 Travel to Chios!
Crescent-shaped, with its inward-curving shore facing the Aegean, Chios’ lower slopes of the volcanic chain that cuts it in two are thickly cultivated with olives, fruit, vines and, above all, mastic trees.
The most important must-see for the traveler is, of course, the town of Chios (also spelled Hios or Khios). Besides the town, there are many places of interest, which can be accessed by both private and public transportation. |
 An important excursion is to the village of Kariges, above which is the 11th century convent church of Nea Moni, whose brilliant mosaics, together with those of Daphni (Attiki) and Osios Loukas (Viotia) on the Greek mainland , are among the finest examples of Byzantine art in the country. In the southern part of the island, an equally rewarding excursion is through the hills of the fortified medieval village of Pirgi which, with neighboring Olympi and Mesta, is a mastic center. Even more interesting, though, are its curiously decorated house facades, covered in graffito, grouped around the small main square and along some of the narrow cobbled side streets (the graffito technique consists of scraping away the previously painted white facade of the building, creating geometric patterns in the form of circles, squares, triangles, chevrons etc.). The little Aghii Apostoli church, near the main square, also has good frescoes. |
 Beyond Pirgi, on the south coast, are the ruins of an Archaic temple of Apollo at Kato Fanon; further east are the Early Bronze Age remains of Emborio, partly submerged. There is good swimming here. To the north of Chios town, the main coast road passes through Vrontados, where a vast hewn-stone cube is said to have served Homer as a seat when discoursing to his pupils. The road goes on through the fishing village of Langada to the pretty two-tiered hill town of Kardamyla in the north, with good beaches, an inn, and tavernas below it. |
 A branch off this road at Vrontados leads past the ninth century monastery of Aghios Isidoros to Volissos, claiming to be Homer’s birthplace, and to the much-venerated Moni Aghias Markellas beyond. |
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