Excellent experiences and gastronomic pleasures are included in “Aristotle’s Paths”, an experiential tour with special cultural and hiking routes in Eastern Halkidiki, the Land of Aristotle.
“Each route offers a unique experience. Our main idea is the cooperation with local companies, which have a positive ecological or social impact in our area. To create an experiential experience, following the path that people come closer to our heritage, local gastronomy, images, nature, perfumes, to give an added value to the tourist product of the area “said Polytimi Markogiannaki, founder in the travel agency “Aristotle’s Paths”.
The restoration and the laying of new routes must be done with the philosophy of preserving the local elements of the area, so that the existing landscape architecture is not altered and still attracts the modern nature-loving tourist.
In each route, stories or narratives are exchanged, which as a mean of entertainment, education and cultural preservation travel the visitor in time. It also promotes an experiential type of engagement in wine tourism to special groups, so that through agricultural activities or diving, in an interactive game, to participate in a wine tasting of the senses. Wine games on land and at sea, with a special wine tasting either from an underground or an underwater wine cellar.
1st route
In the route of the Waterfalls of Varvara, a route in a green forest, stories will be told that will connect the goddess Artemis with the later fairies.
2nd route
In the route of Arnaia the goal is in every creation of man such as the woven, the cooking utensil, to learn more not so much for the utility, but the reasons for transforming a woven, or a pot to a work of art.
3rd route
The travel agency “Aristotle’s Paths” has carved the “Road of Akanthios Wine”. The “Akanthios Oinos” that is, the wine of ancient Akanthou, the modern Ierissos in Halkidiki was not a simple wine. It was the wine that according to the legend Xerxes asked to taste during the opening of the homonymous canal in the third leg of Halkidiki during the Persian wars. It was the wine that the king of Persia drank before the battle of Thermopylae. It was the apple of contention between Athenians and Spartans, as Thucydides mentions, during the Peloponnesian War.
It was also the wine that the ancient Athenian philosopher mentions in his work “The Sophists” and accompanied the banquets of the ancient Greeks.
A walk, in Ierissos, Halkidiki, where wine is a cultural link that unites the region through the centuries. More specifically, the walking route is developed in ancient Akanthos, which starts from the port of Ierissos, stops in ancient Akanthos and ends at the throne of Xerxes and the vineyards of Domaine Agrovision. The estate, wanting to connect the past with the present, emphasizing the locality, gave the name “Ieris”. Wine tasting follows, in an area which overlooks the island of Ammouliani and Mount Athos. As you can see, apart from the delicious taste, the participants travel to the past with the Akanthios Wine, which transmits culture and history.
The gastronomy, the sense of taste in local products, such as honey, wine, pasta, is also a factor of cultural experiential tourism, participats do not just try, they learn how to prepare them, or participate in cooking lessons.
Also, great importance was given to the aroma that each route will have, it was assigned to a perfumer who uses herbs and oils from the Aristotelian Mountain, the production of perfumes.
“As for sight and touch, in an area where deep blue meets green, in a historical journey of human works, buildings, churches, monuments, there is nothing more to say. The stories, some forgotten, some fresh in the memory, the specially designed walks that acquaint us with the fauna, the flora and the cultural heritage that surround us, lead to another model of tourist development. That is sustainable and cultural development, while sowing elements of a of refined ecotourism, while forming a branding in the area, around Aristotle, if nothing else, it is his homeland “, underlined Mrs. Markogiannaki.
