The small city of Ioannina and its nearby Tzoumerka and Zagori villages in the Pindus mountain range are almost completely off the trail of most visitors to Greece. Yet the region’s mountains, forests and deep river gorges are entirely stunning, its history tumultuous and its cuisine again
wonderfully different from Greek island food.

We are indeed here in the twilight world of the Byzantine empire but also of contenders to late Ottoman rule, in which the name of Ali Pasha of Ioannina – the Muslim Bonaparte – looms large. Ioannina itself is a real gem of a lakeside university city with elegant reminders of its cosmopolitan, multicultural past and today full of artisanal and gastronomic delights. It will also be our base for forays into the surrounding mountains, including the spectacular Vikos gorge, the cliff-hanging Moni Kipinas monastery and Dodona, one of the great oracle sanctuaries of the ancient world. Some very light walking along beautiful rivers and mountain paths in this tranquilcountryside will also enable us to travel back in time to both distant and more recent if now largely forgotten pasts.