OUR NEW HOME VILLAGE OF FRANTATO

                                                        

Turkey in distance 

While  waiting for permits to renovate our stone house, now is a good time to explore our village, best way to do this is on foot. Frantato  is a mountainous  village, approximately  244 meters  altitude with unobstructed  views of  mountains, Ikarian sea, is located on North side of  Island, from our house you can see Turkey in distance approximately  25 nautical miles away.

Last known census I could find was for 1991 there was 124 people living in village of Frantato. We start our walk here, we pass by  neglected Stone houses, one of historians in village(Kosta) tells us that many Ikarians left during hard times to make money elsewhere, went to  America, Australia, Athens, in hopes of returning one day. Some structures  have remained like this for over 100 years. Sadly some beyond repair, others waiting to be discovered, restored.

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                                                            Village Frantato

 

                                                          Stone house ruins

 Stairs garden

  

Vegatable  garden

       Ikaria is known to  be a self sustaining  Island!

        Every Ikarian has their own Vegatable  garden.

Olive is harvested

Placed in bottle of seawater 

Three months

Our first production 

                                                  

                                             

Vineyards in hibernation 

Every family here takes great pride producing  their own wine.  Most have a unlimited  supply of plastic coke bottles filled with their harvest stored in cold storage area.  At local  gatherings or when you drop in for a visit, its brought out to be  tasted, discussed, debated compared & celebrated. There is a feeling of satisfaction and pride for every family who had produced, harvested their wine.                                                 

                        

                                            

                                                    Family's production &

                                            Organized  Vineyard of Tsantiris 

My husband prefers locals production in plastic bottles as do most Ikarians.

For me locals  wines can be hit or miss, but I have to admit  I have drank some amazing homemade wines at weddings, celebrations, Baptisms & gatherings. Either way we will argue that we have both drank some of  most uncelebrated wine in the world. 

Not far up road is George & Eleni Organic  farm & vineyards they offer traditional cooking classes, along with wine pairing.We have enjoyed their farm to table dinners, we can tell you first hand Eleni is incredible hostess, has a passion for her cooking, it is evident in every dish she puts on her table. George  her husband, enjoys sharing  his knowledge about his farm and wines. Truly  authentic  Ikarian experience 

Dried grapes my husband had me
Sample raisin right off vine
Amazing taste

* Interesting  practice on Ikaria  is to add water to their wine when drinking.  I am  told their wine has high alcohol content 14-18%, if you want  to stay up all night at Panegeri( outdoor festival)  with  traditional Greek music, dancing, feasting on wild goat I am told  you must adopt  this practice. Ikarians also say you must add water to your wine on the months that don't include letter R *

While walking we ran into Lew

One of more colorful 

Ikarians

 

Lew

Cute Little creatures?..

                                     

We come across these strange spikey brownish looking things covering  road  in front of us. They look like a  brown Sea anemone to me.  I looked at my husband  bewildered, what are those? Are they alive? He looked at me started laughing , you really don't know? I shook my head no, look up he said you are standing under a giant Chestnut  Tree.  We had just  experienced  our first rain here since we arrived in July, the  rain had knocked Chestnuts onto road. We collect Chestnuts, bring  them home to shell their spiney exterior, boil them in salted water,  roast them over a fire. Nostimo!

                                                                CHESTNUTS 

It's peaceful & relaxing strolling through our new village. Beautiful  stone walls that mark beginning & end of a owners property, stone stairs that lead to a vineyard, gardens located on terraced land, paths that lead off into woods, but I am not brave enough to wander off the road yet so we continue on main road.

                                               Small Greek Orthodox  Church

We have passed by several of these beautiful  little churches, all of which are open, to light a candle,  sit in silence for awhile, pray.

Donkey Power

Wheat Mill

We wondered about  this structure that we had seen on our walk . We are told that they used a giant stone wheel pulled by a donkey to crush & grind wheat 

Saw a local with bag full these Acorns
She got away before I could ask 
What she would do with them?

We head to Square  of  Frantato meet up with Kiki & Dimitri ,

 for a dinner at a local Taverna. Their home is a  renovated  stone  house that  use to be a stable.

