καλό ταξίδι / happy travels

piemonte

Oh, Piemonte! I’m not sure I would have ever made it to this gem of a province without my better-traveled friends deciding to wed here. The story goes that Stephen took Courtney on a cycling trip to Sicily planning to propose. Their usual go-with-the-flow approach to bookings didn’t work so well on the island, though, and they ended up cycling from one town to another and finding no vacancies nice enough for Stephen’s proposal plans. After a couple days of slogging through sweaty weather on bikes, they called an audible and took the ferry back to the mainland, where Stephen knew a sweet little spot tucked away in vineyard hills. Finally rested and relaxing at La Villa Hotel, Stephen popped the question. Then a year later, they invited us all to the same spot to celebrate their love!

Before the official wedding weekend in Mombaruzzo began, the happy couple hosted the bridal party and a few close friends (it me!) at the nearby Castello di Vaglio Serra. This historic villa looking out over Nizza Monferrato became our sprawling, elegant domicile for one of the most luxurious weeks of travel of my life.

The biggest cities close to us in Piemonte were Milan, Genoa, and Turin, but sadly I didn’t visit any of those on this trip! Instead, I offer you this list of tiny towns and local activities from our mini “Eat, Pray, Love” moment.

Nizza Monferrato

If you ever find yourself looking for accommodations for 30 people in rural Northern Italy, I cannot recommend the Castello di Vaglio Serra enough. Although the address is Nizza Monferrato, it is slightly outside of town in a quiet hilltop village. This self-containment and view makes it a spectacular location for quick bonding with old friends and new. And the grounds themselves… the pool looks like something out of a daydream (maybe because I still daydream about it), the gym serves beautifully for most any travel workout, the bedrooms were cozy and plentiful, and I still swoon when I remember the kitchen. The owners were extremely gracious to us, sweetly giving us a tour of the house in Italian when we arrived (lol, we got the gist) and even more generously tolerating the noise and messes we made (oops…).

We did all of our grocery shopping, pharmacy runs, and boutique browsing in Nizza Monferrato proper. Most of my other experiences in Italy–Rome, Florence, Venice, Portofino, and Milan–included at least one sub-par meal, but I was pleasantly surprised that every single dish on this trip won me over. Even little jaunts like when we nervously stopped for cocktails before the first group dinner or when we grabbed an espresso on the way to buy tampons were pleasant little culinary diversions along our wandering path. I am also impressed by and deeply grateful to all the waitstaff that served us groups of 10-30 Irish, Brits, and Americans with grace, efficiency, and execution. Lastly, we shopped in little spurts each time we passed the plaza, finding everything from quality investments to handmade souvenirs. I remember one candy shop in particular made my jaw drop from the careful decor alone. The vendors I spoke to were very proud of their wares, which all seemed to be locally-sourced, and very amenable to speaking with me in my cobbled Spanish, English, and Italian.

Canelli

One of the highlights (but also lowlights) of the week was a group cycling trip to a town in a nearby UNESCO World Heritage site, Canelli. I’ve never done much more than pedal my beach bike across my island town growing up, so I was excited to flex this basic skill in such scenic region. When we received the bike rentals, the man setting them up for us laughed when I said I had never done a cycling tour before. “Good luck learning on these gentle hills!” he smirked as he swept his hand across the extremely hilly vista. I really didn’t appreciate his snark in the moment; but I did have to acknowledge that he had a solid point the next day when I was sitting on the side of the road at the top of a hill in the middle of the day, covered in road rash and throwing up from heat stroke. You win this time, sarcastic rando!

Our bike trip ended at the Canelli Farmer’s Market, where we bought as much fruit as we could carry and had lunch with the non-biking crowd. They brought me a bag packed with a change of clothes and a First Aid kit, so after lunch I cleaned the gravel out of my wounds, threw a shift dress over my sports tank, put my bike in my friend’s dad’s trunk, and seamlessly transitioned from athletic train wreck to chic vineyard visitor.

