Costumes & Armour

Nafplio
23^rd July 2014

Bourtzi appearing to float in Nafplio harbour

Nafplio's narrow cobbled streets

We took a few days to explore the Peloponnese by car.  Nafplio was most certainly on our list; it is another wonderful Greek town full of narrow cobble lanes with loads of atmosphere (and rather nice shops!). 

Our visit to the Archaeological Museum housed in a lovely Venetian mansion was well worth the time.  Their collection provided succinct but interesting information about a range of sites we had visited over the Argolis Region, Peloponnese. 

Highlights were a Mycenaean suit of armour (1400 BC) with a leather helmet decorated with boar tusks and terracotta face masks, used in Dionysus festivals, found in Tiryns. (These masks were vaguely reminiscent of those worn by New Guinea mud-men.) 

Nafplio is the kind of place you could happily wander all day or sit sipping cooling freddo-cappucino at sidewalk cafes.  I did find time to sneak into an impressive Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation Museum with a fairly extensive collection of traditional costumes, embroideries and household items.  Sadly, Greece has a turbulent history and many family textile heirlooms were sold off in hard times.  This is an excellent museum and well worth visiting.