Kiki &Dimitris  house

 

We meet up at a small taverna in Frantato, which opens at 8pm. That's late for us to be eating our dinner, I am embarrassed  to say we are usually in for the night at this time, in Ikaria their evening  has just begun

Mural depicts  how village Frantato  got its 
name
Goat 🐐 herder named  Frantas was first
To pass by this land

 

Frantato Sites

Water well

Main church square 

We have gone  to square during daytime  

Church, Taverna, Kafenio are all closed ,square has a semblance  of a ghost town, not a soul to be found , only  wood fired bakery is open early to service villagers. 

Wood fired bread oven Frantato 

Night-time is a completely different experience. 

Frantato looks warm welcoming, soft lights come from old wavy glass windows, smoke billows from stone chimneys, a few locals wander about. We open a door to a Kafeneo, all eyes turn our way in curiosity.  A Kafeneo is a gathering  place, it use to be just  for men, to talk politics, drink a Greek coffee, or have a glass of wine, smoking like chimneys while they play  cards. 

Kalispera  Teddy says, Pou is Taverna? They continue to study us, as one man  points to  next door. I had feeling after door was closed we were a  subject for much discussion , its highly unusual  for a non local especially during fall/winter months to show up at their doorstep. 

Kiki & Dimitris  are waiting for us at one of two small tables.  A small pot belly wood stove is lit making  it  warm & cozy inside. Taverna is nothing fancy, but has its own charm. We open a  bottle of Karimalis wine that we brought with us. Taverna owners  are Nounoa & Pantelis, we order Souvlaki, French fries,traditional tzaziki sauce, barbecued chicken for the table ,of course my favorite a Greek salad. The owners dissappear out front door, come back 20 minutes  later, I don't know where they went to cook our food, but it was delicious. 

 Kiki laughs , everyone in Kafeneo  & probably  in village know who we are by now and what we are  doing in their village. 

 After awhile Two  men came in sat next to us on only other table. Introductions  were made, immediately  they sent over a carafe of local wine to celebrate welcome their new neighbors.  

Glasses are lifted & a traditional  toast of 

YAMUS

Ends our night!

I am curious  how many of you knew those  were Chestnuts?....

 

Hidden Treasures

          

Grapes placed in  this Vat
In front of our house
Waiting To be stomped

   While we wait for permits, we spend some time at property, pruning, cleaning, disposing debris, removing  junk that has accumulated over many years. A seat from an old pick up truck, rotted doors, broken windows , black rubber hoses, beer cans, smashed wooden table,brush, lots of un-salvagable stuff to be disposed  of.

  Among debris, under bushes & overgrown shrubs we have unearthed 

some interesting treasures, some obvious, some hidden away waiting  to be discovered. 

Stone Kitchen sink

Marianna, Paschale's wife  & our good friend, is very  knowledgeable  about the  Island, even though she was born in  Athens, her grandmother lived on Ikaria, she spent every summer here while growing up, eventually met married a Ikarian man.  

She  knows myths, legends, secret beaches , local customs,

 IKAROTE DANCES, how to cook delicious  Ikarian foods. She explains that this time of year (September) grapes are collected  from vineyards,  locals place them inside vats like this one in front of the house, Ikarotes stomp on them with bare feet to get all juices from harvested grape.

Marianna says, look down there, I look down, I see nothing but green thorny thick  shrubs. LOOK CLOSER  she says, underneath all those thorny brambles, we see  a stone vat that has been hidden for years  with overgrowth, she then goes on to explain thats where the juices of the stomped grapes drain from up above.

She says look over onto the other side, in an almost mirror image to  first , all we can  see is more brambles it looks like you have two, maybe three Kioupi's. 

 We have what?  Marianna laughs, she  says those  

are antique terracotta vessels  called Kioupis, locals  take juices from grapes that has drained into the stone vat  pour them into Kioupis to age,sometimes locals bury the Kioupi's into the earth, as this is  a perfect temperature  for  wine making.

I am so excited , I grab my garden snips, put on my gloves, run down to where the Kioupis are.

