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| Voidokilia Beach, Messenia Greece |
Jeff–Saturday
The Peloponnese is the southernmost part of mainland Greece, about the same size as the American state of Massachusetts and the setting for much of the blood-soaked drama that comprises ancient Greek history. Once the ancestral home to Spartan power, it remains a place of lush mountain passes, broad green valleys, jagged gray mountains, and pixilated groves of green; all set off against a western horizon of turquoise Ionian waters edging up against Messenia, the western prong of the trident-shape peninsula tip of the Peloponnese. Separated from its middle-finger-peninsula neighbor to the east, the Mani, by the roughly one-hundred-fifty-kilometer shoreline of the Messenian Gulf, it is a region of epic historic and current adventures.
The Messenian Gulf’s southeastern tip begins at the Mani’s iconic Cape Tenaro lighthouse–– built by the French in 1882 atop rugged gray rock jutting out into the sea––it stands close by the southernmost point in mainland Greece and the rumored entrance to Hades. Its distinctive, square-sided, massive stone pedestal tower is buttressed between twin one-story stone structures, all resting upon a foundation set into the underlying rock.
For those who prefer a graphic novel style description of the lighthouse…you’ll find it here on the cover of my new book, coming April 1st.
The rugged rocky coastline surrounding the lighthouse continues north along a virtually beachless, eight-mile run of stark gray cliff faces topped in arid hills and more stone. To some, the undulating landscape resembles a herd of massive crawling humpback creatures, with lizard skins of brown and gray touched with warts of green, perched high above the edge of the sea, unsure of whether to pause or leap.
A bit further north, the coastline pinches in to form a mile-wide waist in the peninsula. Just south of that, in the area of Marmara, the coastline briefly flattens to create two sandy beaches, a hopeful sign of better things to come, but the next twenty miles yield only more rocks and stone cliff faces, rarely punctuated by sandy coves or man-made structures.
Further north still is Areopoli, a city named after the Greek god of war and where locals struck the first blow in Greece’s 1821 War of Independence. North of there the landscape turns greener and the shoreline busier, all to be expected the closer you come to Kalamata at the top of the Gulf, the capital of Messenia and the second largest city in the Peloponnese.
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| Kalamata |
Curving south out of Kalamata, the Gulf’s western shoreline is calmer, flatter, sandier and far more fertile, offering long stretches of beach and vast, verdant farmlands filled with olives, citrus, figs, and rice as it heads toward its western boundary at Venetiko Island.
From there Messenia proper runs north to its border with the regional unit of Elis—home to Olympia. But we’re not going that far north. We’re only going as far north as Navarino. That’s the historic Italian name for the lovely, neo-classical town of Pylos, nestled along the Messenia shores of the Ionian Sea at the southern entrance to Navarino Cove. Perhaps Greece’s most important sea battle of all time, the Battle of Navarino, was fought on those waters. In October 1827, in the midst of Greece’s War for Independence, ships of the combined French, Russian, and English navies destroyed an Ottoman and Egyptian fleet twice their size. Their battle on behalf of Greece hastened the end of the war, and independence for Greece.
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| Pylos |
Today, it’s likely best known for The Costa Navarino Golf Resort built along the cove’s eastern shore. Its first golf course and hotel opened in 2010. Today, it’s a 2500-acre golf resort complex offering four 5-star hotels, four multiple-award winning eighteen-hole golf courses, and the title, ‘World’s Best Emerging Golf Destination;’ all set among tens of thousands of olive trees, flourishing vineyards, and more than a million additional, well-tended endemic trees and shrubs.
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| Costa Navarino |
It is an area where the wealthy and powerful of Greece and beyond come to play.
Apparently, it’s also where movies come to spend $250,000,000 (if you believe the press). Not to mention an author who bases his novels in Greece and decided over a year ago to place a seminal scene in his Messenia-based, fourteenth novel at Navarino––a star-reviewed page turner that is currently available for pre-order at an approximately seven decimal places cheaper price than the movie.
Yes, Sir Christoper Nolan (Dunkirk) is setting much of his epic “The Odyssey” in the region, starring Matt Damon. The locals are pleased.
If you pre-order NOT DEAD YET, I shall be too.
––Jeff
Jeff’s Events (still in formation)
2025
All Live Events
Wednesday, April 2, 6:00
p.m. ET
Mysterious Bookshop
Author Speaking and Signing
New York, NY
Sunday, April 6, 2:00 p.m.
PT
Book Carnival
Author Speaking and Signing
Orange, CA
Sunday, April 13, 2:00
p.m. MT
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Author Speaking and Signing
Scottsdale, AZ
Friday, April 25, 7:00
p.m.
Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Author Speaking and Signing
Pittsburgh, PA
Sunday, May 4, 2:00 p.m.
ET
Sparta Public Library
Author Speaking and Signing
Sparta, NJ
Thursday, May 15 – Sunday,
May 18
CrimeFest
Author Panels yet to be assigned
Bristol, UK
Wednesday, September 3 –
Sunday, September 7
Bouchercon
Author Panels yet to be assigned
New Orleans, LA
Posts
You are such a great literary ambassador for Greece. The Peloponnese sound wonderful. And have a very joyful book launch! Congratulations
ReplyDeleteCan you see me blushing, Sujata? Thank you for the good wishes. And the southern Peloponnese in so many ways is a throwback to olden days...at least for now.
DeleteConsider yourself pleased. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, EvKa. I feel now both poked and pleased. :)
ReplyDelete