Photography by Michalis Pornalis from the book "Pelion of Light and Colours"

There are 24 villages on the peninsula, all with their own distinctive character. Some more picturesque than others, some more agricultural, some more accessible. Yet, they all share certain common features peculiar to the area. Nearly all have an attractive flag-stoned square with a stone-built church and one or more imposing plane trees under which there will always be a public fountain waiting to quench the visitor's thirst with water of excellent quality. Around the square one will find several tavernas, restaurants and cafeterias as well as the stores needed for the survival of small communities. Then come the majestic mansions and houses, most of them stone-built with roofs of slate, blending and complimenting the ever-changing landscape.

As a rule, the newcomer's first impression is that the villages consist of the houses seen along the main road. This is far from reality because most of the houses are hidden by the luxuriant vegetation and, many times, by the ridges and valleys in between. The focal point of every village is the square ["platia"], which usually lies off the main road. From it pass or start cobbled mule-tracks and paths that connect the various neighbourhoods, and farther out, they penetrate the woods to reach the other communities and beaches and peaks. As a matter of fact, the entire Pelion region is crisscrossed by a network of roads, mule-tracks and paths about 500 klm in length. In this way transportation of people and goods was fairly easy, especially in the times before the advent of the motor vehicle. Of course large villages such as Tsangarada, Zagora, Milies, to mention just a few, have more than one square and several churches.

The villages in the mountainous region of the north and north-east -- with only few exceptions -- are situated along a ring road at an average elevation of 450 meters above sea level. The rest of them are located along the coast at little or no altitude at all.

Most of them boast several sights worth visiting: old churches and monasteries renowned for their history, decoration and hagiography, well-preserved mansions famous for their architecture, woodwork and decoration, museums, festivals, millennium-old trees, old stone bridges, caves, hidden valleys of great beauty, enticing beaches and stunning gorges .

In addition to this, they all have plenty of rooms to let, hotels and pensions, all of them resplendent in their local color and floral gardens, and always clean and tidy and well equipped to satisfy even the most exacting taste. The local people are very helpful and hospitable, ever ready to treat you to some "tsipouro", the local aperitif, or to some home-made sweet of the spoon, some coffee and fruit. Of course they will be happy to answer your queries and point you to the right direction.