 I`m ready to cut away brambles to uncover these beautiful artifacts. Marianna starts waving her arms  as Greeks do when they are excited,  STOP she says, startled I stop my work to look up to where she is standing, waiting for explanation.  These are very valuable, if  you uncover them for the gypsy to see, they will take them to sell . Greeks love to have these  100 year old pots in their gardens, or on their terraces. Kioupis can bring as much as 500-600 euros. 

You must wait till you move into house, then have Micos your ( stone guy) who knows how to  recover  these delicate vessels, without breaking them.

 I think to myself, I have so much to learn here on Ikaria.

Under years of  overgrowth we can see another stone structure of some kind, 

off to side of  house. 

We begin clipping away at the brush covering  a stone form.

It's a  Fourno declares Marianna,  Fourno is Greek  for outside stone oven, this  is an ancient way to make  village bread, its cooked inside a stone oven over a wood fire.

Anyone who knows my husband (Teddy)he  is primary cook in family,  he gets excited says I can make amazing pizza in this oven. 

Of course we  all can't wait for that day to come!

Addendum: We have learned from  our Notary, our paperwork has made it to Samos for approval,

 but Clerk of court will be out on sick leave for a few weeks

She is only one who does this job, so Samos has  closed court till she returns, but we are still smiling

 

Room with a view

Keep your eye on Prize

                        

    Now comes the waiting, which neither my husband  or myself are good at. Buying property in Greece is difficult even on a good day.

First step: Notary office  of Yannis 

 Periklis : seller must go to several offices, some here on Ikaria, some on Samos,  island next to us. Without this paperwork  we cannot close on the property,  we are told it could take up to two months maybe more with covid issue. 

Once notary has these documents he will draw up contract, land certification (deed)

Second step: Lawyers office  of Christina 

who tells us  we must get a  contract & deed from notary  first before we can proceed with her.

Third step :Forestry Department 

We must get special permission that says the property is not on  protected  forest 

land. We ask how do we do that. You must go to  an Architect he then goes to forestry department for permission .They do this by google earth, they make sure property is not in a protected forest, before issuing  a  special  permit. 

Fourth step: Architect 

Kula and Kosta Architects

We all meet at property Kosta reiterates that we must have special permission  from forestry,  could take 2-7 months as there is only one guy who works in that office. We now must wait for  forestry  &Kula Kosta , who will survey the land, as well as doing the design, then only after we receive  permission  from  forestry department will  we get our work  permit to proceed,  begin building. 

Fifth step: Stone builders  

We meet with several Greek & Albanian stone tradesmen. 

If you think this is a lost art, you are only to come here to see for yourself, we are amazed  by their talent, work ethics, beauty of their work.

We have chosen, Micos, an Albanian who has worked next door to where we currently  live. He & his crew  of 5 guys work tirelessly 7 days a week, 8  hours a day  creating beautiful  stone walls,  steps, stone houses.

*Forgot to mention the initial  step which was getting a Tax ID number* 

We were told by our  bank we must have a Tax ID #

This involved waiting 4 hours  in a room with  no air conditioning,  chairs of any kind,  no semblance  of  organization,. To make matters worse, person  running the show was  a very rude lady . When we left her office we both had  a headache traumatized by our  experience , BUT with tax ID  in hand. 

Bank experience  was  made only slightly better,  took four hours  to set up a savings account, was only made palatable by pleasant people, air conditioning,  chairs.  I am sure by now you get the picture. "

 It ain't  going to be easy!

A big  difference over here  we are allowed  to work on the property before a closing takes place. It seems strange to us to, but is considered  quite normal here.

We begin by  cleaning  inside,  we are quite sure goats have  been sleeping here, which would explain  an unpleasant  odor. We are told don't  throw away dried goat poop, its great for your garden you will be planting. 

Can this really look like
Photo below 

                                               

Next was  the yard, in front were 2 beautiful  moira trees.  In spring,  it bears delicious   black  berries only problem is that it drops its berry onto terraces making  a slippery  ununsightly  & gooey  surfaces . Our friend shows us how to  prune but still to keep  these lovely shade trees. My husband  and Paschale chop away branch after branch , reassuring  me this is  how its done here. After they're finished, our tree was totally bald. Sad part of pruning,is  in the spring they will  not  bear any  fruit,  still be beautiful  shade trees, hard to believe as I look at the tree now.  

