Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

THE ISLES 97company of M. Sommaripa, who was going to hispyrgos, as they call their country-houses—andtowers they really are,stout and foursquare withthe forked battlements of mediaeval Italy, datingfrom the times when they had to be held againstthe descents of corsairs. At the gate of this one weparted from its owner.We had no time to accepthis proffered hospitality, which we regretted, forthese towers stillcontain here and there preciousspecimens of old Venetian furniture. And theSommaripa, who came from Verona in 1390, werelords of Paros and Andros, and held the latteruntil the Turkish conquest. The family rankednext to the Ducal House and were connected withit by marriage. M. Sommaripa chatted pleasantlyto us in courtly, measured French. A fine hidalgolikefigure, his appearance and bearing were inkeeping with his mediaeval tower. He was quitein the world here, he said, for the pyrgos commandeda distant view of Naxia, the sea, and theweekly steamer.After a long ascent the valley ofTrageia, the broad central hollow of the island,burst upon us suddenly, the slender peak ofCoronon dominating the north, the sharp ridge ofZia the south. Trageia, in the centre of thebasin, nestled amid olive groves, mingled withthe denser green of oak and plane. The threevillages of Potamia stood out sharply on theopposite slopes, and high up the steep Philoti"twinkled like a grain of salt." Grey oldchurches in the richly timbered lowlands lent