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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

A Magical Village in Greece

A few kilometers away from Chania, in Crete, Greece, hidden among the mountains, there is a small village that seems to come from another era. Milia is a village with no electricity and no cars. This is not because technology has not reached that specific area, it is the residents’ choice. Anyone who decides to visit the area, chooses to do so in order to get in touch with nature, to spend their evening looking at the stars, to hear birds singing and the water running from nearby streams. Milia is a village built according to ecotourism standards. Milia was built quite recently, but in a completely traditional way, with absolute respect for the environment and landscape aesthetics. A group of people decided to restore the medieval settlement, building thirteen new homes in the ruins of old farmhouses, using stone and wood from the area, old furniture and basic amenities. They planted thousands of trees and systematically cultivated the land. Each house can accommodate two to four people and they are equipped with heating stoves or fireplaces, the hot water for the bathroom comes from boiling cauldron and there is no electricity, only some lamps for the night which operate with batteries and solar cells. Food is made with organic products produced by the residents of Milia, water comes straight from streams, the wine is locally produced and everyone, regardless of whether they knew each other or not ends up becoming friends. Lonely Planet ranks the quaint village of Milia 12th on its list of the top 50 secret European travel locations that everyone should at some point discover and visit.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com