Ancient Messene

We drove up to Ancient Messene, which we have been to before many years ago with the kids. That time, it was so cold we had to buy blankets for the kids to keep warm, and we saw hardly anything of the site. This time, we spent 2-3 hours wandering around, and although I started wearing a pullover, it was soon too warm for it.

The site is quite enormous, and runs all the way down from the theatre and Agora at the top, to the various temples including the Ascalepion in the middle of the site, and then at the bottom of the site is a Stadium for athletics, and a temple that looks a bit like the Parthenon.

Each of these has details of life in ancient times, including a bathhouse in the Agora, and there are fantastic views over the nearby mountains.

Town of Ancient Messene

After looking round, we drove the car up to the town of Ancient Messene. There is a nice fountain in the town, and a tiny little Greek church, nothing too spectacular.

We stopped off at a restaurant called Ithome, attracted by the smell of food, and had the most delicious meal of oven-cooked pork and stuffed aubergine. Neither of us was particularly hungry when we arrived, but that did not last long. The pork was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted, with a crackling that was salty, really juicy meat and rustic fried potatoes. Heaven! We had a half liter of red, and the whole meal was less than 30 euros.