach and Sarakatsani shepherds still take their flocks up to high grazing ground
in summer, returning to the valleys in autumn.
Dilofo &Negades Δίλοφο & Νεγάδες
Just 32km northeast of Ioannina, enchanting
Dilofo
(population seven) is for both ro-
mantics and hikers. It's tranquil and totally authentic, a jumble of slate-roofed houses
tucked into a mountainside. It's also a lesser- known entry point for the Vikos Gorge, al-
lowing the longest hike.
Dilofo gazes across the valley at another tranquil village,
Koukouli
. It's intimately as-
sociated with the enormous, 13.5m-high
Loumidi Mansion
, on the left-hand side when
entering Dilofo. The story goes that after a Koukouli girl married a Dilofo man, she be-
came so homesick that she threatened to leave. The groom's patient father instead built a
mansion tall enough for her to wave to mum and dad over in Koukouli - problem solved.
Dilofo's small
plateia
features an enormous, 400-year-old plane tree, a usually dys-
functional card phone, a taverna and one of Zagorohoria's best guesthouses. In Dilofo's
upper part, the
Church of Kimiseos Theotokou
(Dormition of the Virgin) has an intric-
ate, hand-carved wooden iconostasis and icons (village doctor Giorgos Triandafilidis has
the key).
Just 13km east,
Negades
is a stone-housed village with little tourism. The 20-minute
drive involves superb views of
stone bridges
spanning cliffsides and wooded valleys.
Negades' impressive 1792
Church of Agios Georgios
is sumptuously decorated with
exquisite icons and a gilded, hand-carved wood iconostasis. Its wall-to-wall frescoes in-
clude rare paintings of pagan philosophers Aristotle and Plutarch. Women once attended
mass behind a grill in the back; note here the persuasive frescoes - apparently created for
moral edification, they include a depiction of Judas being devoured by a sea monster, and
a scrawny demon riding and beating a bedded husband and wife who were too lazy to get
up for church. Whoops.
The church isn't always open; consult with Ioannina's EOT (
Click here
)
.
