{"id":3454,"date":"1976-01-01T16:21:00","date_gmt":"1976-01-01T16:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2022-03-28T16:24:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T16:24:40","slug":"snowtime-in-sunny-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/1976\/01\/01\/snowtime-in-sunny-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowtime in Sunny Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A white winter? In Greece? Yes, indeed (and sometimes even a white spring). After all, about eighty percent of the land surface is covered by mountains. From mid-December until the end of April there is snow above an altitude of 1800 metres, and, from January to mid-March, above 1500 metres. At times the snow fields even extend down to 1000 metres. Parnassos, Pilion, Vermion, Pindos, Vitsi, Parnis, Olympus are only a few of the mountains with winter sports facilities. Gradually, these resorts are being equipped with refuges, shelters, and funicular railways which are being installed under the guidance of the Hellenic Alpine Club (National Skiing Federation of Greece). These facilities, together with the satisfactory snow conditions, have developed winter sports in Greece far away from the crowded European slopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best equipped is Mt. Pilion in Thessaly\u2014the celebrated, densely forested abode of gods and heroes, and the site of many dramatic adventures in Greek mythology. Its highest peak, Pliasside (1,548 metres) offers a spectacular view of the plain of Thessaly, Mt. Olympus and the Aegean Sea. Mt. Pilion has two ski lifts (the starting point is Agriolefkos, situated near the village of Hania) as well as the Hellenic Alpine Club Refuge. Operating from December to April, they have one hundred and forty seats and can handle six hundred skiers per hour. Accommodations are available in a number of the twenty-four villages which rise from sea level up the slopes of the mountain. Particularly attractive are Portaria, Hania, (surrounded by a dense beech forest) and Zagora (famous for its Museum of the Hellenes). The town of Volos (twenty-six kilometres from Hania) offers a wide choice of hotel accommodations. Situated on the shores of the Gulf of Pegasae, Volos is frequently the starting point for excursions into the Mt. Pilion region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Macedonia, there is the winter resort of Mt. Vermion with the highest summit reaching an altitude of 2,065 metres. Mt. Vermion offers the possibility of skiing during three months of the year. A lift leads from a point near the village of Seli, eighteen kilometres from Naoussa, a town renowned for its wines. There are hotels at Naoussa and at Verria. Its narrow lanes and lattice-windowed old houses make Verria well worth a visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skiing holidays can be arranged through travel agencies in Athens who offer skiing packages this winter at unexpectedly reasonable prices which include transportation and hotel accommodations. Provision is also made for the rental of ski equipment and purchase of ski-lift tickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know ubout the Grecian summers with their influx of visitors, crowded ferry bouts, unci island life, but winter comes and tourists go and with a sigh we begin unpacking our flokatis. II you’re a snow bunny it’s time now to unpack your skis and maps and to head toward the mountains!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":3455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3456,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions\/3456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-athenian.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}