In the mountains and villages of Pelion, I looked for clues about popular Greek legends.
Along the way, I found the perfect (modern-day) vacation.
Sivan Askayo
Writing a book is a long, lonely, indoor job.
Greece’s Damouchari Beach, one of the finest in the Pelion region.Credit:Sivan Askayo
There was no chance of travel, no escape from the island of my London study.
I decided on a late-summer visit to Pelion.
The remains of its Hellenistic and Roman buildings lay amid rivulets and lush vegetation.
From left: A family walks on the path from Fakistra to Damouchari; a mosaic of the Medusa on display in the ancient city of Dion, near Mount Olympus.Sivan Askayo
It was a powerful experience: a feeling of touching not myth, but history.
A couple of hours later, we came to the edge of Volos.
The portrait turned out to be accurate.
From left: Amanita Guesthouse, where dinners are served in the garden; calming simplicity at Amanita Guesthouse, on the slopes of Mount Pelion.Sivan Askayo
Today, the villages dotting the mountain are connected by convenient, if precipitously winding, roads.
(It is so pretty, in fact, that a scene from the filmMamma Miawas filmed there.)
Pelion in September is remarkably lush and green no surprise, then, to have a days gentle rain.
From left: Breakfast at Ktima Bellou, a small hotel on Olympus where much of the food is made or grown on-property; Olympus views from the swimming pool at Ktima Bellou.Sivan Askayo
We pulled on raincoats and wandered through the chestnut woods above Tsagarada.
This was Caesars mushroom, orAmanita caesarea,Filaretos told us, his eyes lighting up.
Given this tremendous harvest, the obvious thing to do was have dinner at the guesthouse.
Mount Olympus, as seen from the road to the ancient city of Dion.Sivan Askayo
Surely those elegantly coiled fern shoots would have been exactly what a hungry centaur grazed on.
