
Chez Penelope
10 euros discount at the booking
- Special Offer:
An unforgettable experience, meeting local people and walking with the guide. With 10 euros discount for Independent women travellers
Who: Walden Viaggi a piedi
With an Environmental Guide to meet some women keeping traditions
"Every time you get to Perachori and you pass by his house, at any time, she takes a huge key and takes us to visit the church all frescoed, she a little claudicating and with the blurred view, exposes us in Greek, with great emphasis, the whole history of the building and the frescoes. It’s beautiful, we don’t understand much but we feel that it’s beautiful.". This is how Francesca Benassai, one of Walden’s guides, specialized in walking trips, describes perhaps the oldest and most authentic woman we are talking about on this website. In a way, even the old lady of Perachori could be Walden’s honorary guide!
We are in Greece, in Ithaca, and in the footsteps of Penelope, certainly the most famous town, Francesca interprets his trekking, On his steps you go to the island petrosa, seven days and five hours a day of easy walking and diving, passing by cheerful taverns and blue rooms, meeting fishermen, shepherds and women, enjoying fresh fish and "ravani", filled with rice and honey, on the beach.
As Francesca explains: "After all, Ithaca is more his, the woman who weaves furiously waiting for the brave, if only for twenty years he was not there. We’re gonna beat the hell out of you looking for the rest of you. We meet the many Penelopi there, we fantasize about Circi, Nausicae, Calipsoi that embody many types of women".
The women, who like Penelope have remained to take care of their land when so many have emigrated, are Eleni, Tasia, or Francisca, with their simple and authentic hospitality. Eleni has very nicely renovated many houses heated by wood stoves, in his farm, just outside Vathy. In the north, in Stavros, Tasia has a more private style, has a garden of roses and a few rooms of two, offers jam of its oranges, and directs for lunch by her daughter-in-law, at the tavern Penelope, on the beach of Frikes. Francisca instead invented the Cuban club Polyphemus, where the nights come alive with music and renowned Greek cuisine in the garden.
Then, says Francesca, "We will go no less to explore the many shades of blue and green of the sea and the generous land of the wild. We will question and search for the Hero Odysseus for certain. We will read of him the deeds and we will reflect the many metaphors that his Nostos inspired: first and foremost that of the Journey and unrepeatable. A comfortable and bubbly journey, full of fragrant May, of gods and myth and surprises".