Sat Aug 10, 2024
Hi All! Well today was a double WOW day… oh heck, I’ll call it a triple WOW day! Today we visited the Meteora Monasteries and they totally wowed us! Wait until you see the pictures.
They are built on these high rocks in central Greece that are over 2,000 feet high. There used to be 24 monasteries but now there are only 6 that are active. The James Bond film “For your eyes only” was filmed here. Some monasteries covered their facade during filming since the film depicted the Nazis. It was an all day excursion and far from the port of Igoumenitsa (2.5 hour drive each way!) but well worth it!
Meteora means “suspended in the air” and that’s truly what they look like. Over 30,000 monks and nuns used to live here and some still do. They had to use nets to climb up the rocks. The monasteries took 20 years to build back in the 15th century. They had a rope and pulley system to bring all the building materials up. That would have been amazing to see via time lapsed photography!
We first stopped at the Holy Monastery of Varlaam. It is the second largest monestary. It was founded in 1350 by a monk named Varlaam. Fifty years later after Varlaam died the monastery was abandoned.
In the early 16th century, two brothers from Ioannina, the priest-monks Theophanes and Nectarios, the so called Apsarades, decided to reactivate the abandoned monastery of Varlaam. They settled on the cliff spending many years building a new chapel dedicated to “All Saints” in 1541. Those two brothers are celebrated today as the founders of the Varlaam monastery.
Our second stop was the Monastary of St Barbarara or Roussanou. It was first established in the 14th century and probably received the name Roussanou from the first hermit-monk who settled on the rock. The monastery is one single building occupying the entire available surface of the cliff. It creates the impression that the building was carved out from the cliff as an extension of the rock itself!
The monastery suffered severe damage during World War II. It became a convent not that long ago in 1988 and today more than 15 sister nuns live in the small and cozy monastery of Roussanou. And we got to meet one of them!
After that we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a Greek Restaurant. We had Moussaka for a starter, then a salad, and a main dish with beef and orzo noodles followed by an almond cake with chocolate bits. The food was so yummy! We were stuffed and so full we didn’t even go to dinner since we didn’t get back to the ship until after 7 PM. So I missed my lobster tonight!
When we got back we got showered and went to the show called Broadway Unplugged with the Regent singers and dancers. It was a fun show and took the traditional Broadway music and jazzed it up a bit.
We called it an early night since we were both tired from our all day excursion and have to get up early for our excursion tomorrow. No rest for the world travelers! Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!
PS: The first few pictures are the scenic drive to the monastery (I didn’t know Greece was so mountainous!) and the rest are all of the monasteries. I won’t add comments and just let the pictures do the talking!
The Wandering Italian 