“The garden stretched down into the sea,
a headland colored in deepest pink”
(Odysseas Elytis, Nobel Prize 1979)
Of the three prayers which Halkidiki sends out into the blue Aegean, one extends deeper than the others, into the heart of the sea, that being the lush peninsula of Sithonia. A truly blessed place. A rugged coastline of golden beaches, vision of indescribable beauty, painted in exquisite colors from the palette of nature herself, surrounding the mountain of Itamos, also known as the ‘quiet mountain’, or, in local dialect, Dragoudeli.
The coastline of Sithonia extends over a total length of 200km, offering remarkable variations and contrasts of rocks and bays, peaks and coves, sand and pine.
From Nikiti, the main administrative Centre of the area N. Marmaras, Tristinika, Toroni, Porto Koufo and Kalamitsi to Sykia, Sarti, Vourvourou, Ormos Panagias, Agios Nikolaos and Agios Theodoros – almost all the local beaches have been awarded Blue Flags.
Authentic natural beauty, a traditional adherence to the calm pace of Mediterranean life, with a mod-ern tourist infrastructure bringing with it the genuine qualities of hospitality and fine taste of the local people as well a direct connection to the lasting innocence of Greek nature and civilization – these are the qualities which make Sithonia unique.
Sithonia, where the sea has lovingly created a landscape of rocks and sandy beaches, where truth, myth and history come together to create the most beautiful of all the paintings in the great gallery of Greek landscapes.