August in the Mani

It’s now August and everything has slowed down, but little by little our house is nearing the point where we can say it is finished.

Today after a long battle the men, who laid the marble for our stairs, finally returned to correct one of the steps. When they initially laid the marble they asked us what we thought, they not speaking any English and Lainie still battling to learn the language. We were impressed with the appearance of the marble and agreed that everything was fine.

Only after walking up and down them over the next couple of days did we realise that one of the stairs wasn’t quite right. A couple of times we nearly lost our footing going down the stairs, and some people working on the house had similar problems. We asked Vagelis to get them back to put it right, but they argued with him that we had agreed that everything was OK on the day they completed the job.

Finally they agreed to come and have at last sorted out the problem, although I must say they didn’t look too happy about it. Another lesson for us, when someone does a job, make sure you check the work thoroughly before they leave!

The heat here in August makes any heavy work almost impossible, unless you relish the idea of a sauna. We have found that unless you work outside before 9am or after 7pm you just run with sweat.

Most Greek people take their holidays at this time, mainly because of the heat, and many businesses close for a couple of weeks. We found this out when the monitor for our main computer suddenly failed and we tried to buy a new one in Kalamata. They don’t carry much stock and most items come from Athens, so we may have 2-3 weeks to wait for the new one to arrive.

August brings many celebrations and events in the villages. Our own village of Riglia put on an excellent evening of Greek music and dancing that must have drawn a crowd of 3-400 people. The church grounds were laid out with tables and chairs, enough to seat most of the people, with the remainder seated on the boundary walls. There were stalls where you could buy delicious, spit roast pork, bread and salads. The meat was chopped from whole sides of pork and sold to you wrapped in a heavy greaseproof type paper.

They had a live group performing on stage that played many of the ‘pop’ songs that we hear on Greek radio every day. This was followed later in the evening by more traditional music all of which was of a very high standard


We had a leaflet that gave us the dates and locations of several events in the area, but of course only written in Greek. So after a bout of translation and a little help from Greek friends we were armed with an itinerary to keep us busy. One of the events was a market held in the village of Tseria and it was advertised as running for two days. Although the village is high in mountains and is a dead end as the road stops there, we felt that if the market lasted for two days it must be worth a visit. We drove to the village in the morning and parked on the outskirts continuing on foot through the village to find the market. Outside the church we found three or four trestle tables set up with some local honey, wine, ornaments and a few bits and bobs. Sure that there would be more we continued past the church and walked out to the far side of the village where the road turns into a track leading down a steep gorge. No market in sight, we turned back, this time on the higher road continuing our search for the market. After walking from one end of the village and back we finally had to admit the markets here in Greece are not on the same scale as back in the UK. That was it! Just those few stalls, but in the life of Tseria it was an important event and deemed a market.