Hangout in Asfontilitis

Descending, the old path of the route from Chora to Aegiali - the only path that connected the North with the South Amorgos -, the so-called Great Army, at the height of Oxo Meria (altitude 340m) will meet the rural housing complex of Asfontilitis.

Here these peaceful highlands of the mountain range of Aegiali, welcomed for more than six months every year farmers and stockbreeders. Life in Asfontilitis - the name is supposed to have been taken from the white daffodils that formed the carpet in the spring - began after feast of St. George at the end of April, when the shepherds left the winters and led their herds to the surrounding pastures.

Life in Asfontilitis was harsh and ascetic in the inhospitable and stone-filled landscape of the area. With these stones the inhabitants formed the terraces to make their crops - "precipice fields" the so-called "htia" or the "ochia" - true architectural monuments. Then with the stones they formed yards that surrounded the buildings that would host the offspring, the animals and themselves. Finally, with the stones on Megali Strata, they shaped the public spaces of this rural settlement with the majestic wells that covered their own needs but also refreshed the passers-by and finally with the stones they built the small church of Agios Nikolaos & Georgiou (the holy protectors of land and sea), to have by their side their consoling presence.

The dry stone rural settlement of Asfontilitis is typical example of architectural heritage of Greece (Mani, Crete) but also of the Mediterranean (Sicily, Corsica). It is worth exploring it and getting lost in its impasses, in its ruins and in its yards where the prickly pears are the protagonists.

And of course at the end of the walk one can rest in the coffee shop the Hangout of Sofia Liviaki. At the edge of Asfontilitis, two steps from the church, in a small house a stalia, without electricity and a trace of technological civilization, bakes chickpeas in the wood oven, some salads and offers at night the Galaxy of Amorgos on your plate.

In a corner of the courtyard with the excess waters of love, a basil is watered, a unique oasis in the stony landscape. To caress him, to smell the place and to enjoy the caress too.

And get one too smell of a culture away from culture.