Today we had a fantastic cultural day, visiting the Chios Mastic Museum and the mastic villages of Pirgi and Mesta.
The Chios Mastic Museum is dedicated to Chios Mastiha (or gum mastic), the unique product that has shaped the natural and human environment of the Mastichochoria area of ​​southern Chios, as well as the island's productive and economic history. Mastiha is the aromatic resin of the lentisc tree (Pistacia lentiscus Chia). This evergreen shrub grows wild throughout the Mediterranean, but southern Chios is the only place it is cultivated to produce Mastiha. The students really enjoyed visiting this modern museum and got to know more about this product used in cosmetics, cooking, drinks and much more...

Then we went to visit the typical villages of Pirgi and Mesta. These villages were built out of sight of the sea and surrounded by high walls with a central tower which was the last resort in case the walls were breached by Arab pirates attacking the Mediterranean coasts. Pirgi is the largest of these aroeira villages and its most interesting feature is the decorative designs scratched on the exterior walls of the houses, known as ksista. Pirgi is the ancestral home of Christopher Columbus, according to locals. It is accepted that he lived here for a while.

Mesta, a totally intact fortress town with 300 inhabitants, is the best preserved of the aroeira villages, a living history and cultural museum where life goes on as it has for hundreds of years. In this village we had the opportunity to have a tasty pita for lunch at a local tavern.