San Marzano Oliveto

Following the mother of the bride’s lead, we all drove our little Fiat caravan to Azienda Agricola Franco Mondo in another small heritage town, San Marzano Oliveto. Known primarily for the local specialty, Barbera d’Asti DOCG, this little vineyard also offers Moscato d’Asti DOC and other lesser known regional designations. I’m not the biggest fan of white wines, but I enjoyed their Cortese dell’ Alto Monferrato DOC. It was so special getting to see the process, from vine to barrel to bottle… but I was definitely still hazy from my morning exertion so I don’t recall all the details super well! All I can say for sure is that Beatrice, the owner and oenologist, is extremely welcoming, knowledgeable, and accommodating. She also very politely warned me not to eat the grapes off the vine when I posed with my farmers market bunch, and I really appreciated her looking out.

Mombaruzzo + Fontanile

When the big day finally came, we took a chartered bus to the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista in Fontanile. Each corner we turned had another spectacular view. The cathedral itself was generously adorned in Neo-Gothic style from an early twentieth century rebuild, alongside older details from the original chapel like the impressive front doors and a faded altar to the Madonna hiding behind the string quartet. The historic space was filled with my childhood friends and their families alongside new connections we’d made throughout our week at the Castello, and as each voice lifted up to the rafters I felt buoyant yet held in powerful communal love. It was a beautiful ceremony, a gorgeous golden hour at the Villa, and one big fancy espresso martini-fueled rager after that. 10/10 would recommend

where to eat & drink:

Nizza é Barbera (€) | Piazza Martiri di Alessandria, 19, 14049 Nizza Monferrato AT, Italy

La Locanda del Campañon (€) | Piazza Martiri di Alessandria, 18, 14049 Nizza Monferrato AT, Italy

Ristorantino Tantí (€€) | Via Pio Corsi, 18, 14049 Nizza Monferrato AT, Italy

Azienda Agricola Franco Mondo (€€) | Regione Mariano, 33, 14050 San Marzano Oliveto AT, Italy

where to stay:

La Villa Hotel Piemonte (€€€) | Via Torino, 7, 14046 Mombaruzzo AT, Italy

Castello di Vaglio Serra (€€€) | Via Al Castello, 10, 14049 Vaglio Serra AT, Italy

the road trip

On the 7th anniversary of our first trip to Europe together, I had an idea. I had a wonderful, awful idea.

We had already been to Spain, Italy, France, and Greece at least one time together each, and we had traveled by ferry, by plane, and by rail across those four countries. My hometown bestie was getting married in a little village in Piemonte, the hilly winemaking region in Italy’s northwesternmost corner, and while researching driveable day trips I couldn’t help wondering… is this our once-in-a-lifetime chance to road trip through Southern Europe?

After some thoughtful persuasion and mutual boundary-setting, we decided the answer was yes! I joke but I can’t recommend this first step enough—it was really important to me that we both fully expressed our excitement and our limits before we even got started, because driving in another country comes with several expected and unexpected challenges that we needed to be on the same page about how to handle as they arose. Once we worked out how many hours we were willing to sit in foreign traffic at a time, then we mapped out a route and a schedule accordingly. If you are thinking about taking such a journey, here is what worked (and what needed work) for us!

The Route

I’m dying of bitter laughter as I type this because when I put our four stops into Google Maps as one straight trip, it says the whole thing will only take 10.5 hours. LMAO, y’all. That is deeply wrong—call this expected/unexpected challenge number one. I already knew from other blogs to round way up and give ourselves 1-2 hours per day of extra travel time, but we were still surprised at our total logged hours by trip end. In real life, we spent 4-6 hours per day of driving in between each stop, for a grand total of 18 hours in the car. As seasoned road trippers in the States, this was mentally tough but doable and, in my mind, worth it.

It is also worth noting that because Costa arrived in Italy alone to meet me for my friend’s wedding weekend, he was the only authorized driver for our car and did almost the entire trip. I had to step in for a few panicky moments—that much solo driving in Southern Europe can be anxiety-making, turns out! We drove into a ditch at the very start of our trip. We had close calls with huge trucks, a steep learning curve with the intense passing-only policy in left lanes, and plenty of wrong turns. Our worst delay was when an eighteen-wheeler caught on fire in the median, blocking six lanes of traffic in southwestern France. That one was annoying because the French emergency channel kept overriding the radio to announce the traffic debacle we were already in. These mishaps and anxious moments were probably the heaviest toll from our expected/unexpected challenges, but this effort helped us experience new places in a way we couldn’t without it.

