Klíma - Pláka - Pláthienas |
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Evaluation:
This is definitely the most beautiful hike you can make on the island of
Mílos, which is not really an ideal hiking island. On the part between
Klíma and Pláka you walk on beautiful trails, with a marvellous
panoramic view and with the opportunity to visit the catacombs and the
Roman excavations – more over, you really walk among incredible fields
of flowers in springtime. Between Pláka and the nice beach of Pláthienas
you will first walk on a beautiful trail and then on a gravel road. This
hike gets an evaluation of **. Estimated time:
The real hiking time only takes fifteen minutes to the theatre or the
catacombs. It will then take you ten minutes to reach the summit of the
Profítis Ilías, another fifteen minutes to Pláka and then yet another
fifteen minutes all the way up to the Kástro. Route description: We suppose that you stay in Hotel Panórama in Klíma, which is truly a wonderful place! From the terrace of the hotel itself you can take the stairs to go down to the beach. The little harbour of Klíma is very picturesque because of the boat garages – most of which are now being hired by Greeks as summer homes.
The picturesque harbour of Klima. Immediately past
the first house (with the large arches) of the left-hand part of Klíma
you find the small street off the right. Directly past the church though,
you go up on the left steeply, by following an old staircase. After
about seven minutes climbing you get to another staircase coming from
the right. In front of you, you can already see the retaining wall on
the left of the theatre. A climb of some ten minutes brings you to this
retaining wall; you then follow the path running further up on the left
of the theatre until you arrive slightly above the theatre.
[If you have
visited Klíma before and want to follow a shorter route, you can take
the asphalt road from Hotel Panórama towards Klíma, till the large
bend to the left. Just past this bend you notice a very clear concrete
trail with steps, going up on the right. 136 steps bring you to a small
chapel and then you continue over a gentle slope and through some pumice
stone. At a telephone pole you take a left – the path straight ahead
continues to Tripití – and in this way it takes about ten
minutes all together to reach the entrance to the catacombs. From this
point you can easily find your way to the theatre.] These are the most beautiful - Roman - remnants of the ancient town of Mílos, located on the slopes of the Profítis Ilías and the Faneroméni; there are also remnants of an agorá with stoas and two temples and of a gymnasion. Around here the famous statue of Aphrodite was found in 1820. This statue is known as the "Venus of Milo"; it is a marvellously preserved late-Hellenistic statue, dating from about 120 BC; it is kept in the Louvre in Paris.
Panoramic view on the Roman theatre and Klima. Above the theatre
you can follow the signpost to the right, towards the catacombs – the
only catacombs in Greece. A small part of it can be visited – for free.
They are only open before noon though, and not on Mondays.
After your visit
you return to the theatre. Just above the theatre you find a gravel
trail going up on the slope. First it leads to right in the direction of
Tripití, but a little further it goes more to the left. You thus get to
an obvious trail, running in the direction of the valley between Pláka
and the hill of the Profítis Ilías. There is a mass of flowers over
there in springtime!
Flowers between the theatre and the hill of Profítis Ilías. A
little further down, at the corner of a wall, you get to a junction.
First you take a left – a slight detour to admire the view – and a
couple of minutes later you thus get to the chapel on top of the hill of
Profítis Ilías (100m). |
The hill of Profítis Ilías. You then return to
the valley and at the corner of the wall you go straight ahead and up on
a nicely paved trail to Pláka. By going up all the time you
arrive at the village. Keeping
to the left you can first pay a visit to the small folk museum and then
to the main church of Korfiátissa. From the forecourt of the church the
panoramic view and the sunsets are astounding. You then continue to the
bus square. The view is even
more beautiful when you climb from the square to the Kástro. Over there
you find the church of Kímissis tis Theotókou and you can overlook a
large part of the island.
The ascent to the kástro. You
then descend to the square again and immediately on the right you notice
the beginning of a small street (there is a signpost to Aretí). Quite
soon this street turns into a trail nicely paved with brown stones;
sometimes this trail is overgrown in springtime. After five minutes you
get to the turn to Aretí off the left (this is also a nice trail, but
unfortunately it gets totally overgrown after a short while). Some three
minutes later you pass a gravel road on the right. You continue straight
ahead all the time; the path is narrower now, but still nicely paved.
After another five minutes this trail becomes a gravel road, which you
follow by curving to the right. The road becomes very reddish and it
runs amidst fantastic rock formations. You pass two roads off the left
leading towards Fourkovoúni. You continue on this road for about ten
minutes and you thus get to the usually deserted beach of Pláthienas.
The bay of Pláthienas. You
return via the same route, so when standing with your back towards the
sea, you should take the concrete road on the right – this road soon
becomes a red gravel road. You pass two roads off the right leading to
Fourkovoúni and you walk among beautiful red rocks with a great view on
Pláka in front of you. Walking among the red rocks from Pláthienas to Pláka. Slightly further
on, where you get to a concrete slope to the right, you find your monopáti
straight ahead. This path brings you to the square of Pláka in a little
under ten minutes. You now go to the
other side of the square and you continue in the direction of Tripití
for quite a while. You walk again on the left-hand side of the museum
and the church. You watch out not to go too much to the right; only at
the signpost “catacombs” you take a right and in this way you get to
the path that goes down and thus leaves the village.
You now walk again
in the direction of the hill of the Profítis Ilías; you do not take a
right to Agios Fanoúrios and you thus arrive again at the corner of the
wall – at this point you go left. A little further down you can choose:
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