Southern Laconia , consisting of Western and Eastern Mani, is a really special part of Greece.

Special for its rich history, marked by the untamed spirit of its inhabitants.

Special for its picturesque landscapes, offering the visitors routes of unique beauty.

Special for the way its people live, in traditional stone-built settlements.

Starting our trip from the town of Areopolis , where the tall mountains subside a bit to allow the road to pass to the village of Kotronas, we enter the Municipality of Eastern Mani.

After passing the detour to the village Agrilia we can see in front of us the village Nyfi.

It is said that the village owes its name (nyfi = bride in Greek) to the fact that it is surrounded by trees, just like a bride is surrounded by flowers.

The village belongs to Eastern Mani and it includes the settlements of Mesa Chora, Exo Nyfi, Vigla, Atsoupi, Yialos, Alypas and Kournos.

The settlements are amphitheatrically built, parallel to the sea, on a hill side.

A natural passage, a trail, leads from Nyfi to the monastery of Kournos .

The route to Kournos can offer you a pleasant daytime excursion.

At a distance of 25 km from Nyfi are located the famous Dyros Caves. Among them the famous caves Alepotrypa, Katafygi and Glyfada, where human bones dating back to the Neolithic era and fossils have been found.

After the little picturesque port of Gerolimenas, at a distance of 18 km from Nyfi, the village called Vathia stands proudly on a strategic hilltop position surrounded by the ruins of older settlements.

Lagia is a municipal district of the municipality of Eastern Mani and it comprises 11 villages and settlements.

It is an impressive village, architecturally special, at a distance of 8 km from Nyfi, 17 km from Vathia and 24 km from Kotronas.

Layia demonstrates a characteristic colour of Mani with its composite stone-built towered walls and the characteristic "truncated towers".

The village is strewn with towers and tower-houses, as it has always been the centre of the larger area of Tainaro.

The name of Tainaro or Acrotainaro comes from deep in time, before the historical era.

The extremely ancient town of Tainaro was built in the pre-classic period, around the temple of Helios (Sun), which was located in a deep cave and it contained a water fountain.

There, traces of Neolithic settlements were found in 1968.

In the classic years a temple of Poseidon was constructed on the same location.

Today along the Porto Kayo – Tainaro route one can distinguish the ancient marble quarries.

An important building of the area is the 16 m tall Cape Tainaron lighthouse, built by French on 1882 at an elevation of 25 m.

The lighthouse was refurbished in 1950 and the range of its light is 25 nautical miles.

The town of Gythio is located at 33 km from Nyfi.

Gythio is a small town of Laconia, but the largest of Mani.

It is an ideal base for excursions as well as hunting and fishing outings.

Gythio also offers you the opportunity to travel around Mani and see its famous tower-houses. There is also ferry service to Kythira, the most distant island of the complex of Eptanisa.

In Gythio there are hotels or rental rooms which can fully cover your accommodation requirements.

Just 1 km from Gythio stretches the beach of Selinitsa, as well as the beach of Mavrovouni, one of the most beautiful in Mediterranean.

Sparti (Sparta), the capital of Laconia, is built in the center of a fertile plain, next to the Evrotas river, at a distance of 90 km from Nyfi. It is a modern town which still maintains some of the "past glory".

The visitor can admire the ancient theatre, the temple of Halkioikos Athena, the temple of Artemis Orthia and the Menelaion, the temple built in honour of Menelaos and Helen of Troy.

The ruins of the deserted medieval town of Mystras are standing on the eastern side of Taygetos mountain, overlooking the quite waters of Evrotas river.

Nyfi - Mani
Laconia - Peloponnese
Greece

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