Monday, May 14, 2012

A bit of heaven in Dodona (Dodoni) - Mirtali Art Hotel

Mirtali Art Hotel.  We can't say enough good things about this place.

This was a jewel of a hotel that we literally stumbled upon from a Google search while we were driving to Epirus.  Nestled in the quiet village of Manetio - Dodoni (Dodona), on a steep hill, it is fanciful, fun, elegant and lush, all without being pretentious or overbearing.  The rooms are named after the gods, and although there are no balconies, the windows are huge and overlook the valley where you can easily see the theatre of Dodona and with binoculars, the rest of the ruins.

The owner's family runs the hotel.  The mother is a superb cook, serving traditional Greek dishes with simple, flavorful local ingredients.  All the food is organic and local, meaning the cheese was from the neighbor, and the vegetables were grown in their garden.  And you already know about the olives.  I'll have to write another post about home-made Greek wine, and we discovered Greek spirits as well.  More than just ouzo.  The daughter is the hostess, and we had fun discussing Greek v. English liquor names.

The bed was downy soft, even better than in Athens.  The shower was modern and refreshing.  There was even a heated towel rack, that we did not use.  Everything a European traveler would expect.

Breakfast was included with the price, and included Greek fried dough with honey and walnuts, as well as a typical European breakfast of yogurt, marmalades, breads, cold cuts and cheeses, and a ham and cheese omelet (that she just made, expecting we would eat it -- like everything else, it was delicious).

Getting a description of some of our purchases of local jams

The owner also has a beautiful and friendly doberman named Phoebus, after Apollo's aspect of radiance.

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