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Looking around from the top of the world - Exoghi
Friday 27th October 2006
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Exoghi is one of the older villages of Ithaca, a village that once had a thriving population that settled there to escape the pirates that terrorized the coastal areas of the island centuries ago. Today, it is a quiet and traditional village in which only a few people still reside on an all year around basis. The Village name, Exoghi, means out of this world, and although it's not the highest village on Ithaca, Exoghi is high enough to stun the visitors to the island with some of the most amazing views onto Aphales Bay, across the hills and valleys of Platrithia and toward Frikes. Old ruins cling to the slopes that fall down below the village core, Ag. Marina Church, and stone paths step up and around every curve.

 
 
 
 
 
Old shops lay barren with shutters and doors bolted shut, and although many talk about opening up a Cafe or Ouzerie to bring life back to this quaint old town, the Cafe on the bend, which an old local opens up when there is a demand, is the only business in this mountain village now. It's worth taking the many tracks and paths that lead through Exoghi. Walk and be transported back in time while all the while, steep views capture the spirit and the soul to imagine what life would have been like living this high over Ithaki.
 
 
 
 
Looking down from this great height gives a completely different perspective on the villages below. One is also amazed to see the steep cliffs that were terraced so many decades ago, before there were roads or bulldozers on the island. Parts of Ithaca so difficult to reach, but still cultivated and cared for by the locals who owned them.
  
Limnes in Platrithia (above) the location of the Platrithia Panighiri, doubles as a car park during the year and on weekends and after school, children play ball or Soccer there
  
 
There is more to see than what is visible from the one narrow road that winds its way up through the village. Stepped paths that punctuate each slope however, give access to parts of Exoghi hidden at first sight.
 
 
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