Catacombs and Ancient Theater

The Christian catacombs of Milos are located just outside the town of Trypiti.  They date from the 1st to 5th centuries AD, which suggests the possibility that they're even older than the catacombs of Rome.  They're not nearly as extensive or elaborate as the catacombs of Rome, but I think that gives them a unique eeriness.  I haven't been to Rome, so I'm just making comparisons based on pictures.  The Roman catacombs are enormous, and elaborately decorated in places, clearly the product of a large, wealthy society.  The catacombs in Milos seem to be the work of a small, early Christian community.

While the catacombs originally served as a burial place for this group of early Christians, it later provided a place for worship and refuge as persecution of Christians by the Romans became common.  It is estimated that 2,000 or more individuals were buried in these arched openings (the technical term is arcosolia) in the walls of the catacombs.

This larger arcosolium was made for an entire family.

While this one held an adult and infant.

Unfortunately, the catacombs had been raided by the time they were rediscovered in ~1840.  And despite a scientific excavation around this time, they weren't closed and protected until somewhere in the 1930-1940 time frame, according to our tour guide.

In the interim, at least one early graffiti artist, Mevel Mussou, visited the catacombs in 1874.

This picture was taken just outside the modern entrance to the catacombs.  It looked like there had been arcosolia carved into the stone outside the catacombs.  I can't imagine that's the case, which makes me wonder if this area hadn't been enclosed at an earlier time.

In any case.  Not far from the catacombs is the ancient theater of Milos.  Unlike for the catacombs, there aren't many signs pointing the way and there's nowhere to park.  We just walked from the catacombs parking lot.

I suppose I could have gone for a closer look than this, but it wasn't very approachable.  Also, there was (archeological?) work being done on it and it was partially covered in scaffolding and tarps.  It didn't really seem worth the trouble at the time.

And for you Venus de Milo fans out there, this area is where the statue was unearthed by a Greek farmer in 1820.  Nothing to look at now though.

Milos beaches: Firopotamos

A lot of what makes Milos unique and memorable is the beaches.  They almost all have clear blue water and great swimming, but that's hardly a rarity on Greek islands.  There's just some combination of the volcanic geography and unique architecture, combined with that beautiful blue water that makes them such an unforgettable experience.  One of my more favorite beaches (though not the absolute favorites, which I've saved for later) was Firopotamos.  The beach is organized, with umbrellas and a cafe.  There's no restaurant in the area though.  The roads in are good (not always the case on Milos) and parking is easy, at least when we were there. 

Here's a look at the beach from the road above.

 

Like a lot of the beaches on Milos, Firopotamos is very photogenic.  In has cliffs dropping right down into the water and giant rocks jutting out.

There's a church and a wall of ruins all the way out at the tip of the rocky finger of land on the east end of the beach.  (A little tough to see in this picture, maybe.)

There are houses built right on the water, with waves lapping up against the front doors.

 

You'll see houses right on deep water, like in this second picture, all around Milos.  They're called 'wires' and my best guess is that those ground floor doors open in to something like a garage for boats.

Notice the man on the rocks.  He was fishing.  I don't know how he got there or how he'll get back, but there was a powerful surf beating those rocks.  If he had fallen in, I wouldn't like his odds for getting out alive.  Must be some good fishing there.

A closer look at the church, looking back toward the beach.

And a close-up of the wall.  I wish I knew what these are the ruins of.

We spent over an hour at Firopotamos, just exploring and taking pictures.  It was particularly impressive that day because the wind was blowing the water up against the rocks, spraying everything near the shore.  I licked a lot of salt water off my camera lens that day...

On the topic of wind, one of the big advantages to Firopotamos as a beach is that it's well protected from the wind.  The week we were in Milos, there were strong winds from the north that made many of the northern beaches unpleasant for swimming.  I think strong winds in the late summer and especially Fall are pretty common on the islands.  The guy at our hotel pointed out that the heavy winds aren't really a problem on Milos.  If the winds are coming from the north, there are lots of nice beaches to the south.  If they're blowing from the south, there are lots of good beaches in the north.  We found that to be true.  The beaches to the south were extremely calm all week, despite strong winds out of the north.  And, as a bonus, there's Firopotamos, so well protected from the wind that it's good for swimming any time.