The Itinerary

Once we set our limits—no more than 4 hours of driving in a day (lol), no more than 10 days on the trip, end with at least 4 non-driving days—we could plot a course. From Mombaruzzo, it was roughly 3 hours to several spots on the French Riviera. Antibes seemed like the best combined location, hotel prices, and city size for our needs. I knew I wanted to stop somewhere in Provence, and our friends had just taken a sweet little getaway to Avignon, so I added that to the list. I was really hoping to hike around Lac de Sainte-Croix and see the lavender fields in Valensole along the route, but sadly the extra hours added up and we made the clutch call to spend our dwindling time exploring more of Avignon instead. Last but not least, because I lived in Madrid for six months but only spent three total days in Barcelona, we planned to spend at least five days in Barcelona.

The Rental

I made a reservation online for a small sedan (a Fiat was pictured) for Costa to pick up from the airport, but apparently I botched that and he had to create his own reservation in person anyway. Again, because he was there alone, he was the only authorized driver. It would have cost extra to add me on but since I was three hours away in the countryside we didn’t have that option at the time. Costa chose an X2 BMW station wagon, a model only available in Europe with a four-cylinder diesel engine and front-wheel-drive—these little details mattered later on when we drove straight into an irrigation ditch trying to pull over to see if we made a wrong turn leaving Mombaruzzo (we did). A tiny Peugeot tried to pull us out, and when that failed they very kindly walked down the street to the vineyard-owner’s house to ask that they pull us out with their tractor, which did work. All-wheel drive isn’t very common in Europe but if you have the option, I suggest you take it.

Speaking of options, we also chose to make a pricier one-way reservation, picking up in Milan and dropping off in Barcelona. Logistically this made the most sense to our travel goals, but cost-wise it was one of our more frivolous spending choices. If you are setting a course but not tied to any particular endpoint, I suggest a circular route to save yourself those extra Euros.

And as always, here are the places we ate and stayed along the way.

where to eat & drink:
(in order of visit)

Le Lapin Blanc (€€) | 101 Rue de la Bonneterie, 84000 Avignon, France

where to sleep:
(in order of visit)

Garden Beach Hotel (€€€) | 15-17 Bd Edouard Baudoin, 06160 Antibes, France

Hotel L’Horloge (€€) | Place de L’Horloge, 1 Rue Félicien David, 84000 Avignon, France

athens

Most journeys to Greece begin in Athens. Travelers and travel guides will probably tell you not to spend too much time there, that it’s not much of a city. But Greeks, several expats, and a long tradition of travel writers will argue otherwise. Even if you don’t spend 5-7 days there like we usually do, you should at least consider a long layover to explore this ancient-meets-modern metropolis before you run off to the islands.

See the ruins of the Acropolis

On your first morning in Athens, get up early enough to have a coffee and a yogurt by your hotel, hostel, or home stay. Traditional Greek coffee is hearty and warming, but if you prefer iced coffee try a frappe. My go to order is: “ena frappe me fresco gala kai ligo zachary,” a frappe with fresh (instead of condensed) milk and a little sugar.

Once you are properly caffeinated, head to the Acropolis. I like to walk up through the neighborhoods from Monastiraki Square. This scenic city hike gets your blood pumping, so vendors sell water bottles at varying heights along the uphill path. Once you level into the forest leading up to this archaeological icon’s official entrance, follow the path to the right instead of buying your tickets on the left. This diversion will take you up some rickety metal stairs to the top of a giant marble slab called the Areopagus, where Yia Yia tells me St. Paul evangelized the Athenians. It also has a magnificent view of Athens in all directions, especially the Acropolis herself. Take your fancy camera for some landscape shooting or just grab your cell phone for a nice old-fashioned selfie. One word of warning: wear shoes with good grip, aka not the flimsy sandals pictured below.

