Ioannina, Greece Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Moving west from Métsovo, you drop first into the Árakhthos river valley, then climb again over a shoulder of Mount Mitsikéli before the final descent to the north margin of the great, reed-fringed lake of Pamvótidha (Pamvótis). On its south shore, the old town of IOÁNNINA (often Yiánnena) covers a rocky promontory jutting out into the water, its fortifications punctuated by bastions and minarets. From this base, Ali Pasha carved out – at the expense of the sultan's authority – a fiefdom that encompassed much of western Greece and present-day Albania: an … more »