Today was a driving day. We left Nafplio with a “care package” from our hotel, filled with spanikopita and feta filled pastry. Our first stop was in Argos, where we were quite impressed by the ancient theater, with a capacity of 20,000. It was one of the largest ancient theaters in Greece, built in the 3rd century BC, and carved into the existing stone hillside. We whispered to each other from opposite sides of the theater, and the acoustics still work!
We stopped in Sparta and were quite disappointed in the sparse ruins. We read that “the people of Sparta were so spartan that there wasn’t much to leave behind.” The ruins were not significant. We drove just a bit further to Mystras, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that was the capital of the Byzantine Despotate in the 15th and 15th centuries AD, during a period of prosperity and cultural largesse. A large castle was on the hilltop, several churches and a monastery, along with various other ruins.
We arrived in Pylos at 4 and checked into our waterfront hotel. Pylos is located on the Bay of Navarino, that flows into the Aegean Sea. Pylos, with a population of 5200, has been inhabited since Neolithic Times and has a castle built in the 1200’s, at its most southern point. We had an early dinner along the waterside, then walked about the castle walls, and along the water. The day was beautiful, with a high of 75 and partly cloudy.
