The sky was bright when we woke with just a few pink clouds in the sky.
We walked down to meet Erin at her hotel at around 9.40 . On the way, we passed the cutest little arrangement for a kitten house before we found an Erin sitting on the little terrace at her hotel.
From there we headed to the main square at the waterfront to begin our tour of the town. There is an obelisk I the square commemorating the French soldiers who assisted the Greeks in their fight for independence from the Turks.
There is also a squat broad olive tree that was transferred here only about ten years ago, but the tree itself is 900 years old!
We walked a short distance to take a look at the Church of St Mary , with its lovely interior.
Just outside the church we spotted a kitten who was keen to make friends with Erin, she and I are suckers for kittens!
Behind the church we walked into Syntagma Square. Like the main square in Athens, Nafplio’s central plaza is dubbed “Constitution Square”, celebrating the 1843 document that established a constitutional monarchy for Greece. Napflio was one of the first towns liberated from the Ottoman Turks (1822) and became the new country’s first capital.
It is a lovely space, the ground is all marble tiles and there are pretty old neoclassical buildings along one side with cafes beneath them. At one end is a solid stone building that was the Venetian armoury, but it’s now the archeological museum. It has a Venetian lion plaque above the main door.
Beyond that we could see a domed former mosque. In 1825, with the Muslim Ottomans expelled, this building was taken over and renovated to house independent Greece’s first parliament. (Now it serves as a conference center.)
We walked out the opposite end of the square along the main shopping street. All sorts of shops, selling everything from Greek leather sandals to worry beads. We admired the display of a,very worry beads in the window.
A few short blocks down the street we came out into Town Hall Square, where a statue marks the one-time location of the palace of King Otto, first head of state of post-Ottoman Greece. The great powers, England, France and Russia-insisted that the newly independent Greeks have a monarchy. Otto was imported from Bavaria. He wasn’t here for long, though: enthusiastic student of classical history, Otto was charmed by the idea of reviving the greatness of ancient Athens and moved the capital to Athens after just one year. (The palace that once stood here burned down in 1929.)
Here we were on the border of the Old Town and the New Town.
Nearby we walked through Nafplio’s Land Gate, part of the city’s 18th-century Venetian fortifications.This was a good spot to look up to the lower part of Akronafpila fortress, which was built upon the remains of an ancient fort. The big stones at the base of its wall date from the third century BC.
We turned back into the Old Town and walked down another of its narrow alleys until we came to St George Square and the towns cathedral. The interior is stunning , but there was a maze of blue scaffolding inside that appeared to be there to support the ceiling.
As we walked back towards the waterfront we passed the Church of St Spyridon, and facing it the first of several 18th century Turkish fountains that line the street. When the Ottomans controlled Greece, they still used the Arabic script , and a panel at the top of the fountain names the guy who paid for the fountain and tells when he had it built (1734-1735) and why (to provide water for his horses)
We also passed another cute cat!
Back out at the waterfront we paid 7 euro each and hopped on the little boat that carries people across the bay to Bourtzi Fortress. It was such a lovely day to be on the water!
The ride out took only a few minutes and we hopped out to explore. The fortress had been abandoned for a long time before it was restored as a hotel by a wealthy local in the 1940s. It operated until the 60s when it was again abandoned. The government finally took on the job of restoring it only about 10 years ago. Today it has a museum ( with a display of one of the old hotel rooms) and a cafe and shop. We really enjoyed our time exploring and sat having coffee and admiring the view back to the town across the bay. We could see our hotel.
As the boat took us back to town, we looked up at the Palamidi Fortress and could see the rather formidable path that you can climb to reach its lower entrance. Fortunately you can also drive up , which is what we plan to do, but Erin is intrigued with the idea of walking up and meeting us there when we go tomorrow. Better her than me!
Back on shore we went back to Syntagma Square to visit the Archeological Museum, it has a huge array of finds that have been found throughout this area. I was amazed at how well preserved many of them are. The pride of the collection is a3,400 year old suit of armour!
We were getting a little hungry so we stopped in one of the cafes in the square to share a light lunch. The friendly greeter started talking Greek to us, which is unusual! Generally people take one look at us and start speaking English 😂 Once he realised his mistake he asked if we were American. On hearing, “No, Australian” he said ” Better!!” 😊
Lunch was a shared club sandwich and chips and then we headed for the Ethnographic Museum, which Erin was keen to visit. It had a wonderful selection of traditional Greek costumes, mainly from this area. The embroidery on some of the garments was absolutely exquisite!
It was time to rest our legs so we split up and Neil and I headed back to our hotel for a break, passing along the pretty streets.
The rain started to fall in the afternoon , not heavy but persistent. Erin came up to our Hotel for a drink in the bar and we needed to break out the umbrella to walk back down to the town for dinner. It had become much colder too, and we had to make do with an outdoor table at Aiolos Tavern. The food was great, and made up for the chill. We had wonderful dolmades, a traditional pie, roasted beets with garlic potatoes and a fab veal cutlet in a creamy mushroom sauce. Once again we were served free orange cake for dessert.
