Year after Year

Some interesting plaster details

It is a sizzling hot summer’s day on the small Greek island of Symi. The heatwave has broken in other parts of Greek but Symi seems to be as hot as ever. The August exodus has started as Greek, French and Italian visitors head for home and the office. Many visitors are taking the opportunity to call in and book their accommodation for next summer – the surest way of securing the larger and more popular houses. Symi has a very high return rate with many families coming to the island for their holidays year after year. It is not uncommon for people to first visit Symi while on honeymoon or as newly weds staying in accommodation for two, return with children, staying in ever larger family houses over the years and then return to smaller properties as the children grow up. As there are no tourist ghettoes on the island and all holiday accommodation is within the community friends are quickly made, the children can enjoy an unprecedented amount of freedom and parents can relax. While no one would pretend that Symi is an inexpensive destination for a family holiday, choosing the right accommodation to start with can make a big difference to the family’s holiday budget.

Old Roman tiles.  The care with which they have been removed and stacked would suggest that they are going to be reused.

Over the next few days Symi will become steadily emptier as the August visitors fade away, only to fill up again on 1 September when many of Symi’s regular visitors who don’t have to work around school holidays start to arrive. The Greek schools reopen soon and it looks as though the renovation project at the technical high school in Chorio which has been going on for years is finally coming to some sort of conclusion.

These huge roof beams had to be manhandled up the Kali Strata as this property is over 100 steps up from the nearest vehicle access. The other materials were brought up by donkey and mule train.

There is a fund raising event at the Olive Tree in Chorio this evening for Symi Animal Welfare. Details of this were put up on Friday's blog. It is also the big festival and beach party over on the island of Nimos tonight and when I came down this morning a boat load of local ladies was heading that way equipped with various items for getting the little monastery ready for the festivities.

The pitch of this roof was increased when the new roof was put on in order to reduce leaks. When it rains on Symi it comes down in torrents and as the traditional design incorporates rainwater catchment in a gutter round the top of the walls to fill a cistern beneath the house, if the rain comes down very hard it can flow down the inside of the walls.

Today’s photos show some of the work going on to restore ruins on the Kali Strata. All of these are private projects under the careful eye of the archaeologia, the museum service.



Have a good week.



Regards,

Adriana