Naxos, Greece
We board a car ferry to the island of Naxos, for centuries the seat of power in the Cyclades. We drive up into the mountains for a delightful lunch of Greek specialties, then visit the port town and the ruins of the Temple of Apollo.
Paros and the larger Naxos. Our restaurant, Pigi Naxos Ano Potamia, is pinned.
We arrived on time for our ferry from Paros to Naxos, which is to say we arrived far too early for our ferry from Paros to Naxos.
We planned to take our rental car on the boat and were told to arrive an hour early. When we did arrive, the ferry gates next to the busy town-center roundabout were closed, with little room to park and no indication of what you should do if you were, say, a person who did exactly as they requested. When the gates did open, I of course parked near the front of the lot. We waited there amongst a few huge trucks, with no other cars around us, and no sign of the ferry as our departure time approached. I could hear Marianne counting the minutes she could have remained in bed before heading to port.
I soon realized that the expert move was to arrive at the last moment and be one of the first off the boat in Naxos. When our ferry appeared on the horizon, rounding a peninsula from the east, a line of cars suddenly emerged. After a lengthy disembarkation of the arriving ferry, workers guided cars and trucks of every size and shape into each inch of the holds, like a game of automobile Tetris.
Less than an hour later, we were back on the road, in Naxos.
The largest island in the Cyclades, Naxos was inhabited by Neanderthals as many as 200,000 years ago. It was the center of both the archaic Cycladic culture thousands of years ago and Venetian rule beginning in the 13th century. The island features in many ancient Greek myths, including the legend that Zeus was raised in a cave on Mt. Zeus (“Zas” to the Greeks), which rises 3,300 feet near the center of Naxos. Even in those times, Naxos was famous for its emery, a rock rich in abrasive crystals used in sandpaper and nail files.
Pigi Naxos Ano Potamia
Anticipating a downtown traffic jam, Marianne and I drove off the boat in Naxos and headed straight towards the mountains for lunch at Pigi Naxos Ano Potamia, about 20 minutes away. We had the large outdoor area of the restaurant nearly to ourselves, except for two local men enjoying drinks and conversation over lunch. An extensive garden next to our shaded table made the scene all the more serene.
Marianne and I shared a Greek feast of Naxos Gruyère with and without tomatoes and eggplant, chicken souvlaki, moussaka, and thinly sliced apples with cinnamon.
Chora
We drove back down the mountain to Chora, also known as Naxos Town, the largest city on the island. About a third of the island’s 19,000 people live in the port town. Summers are lively here, with tourists flocking to its shops, bars, and restaurants. But we had arrived on a Monday in spring, with most shops closed, and Chora was largely quiet. Marianne and I strolled through its whitewashed streets, pining for open doors.
Just past the port, a little isthmus extends out into the harbor. At its end, atop a small hill, sits the unfinished Temple of Apollo, started in 535 BC by the tyrant Lygdamis but later abandoned. The temple’s Portara, or great door, is all that remains, and it has become the emblem of Naxos.
I walked out to the temple and turned to get an excellent view of Chora, with its fortress rising above it. Built by Venetian conqueror Marco Sanudo in 1207, the fortress was the center of Venetian power in the Cyclades for 350 years.
Sunset
We returned to Paros in time for yet another fine sunset view, the sun’s final light gleaming through dark, wispy clouds hovering over the harbor.
Dinner at Cuore Rosso
That night, Marianne and I went out to dinner in Parikia at Cuore Rosso, an Italian spot with a lovely garden courtyard and a great selection of pizzas. Marianne kept it simple, but I went for the Kritamo pizza: Niotiko Krotiri cheese from Ios, spicy Ventricina salami, ‘Nduja (spicy, spreadable sausage), black olives, wild sea fennel (known in Greece as kritamo), and extra virgin olive oil. We paired our pizzas with a local red wine made from Mandilaria and Monemvasia grapes, both native to Greece and grown on Paros today. Fantastic!
Our meal was accompanied by occasional visits from friendly cats roaming the courtyard, plus a lively conversation about politics at a big table nearby that flowed from Greek to English and back again.
We celebrated another successful day in paradise by finally indulging in some gelato. Our long journey was down to its final day.