                                            

                                            

 

  

                                                          

                             

                                             

                                                             

One of many things  that  we  love about Ikaria, everything  is naturally  recycled. As I  already explained  about goat poop. Another example all the branches & clippings are given to the goats, when they are finished  eating all the greens , all that is left is hardwood to be chopped burned in woodstove . This same process takes place year after year. 

Circle  of life

                

Our bumpy Road To the Stone House

            

Covid had paralyzed the world including our flight to Greece.

 Plane reservations  were canceled  then rescheduled four times, countless hours spent  on hold, hours, hours of frustrating  phone calls , then finally obtaining  special  permission  from Greek embassy  to travel to Greece. 

 

By  some small miracle we were able to travel on June 29th before Greece was to close its borders to the USA. 

We arrived in Athens Greece June 30th, our entire plane was led to a Covid testing  site, where we supplied Athens police with our travel itinerary,  our throats swabbed our throats.

 We were instructed to self  isolate for 24 hours in our hotel room, after 24 hours if our tests were  negative we were allowed to leave  the hotel to continue on our journey. 

Finally we arrive  "Ikaria "where our  journey  to find  property begins.   

This is our story. 

            Friends who are locals, help us  on our quest.  They tell us the best way to find property  on the Island,  first we must  put out feelers, at every coffee shop, gas station, bakery, butcher shop, restaurant's, friends of friends, Kafeneios.

Let them know that we are in search of a property for sale.

Making a Game plan

 Word of mouth travel's at lightning warp speed on the Island. We begin to get some nibbles, but nothing solid yet. To cover all our bases, we went the conventional route as well, by contacting the only real estate agent on the Island. 

We followed up every lead, left no stone unturned. 

Eureka, our hard work pays off, we found a house from a local who lives in Pigi village. It was a house with olive, walnut, lemon trees, nice views. Property needed quite a bit of work, as no one had lived there for some 20 years, but we felt up to the task. 

  After some detective work, heard the owner had died left property to his daughters, who lives in Athens. Our friend  Paschale who is a local as well as our best friend here, contacted one of the daughters who had inherited  the property.  She said we have  changed our minds  about selling. Paschale shrugs  his  shoulders , explains that Greeks don't like to sell their properties, to them it's like selling a piece of their soul, it happens often that they  will  change  their  minds about selling

Networking in Coffee shops

This  same scenario had happened  to us once already.  Before we had left States,  Paschale had called said there was a piece of land with a house in an  area we wanted to buy, at a good price, he would go look at it, let us know. When he finally called us back , not good news, there were several family members on the deed, they couldn't come to an agreement whether to sell or not. Another stone wall. 

Another stone wall

 

 

                   Maybe we would have better luck  with real estate  agent. We contacted an agent, she showed us several  listings but we only found one we liked, with amazing  sea & mountain views.  

We were  interested , the real estate agent would arrange a meeting with owners who were coming that weekend, from Athens . We phoned the agent to confirm our meeting, we couldnt believe our ears. Even though it was listed with an agent,  brother had decided he didn't  want to sell after all! 

We are finding  out very quickly,  

that this is not going to be easy .

After looking  at several properties,  running into many dead ends, we hear of a property for sale  in the village of Frantato, Paschale knows the seller, Periklis, he says he has no siblings, children, or partner. All good signs!

   My husband  along with Paschale jump in the car wasting no time . Anything that is worthwhile is snapped up quickly, usually  by another local. My husband returns an hour later breathless come on get in car 🚗 . You have to see this one.

I think you will love it! 

Not wanting to get disappointed, again, I tried not to get my hopes up. We drive up past vineyards,small churches, into the mountains to a pretty property  located in a small village of Frantato. 

 A stone  house that  has sat for over 100 years , with incredible  mountain, seaviews stares back at me.  We look at each other, this is it, this is what we have been searching  for, I can feel it in my bones. I can't tell you why, but this felt different from all the other properties, it felt like it was meant to be ours from very start. Periklis , the owner  was  called that very same day. We put a deposit down.