When the photo shoot is over, grab your tickets and begin exploring. The top of the mount, the Agora, is the hottest and most famous part of the site, but friends and family have told me they really enjoyed the amphitheater and smaller temples as well.

…then see the originals at the Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum offers a chance to really contextualize your understanding of the ruins while you look out on them. First, the place itself has a history you should know: Back in the early 1800s, the British Lord Elgin looted one of the Caryatids, the six sisters who held up the Temple of Erechtheus in the Agora, and it has since been held hostage at the British Museum for over two centuries. One long-serving argument for the imperial power refusing to return these patrimonial artifacts was that “it is universally recognised that the sculptures that survive are best seen and conserved in museums“¹ and there was no facility with sufficient air conditioning or other preservation technologies available in Greece. So Greece built the Acropolis Museum and said, now can we have our ancient statue back please? Unswayed by this investment and several generations of Greek protest, the U.K. holds that they still own the so-called “Elgin marbles” and now five Caryatids stand at the center of the Acropolis Museum with a placard explaining the absence of the sixth. That’s that historic kind of beef.

Climb Mt. Lycabettus

Around sunset, take the funicular up to Mount Lycabettus for another vista of Athens and the Acropolis. Have an espresso or a frappe (addicted yet?) at the cafe on top and then hike down while you ooh and aah over the shining eternal city before you.

Shop in Plaka

First, some of my favorite gifts and souvenirs have come from haggling in Plaka. Second, some of my favorite memories of getting lost, laughing it off, sending post cards, and getting mid-afternoon tipsy for no reason have come from Plaka. It’s touristy for sure, but you might find a trinket or at least an aperitif that you love — we like Ipitou for craft cocktails al fresco. On Sundays, double the bargaining trouble with a trip to the flea market off Monastiraki Square.

Syntagma Square + National Gardens

The changing of the guard at Syntagma Square is a proper cheesy photo op to prove you’ve been to Athens. Plus, it’s a kick (lol get it) to watch those mustachio’d men slow-motion can-can across the plaza in front of Greek Parliament. Maybe I should have more national pride and/or cultural respect, but watch them and tell me I’m wrong.

Once you’ve watched a shift change, grab a coffee or postage in the square if you need it or just head straight to the National Gardens next to the Parliament building. It’s fun to get lost in this little park, which holds ruins, turtle ponds, and petting zoos. (Okay, technically it is not a petting zoo, and technically there are several “no petting” signs, but we’re all out here petting them anyway.) Follow it through to the other side and you can walk past the Prime Minister’s residence and more mustaches. At the end of that block, you can pay 5 euro for a walk through the original Olympic stadium, but don’t be like me and try to do so in the high noon heat.

Rooftop drinks in Monastiraki

This is the most touristy yet gratifying tradition that we’ve developed in Athens. There are rooftop bars in other neighborhoods with different perspectives on the Acropolis, but Monastiraki Square is my favorite. We frequent A is for Athens at the top of the Hotel Atenas. It has delicious cocktails and a vibe that’s just snobby enough.

Explore a suburb

Yia Yia lives in Neo Psychiko, a suburb to the Northeast of the city center. We like to walk to nearby Xalandri for gyros and loukoumades, which are sort of Greek beignets. There is also a little shopping center and neighborhood square where you can hang out “me parea” like real Greek young people. The family also recommends Kifissiá to get a sense of a fancier neighborhood with an outdoor mall. We haven’t gone yet ourselves, but NBA fans can try to see Giannis Antetokoumpo’s customized court is in another outskirts neighborhood, Sepolia, 30 minutes or so walking from the city center.

where to eat & drink:
(from €€€ to €)

Antica | Adrianou 25, Athina 105 55, Greece

Ipitou | Ipitou, Athina 105 57, Greece (the restaurant is named for the alley it’s on)

To Kati Alo | Chatzichristou 12, Athina 117 42, Greece

To Souvlaki Tou Salma | Ifikratous 1-9, Chalandri 152 32, Greece

where to sleep:
(from €€€ to €)

Intercontinental Athenaeum Athens | InterContinental Athenaeum Athens, Leof. Andrea Siggrou 89-93, Athina 117 45, Greece

