Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hóra
Quiet and atmospheric,
HÓRA -
only 2km from Livádhi - is one of the most unspoilt
villages of the Cyclades. The best sights are in the precarious upper town: follow signs
to the kástro to reach the top via steep and occasionally overgrown stairways. The
central square, Ayíou Athanasíou, just northwest of the summit, has an attractive
church and a small but colourful Neoclassical town hall. From the main bus stop,
starting from the
Tap Bar
(see below), a circular signposted loop “route A” takes you to
Áyios Konstandínos where on a clear day you can see as far as Sífnos.
EATING AND DRINKING
6
HÓRA
Alóni
T
22810 52603.
A restaurant with superb westerly
views over Livádhi that offers tasty Mediterranean
specialities (including rabbit in lemon sauce for €8). More
locals than tourists frequent it at weekends because of its
live Greek music evenings.
Daily 6pm-1am.
Stou Stratou
T
22810 52566,
W
stoustratou.com.
An
atmospheric café on the main square with a poetry-strewn
menu which offers a nice alternative to eating on the busy
seafront down below. Its chocolate cake (€5) is renowned
all over the island.
Daily noon-2am
.
Tap
T
22810 52513.
Just up from the final bus stop, this is
a cosy alternative rock pub for people who just want to
drink cold beer, sit at the bar and listen to the bass
bouncing off the walls and down their solar plexus.
June-
Sept daily 9am-5am.
The north and west
If you venture north from Psili Ámmos (p.365) your best bet for a swim is the sheltered
cove of
Platýs Yialós
at the extreme northeastern tip of the island, reached easily by a
partly paved road. Immediately after the Platýs Yialós turn is the fortified fifteenth-
century monastery of
Taxiarhón
, once home to sixty monks but currently inhabited by
only one. Treasures of the monastic
catholicon
include an ivory-inlaid bishop's throne,
silver lamps from Egypt (to where many Serifiots emigrated during the nineteenth
century) and the finely carved
iconostasis
. Call before you arrive (
T
22810 51027) to
arrange a visit; a donation is expected.
If you drive north from Hóra, you reach a junction in the road; follow the signs west
for Megálo Horió and on to
Megálo Livádhi
, a remote but lovely beach resort 10km
west of Hóra. Iron and copper ores were once exported from here, via a loading bridge
that still hangs over the water. At the north end of the beach, there is a monument to
four workers killed in 1916 in one of Greece's first protest strikes for better pay and
conditions.
An alternative turning just below Megálo Horió leads 3.5km to the small mining and
fishing port of
Koutalás
, a pretty sweep of bay with a church-tipped rock and a long, if
narrow, beach. Above the port are the scant ruins of the medieval
Kástro tís Griás
. he
winding track above the village leads east back to Livádhi, but there are no places to
buy refreshments on the two-hour journey back. A side-track en route leads down to
the very pretty but shadeless
Kaló Ambéli
beach.
Sífnos
SÍFNOS
is prettier, tidier and more cultivated than its northern neighbours. In keeping
with the island's somewhat high-class clientele, camping rough is forbidden, while
nude sunbathing is not tolerated. The island's modest size makes it eminently
explorable. The areas to head for are the port,
Kamáres
, the island's capital
Apollonía
, as
well as the east and south coasts. There is nothing in the north worth a peek, except
maybe the small fishing village of
Herrónisos
,
but
even that is too far and offers too
little for the first-time visitor. Sífnos has a strong tradition of pottery (as early as the
third century BC) and has long been esteemed for its distinctive cuisine, with
sophisticated casseroles baked in the clay-fired
gástres
(pots), from where the word
