Paolo Buatti

The goats crossing the road, the silence while walking in the white of the town, the colours of the water and the smell of the wild herbs growing everywhere. These are the images that Amorgos left into my brain.
Silence, colours and smell are extremely common words but they have an unique strenght there.
Since I went back to Rome I worked to organize all the stuff i produced during my trip, and then I extrapolated a book and a small video-doc. I’ve been in Amorgos and Santorini so each one of my works is splitted in two parts. This gave me the chance to compare two beauties, two realities, two totally different ways of doing tourism. I feel closer to the Amorgian reality, massive numbers can destroy the peculiarities of a place and sustainability is the only way to preserve it.
Silence in Amorgos gives suspension of time and peace, and I hope to find it again over there in the future.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNCLQmQPAg

Take a look at Paolos photo book “Due Cicadi” he did about Amorgos and Santorini - you can also buy this book.

Visit Paolos Homepage

View some of Paolos photos he sent to us:

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Thank you Paolo

Of course, walking is easy. It’s so easy that no child has to be taught how to. It’s so easy, that we never think about it. Unless it gets difficult. Sometimes difficulties are caused by fatigue and often by pain. Ones knee bothers and another one moans about back pain. Nobody complains about a painful gait. People still think they have got this walking thing off pat.

Reconnect with your natural abilities to walk, even before it hurts. Learning to move with less effort makes daily life easier and also can enhance sport and the standard of your exercise performance. Everyone, from top athletes to those with limited sports abilty, can benefit from learning how to fully use their own capabilties.

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Amorgos provides the perfect ambiance to explore elemental walking. Barefoot experiences on the sandy beaches. Balancing on pebbles and rocks. Gentle hikes with stunning views. Inhaling herbal scents. Here you can discover your individual way of elemental walking which appeals to all your distinct senses.

Nicola’s Kurvenschule: Workshop Elemental Walking, Aegialis – Amorgos

2011, Monday September 12th – Friday 16th,  11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Starting point Monday – beach volleyball area
Costs – Euro 20/day/person
Contact & Enrollment: nicola@kunstpiste.com or kunstpiste.com/contact

About Nicola Werdenigg
Born in 1958; graduate ski college Stams; degree course in sports science at the University of Innsbruck, qualified Austrian ski instructor and ski guide; national diploma for bioenergetic body work. 1968 Interski Demo-Team Austria; for 6 years member of the Austrian Ski Team competing in the World Cup, 1975 Austrian downhill champion and third in the overall downhill World Cup, 1976 fourth in the Olympic downhill in Innsbruck, ski school director and sports coach with the focus on sports for children and handicapped people, organization of movement and awareness training courses, sports coaching + consulting

It’s “Dimitris Kafeneion”!

When my daughter and I noticed it we never thought we were actually stopping at THE place full of memories! I chose it because from the outside (and the inside even more) it looked very local and authentic, the menu written only in Greek and a few elderly people playing cards and sipping their coffees in a sort of good old days atmosphere. I immediately perceived a sort of nostalgic feeling looking at the many faded photos on the wall showing a pierced dark eyed man with big moustache and wearing a beret!

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I thought … Who is he???

“Einai o Parvas” (he is Parvas) … someone said reading my mind!! I noticed a happy looking elderly man sitting alone who then introduced himself as Kostas. We sat with him and he started unveiling the story behind the mysterious character on the photos. His name was Dimitris Giannakos, better known as “Parvas” and before passing away, he was the owner of the kafeneion together with his wife Flora and their daughter Dina, who is nowadays running the place!

Dimitris Giannakos "Parvas"

Parvas’ long life was spent between the solitude of his field and the cozy kafeneion and as our new friend Kostas said “he was so photogenic and gifted of a unique personality that photographers and directors discovered him and he even had a role in the film Le Grand Bleu”!

But that was only the beginning of becoming the Amorgos celebrity … later on he played himself in the poetic film “Parvas agonh grammh” by Gerasimos Rigas which shows his simple life in Amorgos day after day in a sort of journal! The film itself (only in Greek) is a real treat for anyone who loves the most authentic and real aspect of the Island!