A is for Athens | Miaouli 2, Athina 105 54, Greece

City Circus Athens Hostel | Sarri 16, Athina 105 53, Greece

“Contested objects from the collection: The Parthenon Sculptures.” The British Museum. Accessed online on July 21, 2023 at <https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/parthenon-sculptures>. ↩︎

santorini

Santorini is a highly romanticized place, but even with all that hype it really is just as beautiful as all the movies and desktop backgrounds would have you think. The only problem with that is all the other tourists who are there to witness that beauty themselves. Here are my suggestions for navigating the sites you need to see despite the crowds, and how to find a quiet corner on the island for yourself.

Catch the sunset in Ammoudi Bay

After settling into our cozy seaside bungalow, our first stop was watching the sunset and eating fresh-caught branzino from the aptly-named Sunset restaurant in Ammoudi Bay. The fish was amazing (and yes you pick it out yourself!) and the sunset turned the water glittering violet . We enjoyed walking down the steps to the port as the sky turned orange–just watch out for donkey poo, or ride one and avoid it altogether.

Take a catamaran around the island

The next day, we joined a catamaran charter trip to see the red and black sand beaches and swim in the steam pools. (If you’re hungover or remotely seasick, bring non-drowsy dramamine.) It was a really breathtaking way to see the entire island, from Ammoudi Bay to Vlixada, by the white sand beaches. We couldn’t actually swim at the red and black sand beaches though, so I recommend driving to Kamari Beach instead. You can drive to the red beach as well, but technically it’s not open to visitors, which most Greeks seem to interpret as a suggestion to ignore. If you do drive down to the southern side of the island, you should also explore Akrotiri, the ruins of a former Minoan settlement that was destroyed when a volcanic eruption blasted the island into its well-known half-moon crater.

Window shop in Oia

We stayed at one of those whitewashed hotels with a hot tub and a breakfast porch, where we befriended an incredibly amicable and helpful concierge. He helped guide most of our three day vacation and made several of our reservations. More on where to stay below!

Oia (pronounced EE-yah) was a beautiful place to take in the sunset, from our hotel, the main street, and the many steps down to Ammoudi Bay. The little shops were sweet and had plenty of your touristy staples–plates with ancient Greek art across them, keychains of Grecian columns, hyper-saturated post cards, various nude and robed statuettes. Sadly they were generally overpriced and the luxury goods were eye-rolling expensive. I would save your shopping for Thira, unless you’re balling out or just like to look.

Visit a winery

There are several hot contenders that harvest grapes from the special volcanic soil of Santorini, but our selection came highly recommended for its incredible view. Santo Winery was truly breath-taking–make a reservation online before your trip to book a seating with a view and bring your nicest photography equipment for a moment you’ll want to savor. The wine itself tends to be sweet and lightly fruity (those are the best oenological buzzwords you’re gonna get out of me).

Find peace at Kamari Beach

We went to a restaurant on Kamari Beach on a cab driver’s recommendation and it was the quietest ocean vista we had our entire trip. I couldn’t see anyone for miles, and spent the final moments before our departure by plane soaking my feet in the pebbles and the waves. We didn’t explore this area much, but I recommend looking into it for housing if you value isolation or at least one beach day without all of the other tourists.

Where to stay: Ikastikies Suites in Thira | Alexander’s Boutique Hotel in Oia

Where to eat: Sunset – Ammoudi Bay | Santo Winery – Pyrgos

mykonos

I have to be honest–Mykonos is my least favorite Greek island. But that’s also like saying, “this is my least favorite paradise,” so really it’s not so harsh. Mykonos is the first stop on the ferry from Rafina to the Cyclades, so its proximity is another to stay there. If you only have time for one island and you’re looking to party like it’s whatever year you graduated college, this is the place for you.

Super paradise

This is apparently the big party beach, swimwear optional. Because I went with Costa’s young cousins and their parents, we did not get a chance to partake in this experience ourselves. It should be noted, however, that Snapchats from college friends gave it rave reviews.

