Mesta is the finest surviving medieval village on Chios, a complete fortress-village whose plan has scarcely changed in six hundred years. Its houses stand shoulder to shoulder to form an outer wall, its narrow lanes twist and duck beneath stone arches in a deliberate labyrinth, and at its heart sits one of the largest churches … Read more
Pyrgi is the most photographed village on Chios, and no other village in Greece looks like it. Every house front in its medieval core is covered from ground to eaves in the black-and-white geometric patterns called xysta, scratched into the plaster in triangles, diamonds, zigzags and rosettes, so that the whole village reads as a … Read more
Chios is a large, uncrowded island in the northeastern Aegean, famous worldwide as the only place mastic is produced, and it offers a remarkable range of things to do. Medieval fortified villages, a UNESCO monastery, a castle-crowned old town, black-pebble beaches, mountain hikes and boat trips all sit on one island that mass tourism has … Read more