Metopi: a small paradise of the Saronic Gulf

Metopi – a small island between Aegina And Angistriwhere white sand, turquoise water and a strange property history come together in one place.

It is located southwest of the port Aegina and northeast of the cape Agios Georgios on Angistriremaining one of those points on the map that looks modest, but upon closer inspection turns out to be an almost ready-made script for a film.

Geologically Metopi is considered the top of the former isthmus, which once connected Aegina With Angistribut then suffered subsidence. Today it is a low islet about one nautical mile long, surrounded by shallow waters that look beautiful but can be dangerous for ships.

Your fame Metopi received not only thanks to clear water. The islet is considered a place where people often stop sea ​​turtlesA Kostas Varnalis called him “propylaea” Angistri. Romantic, of course. Especially if you don’t forget that there are shallows around, and within the history of the island there are hundreds of owners who cannot agree on the future of this piece of land.

Get to Metopi The easiest way is by boat. On the south-eastern side of the island there is a small beach strip with white sand and small bluish-green water. This is exactly the type of Greek landscape that tourist brochures usually promise to everyone, but in practice are given only to those who have managed to rent a boat and have not confused the direction.

There is not much greenery on the island. Some vineyards – almost anything that disturbs the dry, rocky landscape. Heritage Metopi also extremely laconic: an old grape press, a hut and a chapel Saint Theodore. Minimalism, which in Greece usually means not the poverty of history, but its strange density.

U Metopi there is also cinematic fame. In the film “Aegean SOS” A similar rocky islet in international waters appears after an earthquake and becomes the subject of a dispute between the Greeks and Turks. In reality, everything is less heroic, but no less absurd: the island, according to Greek media publications, has hundreds of owners who inherited this land asset from their ancestors.

That’s why Metopi remains not only a beautiful point between Aegina And Angistribut also a kind of Greek symbol: a small paradise with white sand, turquoise water and a legal tangle that no one seems to be able to untangle. Nature, as usual, made everything beautiful. People, as usual, added cadastre, inheritance and a million reasons not to agree.

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