Milos

Another place we haven’t been! I’m sorry, I told you I didn’t love my time here. I think I might have changed my mind if I visited the well-preserved archaeological site at nearby Milos, however, like Costa’s aunt and uncle did. The entire island of Milos is a preserved site, entirely uninhabited and covered with ruins. If you decide to skip Mykonos, you can still take a morning ferry to the Mykonos stop, a smaller ferry out and back to Milos for the day, and then take the evening ferry to your next destination.

Shopping and sunset downtown

Hanging out downtown is the majority of what we did in Mykonos. There are beautiful jewelry shops and plenty of tourist kitsch, but most of the prices run higher than Paros (but cheaper than Santorini, if memory serves). With the family, we generally ate seafood at one of their favorite spots–try XXX to see their pelican mascot!–then meandered through the narrow, blue and white streets of downtown Mykonos, window shopping and posing for group photos. We ended our evenings watching the sun set from the port, then we would stroll past the strip of ice cream shops around the corner and casually suggest getting some pagoto. Apparently there is also a bumping night life here–after swimming with the kids all day, Costa and I did not partake but again, our friends were huge fans.

Platys Gialos

I don’t have experience on other beaches of Mykonos (there is a trend here) but I did enjoy staying on Platys Gialos at Princess Anna’s hotel. Her place has since been split among her children and is now XXXX. By staying at the hotel, you have relatively open access to the beach, whereas daytime visitors had to pay for a chaise and/or food and drink to rent space. The beach was denser with these pricy lounge chairs than most of the beaches in Paros, Antiparos, and even some places in Santorini.

santa maria mikri

Find your beach

Santa Maria Mikri is the northeasternmost tip of Paros, and if you have an ATV or four-wheel drive vehicle you can drive to several beaches of varying levels of swim safety along this rocky and beautiful coastline. A few coves have the signature chaise lounges that signify safe swimming and food service, but it’s also fun to find one that’s entirely empty to explore different vantage points and take some frame-worthy photos.

Have a cocktail and mingle

The beachside bar and chaise lounges at Santa Maria Beach (not Mikri) host a popping party scene in that island heat. The young and fit are out to see and be seen here — wear your hot pants.

paroikia

Port

Panageia Ekatontapiliani church

cute shopping and good food

sunset from cliffside church

naoussa

Hike to the lighthouse in Parko Parou

This is another recommendation I haven’t actually tried myself, but friends have gone with great results! The view from the northwestern-most tip of the island is stunning, according to the pics on their social media. Even if you don’t make it out to the lighthouse, hiking around the rocky seaside or swimming and snorkeling in the pristine shallows of Naoussa Bay are great ways to pass a whole morning or afternoon.

Kolimbithres beach

This sweet little stretch of sand is known for its moonish rock formations, truly impressive mounds of lime and sandstone reshaped by the loving but harsh embrace of the rising and falling sea. It’s a relatively busy beach, so I suggest going at off-hours or on a weekday to minimize the number of randos in the background of your pics.

Kolimbithres beach is serviced by Taverna Anemos, a slightly over-priced but excellently-located restaurant overlooking Naoussa Bay. You can eat from their verandah, snag a chaise lounge for rent on the beach, or just post up with your own towel somewhere and ply the waiters for drinks.

If you’re seeking a thrill and feeling a little bougie, there is a rental shack at the far point of the beach near the parking lot where you can overpay for water sports like sailing, wakeboarding, waterskiing, jet-skiing (with proper licensure), and tubing.

Shopping and dinner in Naoussa

We would walk from our hotel on Naoussa bay to the namesake town of the island, about a mile down a road that isn’t the safest but pedestrians walk there anyway. Walking into Naoussa by the main road this way, we would first encounter the waterfront marina on the bay, where vendors hawked wind-chimes made of shells dyed rainbow colors and the classic Cycladic sponges. The restaurants here are generally too expensive but they come with an incredible sunset view, so we’ve ended up stopping at Axinos with a party of 12-30 on more than one occasion. (If you roll in a pack like that, they are especially accommodating.)

