Menalon Trail

The trail's royal day, and its hardest. Below Stemnitsa an old mule track drops into the Lousios gorge, where the Prodromos monastery clings to the rock face with its chapel carved into the stone. In the gorge itself stone footbridges and frescoed chapels alternate: the old Philosophou monastery of 963 hides behind a boulder, the new one from 1691 sits on a sunny ledge. Past the Water Power Museum and a beautifully restored kalderimi you enter Dimitsana on the saddle between its two quarters.

The shortest stage, designed as an easy day. Outside Dimitsana the path climbs out of the Lousios valley through a ravine to the edge of the fir forest. You pass the old church of Agios Ioannis and the Pera Vrisi fountain, then arrive in Zygovisti, a hamlet of a handful of houses at the forest edge where the afternoon goes quiet by itself.

The longest stage runs straight through the Mainalo fir forest, with the country church of Agios Georgios and its spring as the first rest stop. The path follows old drovers' roads and soft forest trails, alternating climbing slopes with long traverses, and descends at the end into Elati, a classic summer village with tavernas under the fir trees.

The lightest day: a long descent first to the bed of the Milaon, then kilometres along the stream in plane-tree shade. You pass three abandoned watermills, the stone Makrinou fountain and the rock-cut Artotsi spring, then reach Vytina, the main village of the area with a square full of cafes. The Mavra Litharia boulder in the stream appears between the trees, split in two by the water itself.

A short half-day. After 850 metres of asphalt you reach Old Vytina and the Mavra Litharia boulder, where the Milaon has cut a short, impressive gorge through limestone. From there the stone Tzavarenas bridge and an unusual rocky landscape of flysch and shrubs lead to Nymfasia, a hamlet on the oak slopes below Mainalo that acts as Vytina's quieter double.

The climbing day, to the highest village on the route. Through oak woods the path drops to the Kernitsa bridge, then climbs steeply to the Kernitsi monastery, wedged against a monolith. The high traverse follows: a quiet hermitage with a spring at 1,000 metres, a traverse under the steep Kastro slope and a final climb through fir forest to Magouliana at 1,350 metres, the highland village with the rugged surroundings.

A calm ridge day with surprising views. Outside Magouliana you pass stone threshing floors in the open landscape around Lasta, then descend past the old sanatorium in the valley and follow a stream down a quiet basin to the hamlet of Kaminia. An old, partly paved path climbs from there to Valtesiniko, the woodcarvers' village, with a square of carving shops and the ruins of the Byzantine fortress above the roofs.

The closing stage starts with a climb to the Byzantine fortress above Valtesiniko, with views over the northern plains. A long fir-forest traverse follows, a spring at Grias to Lithari, and the open hills of Grilas with walnut trees and huts. From Draina Panorama you can already see Lagkadia; the trail winds in via the Rapi watermills and ends at the war memorial on the square.