Here is a YouTube video showing a short extract…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=122p27Z_6B8

“Parvas, Agonh grammh” ΠΑΡΒΑΣ ΑΓΟΝΗ ΓΡΑΜΜΗ - Film Homepage

We thanked our friend Kostas, took a photo of him promising a copy and paid our bill to Dina, the daughter of the legendary Parvas and left. What a sense of a sweet nostalgia … next time you pass by it, have a coffee and if you see him there, ask friendly Mr. Kostas to tell you this story all over again…

Sylvia

Location

Nigel McGilchrist

Amorgos – July 26th, 2011 – The Scottish scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist who has lived and worked in the Mediterranean area – Italy, Greece and Turkey – for over 30 years, has self-published a 20-part book edition on the Aegean islands – an undertaking of epic proportions.

The Amorgos Island Magazine is proud to announce a partnership with Nigel McGilchrist’s publishing activities to present his books to you and enrich the Magazine’s content from his publications.

About Nigel’s Greek Island Guide

Every publisher’s nightmare? Or every reader’s dream? When the publisher Blue Guides asked Nigel McGilchrist, to write a guide to the Greek islands, it never expected what it got – a manuscript that ran to nearly 600,000 words, three times the agreed length.

For lovers of the Aegean, it is as close to being the definitive guidebook to the region as you are ever going to get. There is no volume on Crete, because there is already a Blue Guide to Crete; and Corfu and the Ionian Islands, to the east of mainland Greece, will have to wait for another day.

But the islands of the Aegean – 70-odd in all, some barely inhabited, others popular tourist destinations – are charted in loving detail. From Kos to Rhodes, from Chios to Lesbos, from the Northern Dodecanese to the Lesser Cyclades, McGilchrist does not miss a trick.

The practicalities are all there: how to get to each island, where to stay, where to eat. But it is the other stuff, the richly textured descriptions of the landscape and the main archaeological sites, littered with learned footnotes, that makes the series so rewarding.

One of Nigels’ favourite Islands is Amorgos (Book No. 20).

Amorgos, the easternmost island of the Cyclades, he recommends as having something for everyone. “It provides stunning natural beauty, lots of historical interest and is not much visited or known.”
Writing about the History of Amorgos (see original text), Nigel goes into geographic and historic details about Minoa, Chora, Hozoviotissa, Varsamitis, Markiani, Kamari, Arkesini, Aigiali, Langada, Tholaria, …

About Nigel McGilchrist

Nigel was a scholar at Winchester College and at Merton College, Oxford. At Oxford he graduated with First Class Honours and won three University prizes and medals in Literature and in Art.

As an art historian, he lectures widely in art and archaeology at museums and institutions both in Europe and in the United States. He worked for a period for the Italian Government’s Ministry of Arts as an external consultant in the field of wall-painting conservation, at the time that the Vatican was embarking on its controversial cleaning of the Sistine Chapel. He was Director of the Anglo-Italian Institute in Rome for six years, taught at the University of Rome, for the University of Massachusetts and was for seven years Dean of the joint Faculty of European Studies for a consortium of American Universities and Colleges. In recent years he has been lecturing at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California.

Nigel has served on the Board of Editors of the Blue Guides series, the world’s oldest English-language cultural and artistic guides, and has contributed extensively to several of the new editions on Greece and Italy. Over the last six years he has walked every path and village of the sixty inhabited Greek Aegean islands in order to prepare a completely new survey-guide of their archaeology, history and art – published in abbreviated form as the Blue Guide to the Aegean Islands and in complete version as the twenty volumes of McGilchrist’s Greek Islands. He has lived and worked in the Mediterranean area – Italy, Greece and Turkey – for thirty years and now lives near Orvieto in Italy where he produces olive oil and red wine.

To get more information and to buy the books visit Nigel’s Website McGilchrist’s GREEK ISLANDS.

Twenty Books, Seventy Islands, A hundred and twenty maps & plans, Three thousand four hundred pages. “For lovers of the Aegean, it is as close to being the definitive guidebook to the region as you are ever going to get.” Daily Telegraph.

Pricing: single book GBP 7.95, all 20 Titles GBP 100 (unboxed), GBP 120 (boxed), free P & P within Europe!