If you’re looking for more casual fare, our favorite souvlaki spot is Meat Bar. We’ve gone every single time we’ve been to Paros, with siblings and cousins and parents and aunts and uncles and family friends and it’s been a crowd-pleaser for all. Another crowd-pleaser is loukoumades: we tend to frequent Loukoumades To Paradosiakó, but these fried dough balls are probably delicious anywhere you get them. Choose classic toppings like honey and cinnamon or get a little crazy with Nutella or Kinder Bueno chocolate sauce.

Late night

Naoussa is known for its night life too, but I have honestly never been inside one of their clubs! We usually stay out till 1 or so with the little ones, per typical Greek family style as you’ll see, so we rarely go out for a wilder time after entertaining them. When we have, we like to take it easy with live music and a fancy cocktail overlooking the water, like at the rooftop Panorama Cafe Bar.

Explore nearby Santa Maria Mikri

If that bores you, the beachside bar and chaise lounges at Santa Maria Beach (not Mikri) host a popping party scene in that island heat. The young and fit are out to see and be seen here — wear your hot pants.

antiparos

Take the ferry

We drove our four-wheelers/ATVs/quads into Paroikiá to take the ferry to Antiparos, but everyone there assured us it was better to take the ferry from Pounda instead. It is a 7 minute trip as opposed to a 20 minute boat ride, but that also means you have to be speedy when you snap your portraits in front of a classic waterfront asproxorio (white and blue village) from the top level.

In town

We had some trouble parking legally and safely, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are more Greek-only speakers in Antiparos than most of Paros, so if you’re in a pinch just point at your parking job and ask someone, “einai endoxi?” (EE-neh en-DTHAH-cksi). “Nai” (neh) is yes and “oxi” (OH-hee) is no. I also use Verizon Travelpass to access my apps while in Greece now, so my normal coverage pays for using Google Translate when all else fails.

We took some lovely photos of the Antiparos harbor with Paros in the background as the sun set on the summer solstice. Like almost any sunset in the Greek isles, it’s worth saving time in your schedule for a look. Then we ate a light family style meal of gigantes with tomato sauce, fried smelt, sun-cured octopus (a local specialty), and branzino with potatoes and horta (blanched or boiled greens).

Panageia beach

While Kolimbithres on Paros is known for its moonish rocks and white sands, Panageia beach on Antiparos is just as lush. Instead of lunar rock formations you’ll find small pebbles as the beach fades into scrubby forest, and the tide rolls gently in to greet you when you gently dip into the shallow sea. When we went there almost no people (unheard of on a beach in the Cyclades), and you could rent little bungalows right by the entrance. Madonna apparently has a beach house in Antiparos, so basically if you stay here you’ll be as cool as Madonna. Right?

The caverns

The view from the entrance to the caverns is absolutely incredible–which is great, because we drove all the way up there after the caverns already closed and only have scenic photography to show for it. Worth the likes, I guess. Avoid being like us and get there well before 3 pm so you can see some really old graffiti on an underground drip-castle in a mountain by the sea.

the scribe

I am April Harrison Stoumbos, a lifelong student from an island town. Since growing up in such an isolated place, each move to a new city—Durham, Madrid, New York, and D.C.—and each venture outside of my comfort zone have helped me grow and learn about the world. Thus, the anthropology degree.

My love for travel started when my mom and I lived in a family friend’s townhouse in London for two weeks while I was into Harry Potter and Monty Python. After my mom died, some of my aunts took me abroad to relieve my dad and redeem my spirit. First to Mexico on a Disney cruise to practice my pidgin Spanish; then to New York City to climb the Statue of Liberty and see the Twin Towers; then to Paris, Venice, and Rome. Each place taught me how small and insignificant I was compared to their monuments to power and time, but also how I became part of the timeless, transcendent whole just by being there.

I married a Greek-American whose Yia Yia still insists she lives in her Athens apartment, where she spends a few weeks per summer, and not her son’s house in Alexandria where she lives for the rest of the year. Through coincidence and her insistence, we have visited Athens five times together now. From hostels and day trips with our college friends to family time and visits to the village to romantic getaways and destination weddings, we’ve done all sorts of travel through Greece and popped over into a few other countries along the way. This site is my insider-outsider perspective on Southern Europe.