Arriving at Adamas

Assuming you take the ferry to Milos, you'll be arriving in the port town of Adamas.  Adamas is reasonably large for an island port town, and it does have a bit of the typical cycladic island town beauty to it.  Unfortunately, you probably won't spend much time in that part of town.  All the shops and restaurants of Adamas are right along the water.  Then at the back of the shops/restaurants there's a ~15-foot high wall, and the rest of town is up on top of that wall.  There are stairs and roads that lead up to town.  You can get there, and there are three or four restaurant/bars built right at the edge of the wall to take advantage of the views of the water.  But other than those bars, the wall forms a sort of barrier between the port/commercial area and the town where the locals live.  There's basically nothing to see or do in that part of the town.  (I may be slightly mistaken that there's *nothing* to see or do, but I didn't find anything.)  Not that it really matters; the waterfront is long and it's dense with restaurants and shops.

But if you want that classic cycladic experience of wandering the narrow streets and stairs built into the hillside, wondering what restaurant, museum, church, bar, ancient site, art gallery or shop you're going to find around the next corner, you'll have to head to Plaka.  Plaka does not disappoint, but that's a subject for another post.

Back to Adamas, it's also the site of two of Milos' many beaches, Lagada and Papikinou.  The port/waterfront lies directly in front of "downtown" Adamas, with Lagada immediately to the west and Papakinou immediately to the east.  It's maybe a 10 minute walk from one to the other.  Lagada beach is small and it's not organized (i.e., no umbrellas or coffee service on the beach) and it's not as pretty as Papakinou, in my opinion.  But if you do need refreshments, the Lagada beach hotel is right there.  It has a bar by the pool where anyone is welcome to get drinks.  It's actually a very pleasant place to get a coffee or beer.  We spent a lot of time there, even though we were staying at the Delfini hotel (highly recommended) behind it.  Papakinou is a very long beach with organized and unorganized stretches.  It's pretty and pleasant, especially for a beach in a port town.  If I seem unenthusiastic about it, it's only because there are so many fantastic beaches on Milos that it's hard to get excited about Papakinou.

Sadly, this is my only picture of Adamas.  I took it from the ferry as we were coming in to port.

You can at least see part of the town, along with the wall I was referring to.  All the restaurants and shops start just beyond the right (east) edge of the picture.

As an aside, if anyone has any pictures from Milos that would help illustrate these posts, and you would be willing to share them, I'd be grateful.

Welcome to my Milos blog!

I've just returned from a 6 day visit to Milos, Greece with my (Greek) wife and her family at the end of August.  Defying assumptions about travel with in-laws, it was a great trip.  I've visited a number of Greek islands now (Seriphos, Kea, Santorini, Syros, Naxos and Milos, in chronological order) and Milos is a stand-out favorite.  It's a volcanic island like Santorini, so the landscape is similarly spectacular, with lots of great beaches.  It also has a large permanent population (as opposed to purely tourist-catering populations that disappear in October) so there are plenty of scenic villages, full of friendly locals and great Greek food.  All around a winning combination.  In fact, in my list of all-time favorite Greek trips, I'd put this second only to Meteora.

Bonus features of Milos include an ancient amphitheater and the earliest Christian catacombs in the world, and of course Milos is the site where the Venus de Milo was found.

Here are a few pictures from around the island.

That's my wife about to get doused, if you're curious.

Hopefully that gives you a taste of what a beautiful island Milos is.  As I was checking out of our hotel, the owner's nephew asked me what I thought of Milos.  I answered something along the lines of, "Milos has to be the most under-rated island in Greece."  I immediately regretted the phrasing of my response.  What I was really thinking was, "This place is amazing! Why does everyone go to Santorini? Milos is better, but it's a secret?"  He seemed to understand.  He explained that with the huge mining operations going on on Milos and the associated revenues, the Greek government has never been willing to promote Milos as a tourist destination.  For the most part, I don't understand that thinking on the part of the Greek government.  I seriously doubt that increasing tourism on Milos would interfere with mining.  The mining areas are restricted to maybe 15% of the island, and they're largely off-limits to tourists.  On the other hand, with about 140 inhabited islands, I suppose Greece figures they have enough tourist destinations to leave Milos to the miners.

In coming posts I'll give more pictures and details for various beaches and towns around the island, with travel tips as much as I can remember them.  But this is also my own personal travel journal, so there will probably be a few more pictures of family members in these posts than some would like.  I apologize for that in advance.