The Zagorohoria

ZAGOROHORIA (In Autumn)

by Maria Verivaki

On the last day of the 3-day weekend marking OXI Day (28 October), after flying into the Ioannina wondrous, glorious Ioannina with her beautiful lake and vibrant city life, we picked up our rental car, spent a night in a cheap room near the Perama cave, and began our travels north the next day. We would drive all the way to highly touted tourist village of Papingo (separated into Big P and Little P), set in the Pindos mountain range at 900m above sea level, the largest and most touristic of the Zagorohoria (as the villages in the area are known) in the prefecture of Epirus.

What surprised us is how quiet Papingo was: it was in fact too quiet for us. In winter, it caters mainly for domestic tourism: “You should be glad you weren't here during the 3-day weekend”, said the room owner, a tall senior-aged authoritarian woman who walked with a limp. 'It was so busy, people couldn't even be served'. She runs a restaurant with her rooms. “Tourists don’t understand that. We don’t have many tables indoors to cater for everyone, We have outdoor seating but they complain of the cold, so why did they come to Papingo? It’s always cooler here. We run everything ourselves here. What do people expect of a place that gets inundated for such a short period, and then becomes a hermitage?

We had arrived in the early evening, but there were no restaurants open. The 3-day weekend was over, and most travellers had left. There was a dim light coming from one café, but it didn’t look too enticing. The atmosphere was dark and misty, so that you couldn’t see where you were walking clearly. We called it an early night. The morning light revealed Papingo’s awesomeness as we viewed the rocky mountains, often called the Towers of Papingo, in all their magnificence.

Throughout the day while we were driving, we did in fact have problems finding places open for lunch/dinner in the Zagorohoria area. Despite the lack of rainfall that year, winter had set in well and truly in the north and it felt cold wherever we went. Winter is not the time to expect much to be open in these places unless it’s a weekend, Christmastime or a holiday period. The best place to be in winter is near a fireplace with friends. A smoking chimney was in fact the main way we understood how populated the least populated villages of Greece are; sometimes, it was just one - or none.

Kakori Bridge in summer

Somewhere along the way, we detoured when we saw a sign pointing to some old stone bridges. The drive was off road, and it took us through forest where logs were piled up neatly on one side. We came across two forestry workers who were working with heavy machinery, piling the logs into a truck. We talked about how the drought had affected their work: “There’s what looks like a drought now, but we had rain from mid-August to mid-September which delayed our work. See these logs here, we were supposed to have finished moving them by the beginning of October.” They also told us about the wildlife in the region: “We used to see a lot of bears when I was younger, but their numbers have diminished. Bears aren’t really harmful. They just mess up your garden. Wolves never really caused a lot of problems, but lately they have been coming closer to inhabited areas and killing sheep, even dogs. Boar also cause damage, ruining cultivations, so we hunt them nearly all year round.” We asked them about the signposted bridges; they told us that they hadn’t driven so far down the track in a while, and they warned us about the road not being suitable for our rental car. We decided to turn back, thanking them for the conversation, and let them continue their work.

Kalogeriko Bridge in Autumn

We had the foresight to lunch at the only place we found open along the way. We enjoyed a fantastic meal in the village of Kipoi. Pita (pie) and fasolada (bean soup) are the signature meals of the cold north, and they were so good everywhere we went, that we ate pie and bean soup almost every day. The owner told us that he will be closing his restaurant in a week or so, to get a rest before the next onslaught at Christmas, when the Zagorohoria are overcome by domestic tourists seeking snowy mountain scenes.

Voidomatis River in September

Papingo is a good place for hikes in the countryside. These walks can take place any time of the year weather permitting. But the whole area of the Zagorohoria is good for walking, combining forest and village scenery. There is an interesting formation of rock pools between Big and Little Papingo which are generally too cold for swimming. Epirus has many old stone bridges of astounding beauty that are well noted on maps. Some are side-by-side with the main road, while others were hidden from view and you will need to stop the car and walk through the forest to see them. They are all accessible and the roads are well maintained. If you hire a suitable vehicle, you will have no problem driving through forests too.

Dilofo

Our drive took us through the very picturesque villages of Dikorfo, Manasi, Kalouta, Dilofo, Kipoi, Koukouli, and the beautiful Aristi where it was dusk when we arrived. This would be my choice to stay if I were planning another trip there. We drove on without stopping until we got to Big Papingo and visited Little Papingo the next day. Apart from Kipoi, Aristi and Big Papingo the other villages either had few (or no) signs of life. The main work in the region is forestry. Despite the solitude, Papingo did not disappoint us; as Kavafy reminds us, it's all about the journey, not the destination. This could be the motto for our whole journey in northwest Greece in that dry sunny autumn of 2024.

Aristis in September

Traveling through the Zagorohoria during the winter months, you must keep in mind that roads are very windy; google's opening hours for restaurants are wrong; things go quiet there early; and if it's a holiday period (weekends, long weekends, peak summer, Easter and especially Christmas), everything will be booked out if you don't book early enough.

Suggested Hotels in the Zagohoria