Villa Galini. Read our previous posting : “The autonomous polity of Mount Athos” A stay at the Villa Galini Hotel in the Halkidiki region of northern Greece probably represents one of the very few opportunities you will ever have to live the life of a Greek shipping magnate. And that is because, before being…
The autonomous polity of Mount Athos!
Mount Athos. In 1960, Greek shipping magnate Yannis Carras, aboard his three-mast 58-meter schooner yacht Carita (later renamed Argonaftis), decided to cruise north to the Mount Athos peninsula of the Halkidiki region of Greece to celebrate the 1,000 year anniversary of the establishment of monasteries around Mount Athos, I am instinctively intrigued by any…
Thessaloniki, formerly the Jerusalem of the Balkans
Thessaloniki, Greece is a city with a long history, which many nationalities have helped build over the centuries. The Greeks, the Turks, the Bulgarians, the Romans have all played major roles, but one group whose major contribution is at risk of being overlooked, because relatively few traces remain of its presence, is the Jews…