Klíma - Pláka - Pláthienas

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.
Back in Pláka it will last for half an hour to reach Pláthienas – all together this makes for a hike of 1h25 – this does not include the visits, the pauses and the periods of rest.

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. 

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.

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!

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).

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. 

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.

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.

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:
- you either take a left on the gravel road, till you get to the catacombs. At the parking lot you do down via the concrete staircase; you follow the path through the pumice stone and you take the steps to the asphalt road leading towards Klíma