Neglected Stone house

Goats 🐐  have been 
Living here

Leap of faith into the blue zone

Seed had been planted

 When we first stepped foot onto Island of Ikaria, we were told that there are two kinds of people who came to this wild Island. First type, they get off the ferry, take one look, turn around get back . Tall mountains, narrow winding roads have been a deterrent to travelers for many years. 

Then there are those who never want to leave magical mysterious place.We of course, the latter. We fell in love with the Island, people, hospitality, food, wine, their turquoise waters.

Ferry to Ikaria

 Very first year we arrived in 2015, we started  dreaming of owning/ renovating a small Stone house, but it was only a dream. We looked at many properties that were for sale, but at that time too many obstacles were in our way. But a seed had been planted.

Dreams do come true

In fact there were several barriers. I only knew a few words of Greek language, even though my husband spoke it fluently, he being born raised in Greece. We rarely spoke it at home in America. On this Island very few speak English. It would be a huge issue for me. 

Beauracacy  is incredibly challenging here in Greece, we weren't sure we could even navigate their system. 

Owning a house in United states we couldnt afford to  juggle two properties. 

Number #1 reason, we would be far away from family, friends, our homeland. We returned to the States, put our dream to bed.

 Years went by, lots of discussions of what would be our next chapter. We decided to set our dream into motion. One of  most difficult things we had to do, besides leaving family, friends. Was after eighteen wonderful years, full of amazing memories,with some reluctance, we put a For Sale sign in front of our beloved beach house. 

 

Beach house for Sale

We put beach house up for sale and waited, it didn't sell the first year.  We took it off the market, waited 6 months, put it back on, it sold that week. Now for the first time since I was in my early twenties I didn't own a home, let me tell you it was a little unnerving, but it also felt very freeing.

SOLD

 My  husband and I began to get cold feet, we started thinking, maybe we should look into buying in Florida, it had warm climate, beaches we wanted. Plus we would be closer to home, family, friends. 

Johns Pass Florida 

We decided to rent in Florida to see how we felt there. We looked at many houses, towns, but we just couldn't pull trigger. No matter where we searched, at end of day we would look at each other say "Its not Ikaria "

Ikaria Calling to us

Fast forward 2020.  House is Sold, I am taking Greek lessons online. We have rented a apartment on Ikaria, while we search for properties. When we find the property of our dreams, we'll add a studio apartment for family, friends. Finally, we intend to travel home for yearly visits to alleviate home sickness. We are ready to take on Greek bureaucracy.

 To start our quest,our plane reservations have been made.

Unexpectedly, Corona Virus appears on our radar, caused a tsunamis of events worldwide. Including major travel issues, our ✈  flight's were cancelled several times, after alot of phone calls, red tape, bumpy start, help from Greek consulate in Boston, we are on our way.

Greece here we come 💙 

Pull up a chair at our Greek table,

Let us share Ikarian stories with you. This being one of most told.

One story told to us, was of a Ikarian man named Stamatis who lived in the fishing village Karkinargi,  On Island of Ikaria. Times were rough! There was little opportunity to make money, so many Ikarians moved to  America . Stamatis was one of them, he  stayed in America till he was in his 60's,  sadly he was diagnosed  with lung cancer,  he visited 9 different  Doctors who all  told him the same thing, to get his affairs in order. Stamatis decided to go back to  his beloved Island of Ikaria to wait to die. 

Back in his village he resumed lifestyle of Ikarian way .  Slowly something was happening to him, he began to feel stronger, more energetic, he planted his garden, tended  to his olives, grapes, drank the local wines, cooked with the wild herbs &  drank mountain tea's, socialized at the kafenios,  danced to wee hours at the Panigeri's.

Many years had passed he decided, he must go back to America to share  with Doctors what  had happened  to him.  To his surprise he was unable to find  any of his doctors.

"they had all died"

Stamatis returned home to Ikaria lived to a ripe old age 103.

Story recounted  by
Georgiana  Nikolopoulou

Welcome to our Table
Where storys are Told

Local grapes

Tea wild Herbs
Medicinal Honey

Wines from Ikarian  vineyards