Nigel McGilchrists - Greek Islands - full edition

Panagis Chrysovergis

Amorgos – July 18th, 2011 – Panagis a mechanical engineer from Athens changed his traditional job to photograpy. He is now “married” with photography and hopes that “we are going to have a lot of children (nice pictures) and one day to be a member of magnum photos.” He likes to take pictures “because i have a problem, i see pictures…all the time…in my every life… and believe me its a big problem, because i am very sad when i dont have with me my canon…”

Panagis came to Amorgos first time last summer and fell in love with the island: “the reason is one and only. its beauty in everything … places, sea, humans”.

Thank you Panagis for offering your beautiful pictures to the Amorgos Island Magazine!

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Honestly,  I would go through the exhausting travel all over again because what was waiting for me and my 15 years old daughter Yasmin was beyond our expectations!

During the 8 days, based in Katapola we were hiking trails, visiting villages, exploring beaches and ruins  but especially experiencing the precious gift of the Island its  ”φιλοξενία” … hospitality!
And this reminds me of when we drove South and in the heat of the day, hungry and thirsty we reached the small farming village of KOLOPHANA.

Tavern Delfini, Kolophana, Kato Meria

Looking for a place to eat we noticed a woman waving at us from her little taverna named DELFINI! The sweet owner, Sophia  welcomed us  with her biggest smile and set our table on the small terrace overlooking fields, while we were still parking the car!!!

It was only me and my daughter and without even asking for it, we found two bottles of fresh water waiting for us and she prepared excellent vegetarian food and the most delicious fermented goat cheese plate. She surprised my daughter with an extra portion of home made french fries  and fresh slices of watermelon for both of us! We hugged and took photos before leaving that little special spot in the middle of nowhere!

If you go there, she will certainly invite you to sign on her Guestbook along with a collection of greatful travelers on the road who have been blessed like us to stop by her Delfini and enjoy her simple and earthy food! My daughter helped her and created a sign for her “At Delfini you eat well” written in Italian!

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While you are driving down south … don’t miss this experience of beautiful Greek hospitality!

Sylvia Alberti

Tavern DELFINI
Kato Meria, Kolofana
Tel. + 30 22850 72244

Location map

Ingredients

• Small sized zucchini – the smaller the more aromatic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Fresh coarse-grounded pepper
• Lemon – juice and grated rind

How to

1. Wash and cut off the ends of the zucchini
2. Heat up a large saucepan, half filled with salted water.
3. When water boils, add the zucchini and boil till they are „al dente“. Check with a fork to see when it passes through the skin with ease.
4. Remove on a plate, half each and serve hot with salt, pepper, lemon juice, some grated lemon rind and olive oil.

Καλή όρεξη!

Zucchini – courgette, κολοκυθάκι [:kolokitháki] – like all squash, has its ancestry in the Americas. However, the varieties of squash typically called “zucchini” were developed in Italy, many generations after their introduction from the “New World”.

Zucchini are usually picked when under 20 cm (8 in.) in length, when the seeds are still soft and immature. Mature zucchini can be as much as three feet long, but the larger ones are often fibrous and with the flowers attached are a sign of a truly fresh and immature fruit, and are especially sought by many people.

The zucchini fruit is low in calories (approximately 15 food calories per 100 g fresh zucchini) and contains useful amounts of folate , potassium, vitamin A and manganese.

Yacht "Antalis" distressed in Aegiali Port

The vessel was close to Levrossos beach when water entered one of the open garage like stern doors. Automatic pumps did not come to work and the door could not be closed any more, the ship got list to port. Fisher boat towed the vessel to the port of Agiali. A number of people from Aegiali came up to help, together they were able to tow the boat to the shallow water of Aegiali Beach.

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Update July 5th, 2001 from Dimitris Sinodinos (Amorgos Diving Center):
The vessel was set to ground on Aegiali Beach. In the evening the stern door could be closed manually by divers and three water pumps where installed to remove approximately 10 tons of water. Additionally the boat was balanced by  shifting weight pumping fuel into different tanks. After this was done, the vessel was swimming safe on it’s own again, still waiting in Aegiali Port to get permitted to continue it’s cruise.
Fortunately not a driblet of the vessels’ 80 tons of fuel and 2 tons of oil leaked into the sea due to the resolutely effort Aegiali people offered spontanously!

Update July 12th, 2011: Antalis has left the port of Aegialis (check route on marinetraffic.com)
Update August 3rd, 2011: Read an article about the incidence on www.superyachttimes.com

The incident was also recorded by the Aegiali webcam:

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Yacht Details

• Ship Type: Pleasure Craft
• Length x Breadth: 47 m X 10 m
• Speed recorded (Max / Average): 15.7 / 14.4 knots
• Flag: Cayman Is [KY]
• Read more about ANTALIS

Photos from Markos Loudaros

In the really old days, that was it – every year dirt sifted down into the house or got washed away and you added more. By the 19th century you would have learned to seal the whold thing with a thin layer of hard, rather brittle cement acquired from Santorini.

Now, about the snakes

Those long, straight ceiling sticks were not really straight. They grew sort of wavy and crooked, and tapered on one end. Look at one lying in the dirt and it really resembles the garden variety snakes that live on Amorgos, are not poisonous, and help keep the mouse population down. A snake is a φιδι, fidi, plural φιδια, fidia, a neuter noun. On the island the ceiling stick is a φιδη, fidi, plural φιδες, fides, a feminine noun. In the singular, both nouns are pronounced the same, despite different spelling. Take a look at the photos below. One shows a partially collapsed roof of an old house where the supporting arch gave way. The different layers are evident.

(Click to enlage Pictures)
I was especially struck by how much the fides look like snakes falling out of the wreckage. The other photo shows smoke-blackened fides in place in an old oven (fournos) structure. Those who live in houses with old, non-updated roofs know that you might just occasionally get a real snake in your ceiling, or a scorpion. But never fear, if you thoroughly seal the upper surface of such a roof, the only snakes you’ll see from below are wooden ones. Mice in the ceiling, now – that’s another matter.

Bradley and his artist spouse Sandy fell in love with Amorgos a number of years ago.  Now they divide their time between their home near Seattle, Washington, USA and their old, refurbished vacation house in Langada.  Bradley is especially intrigued by the Greek language and by the processes of everyday life on the island.

Starting with a small guesthouse the facility meanwhile became a well designed hotel – large terrace, Olympic-size sea-water pool, air-conditioned sea-view suite rooms, spa, beauty-center and gym facilities, restaurant, night club and genuine hospitality of its owners and staff. The Aegialis Hotel is located within walking distance from the sandy beaches Aegiali and Levrossos.

Aegialis hotes & spa offers to its guests a variety of activities not only within its territory but also throughout the whole island. Amorgian cuisine with locally produced organic ingredients and Greek wines are served at Ambrosia Restaurant. The daily homemade breakfast includes jams, croissants and pastries. The Corte Wet Café serves light snacks, while spaghetti, salads and pizzas can be enjoyed at Nick’s Pizza. The varied activities offered at Aegialis Hotel & Spa include frequently hosted Greek nights, as well as cooking lessons and wine tasting.

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Gazing the Big Blue: Within the complex of 6 whitewashed buildings, a small world unfolds. Three types of rooms, (Standard, Superior, Exclusive) and three types of Suites (Family, Business & Honeymoon) welcoming it’s guest to experience “the art of Amorgian hospitality” – all in all 50 rooms and 5 suites.

An Oasis for the body and the soul: Lalon Idor (talking water) Thalasso Spa & Beauty Center, a sanctuary for the senses, a place that offers peace, inspiration and profound relaxation.

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The owners familiy do not only look for a rich garden with colorful plants and nice flower decoration throughout the hotel, they are also engaged in further cultural activities on the island. Stamatis is a highly dedicated and well skilled musician, playing traditional Greek music on the violine. Irene – his mother – is the president of the womens cultural association who is the organiser of an annually held conference on culture and tourism – Yperia.

Beside organizing romantic weddings, business meetings and conferences, outdoor activities like hiking, climbing, diving with qualified instructors, Aegialis Hotel is one of the leading forces for the new Geocaching initiave on Amorgos Island.

Greece current difficult situation motivates the family to permanently improve their products, services, communication, … and focus on professional, innovative strategies.

Aegialis Hotel & Spa
Aegiali, Amorgos 84008, Cyclades, Greece
Tel: +30 22850 73393/107
Fax: +30 22850 73395
e-mail: info@amorgos-aegialis.com
Web: www.amorgos-aegialis.com
Aegialis Hotel on Facebook, Weddings at Aegialis Hotel
Guest reviews on Tripadvisor
Aegialis Hotel Webcam

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