Introduction to Florina, Greece Flórina

Surrounded by steep hills carpeted with beech woods, FLÓRINA is the last Greek town before the FYROM border, 13km to the north. The frontier is open to road traffic, but at present there are no trains, just an infrequent service to Thessaloníki from the semi-derelict station. Though it has a lively market, Flórina is a rather charmless place, with ugly Communist-style concrete buildings. Its only attraction to speak of is the Archeological Museum (Tues–Fri 8.30am–3pm; €1.50), which is just up from the train station and houses among other things some fine icons rescued from the shores of the Préspa lakes.

The local economy relies on agriculture, but has been hard hit by the various post-Yugoslavia crises, mainly because locals from over the border no longer come here to shop. This has not had a salutory effect on hotel prices, which remain exorbitant; you're better off staying in Édhessa, Kastoriá or by the lakes. If you do end up staying, you'll find the cheapest place to stay is the Ellinis at Pávlou Melá 31 (tel 03850/22 671; €43–58), beyond the museum.

Although it has numerous cafés, bars and fast-food places – mostly on Pávlou Melá – Flórina doesn't score highly on restaurants. The best, notwithstanding its location on the grim Soviet-style square beneath the KTEL, is the To Koutouki, open daily for lunch and dinner and serving decent barrelled wine with the usual array of dishes. Another option is Iy Prespa (closed Tues) on Tyrnóvou, a side street off Pávlou Melá, but its half-dozen indoor tables soon fill up.

There's no longer any direct bus to Kastoriá, and it's easy to see why, as there's little in between other than dense forest and a few crumbling villages, half-deserted since the civil war. There are, however, two daily buses (currently 6.45am & 5pm) to Áyios Yermanós in the Préspa basin, and if Kastoriá-bound you could conceivably take these to the Préspa turn-off and hitch the remaining 35km to Kastoriá, rather than going all the way around via ghastly Amyndeo.

The road out of Flórina snakes up the alpine-looking valley to the 1600-metre Pisodhéri saddle, site of one of the livelier villages en route and the Vígla ski lift. PISODHÉRI village offers the Xenonas Modestios (tel 03850/45 928, fax 45 801; €34–42), a restored traditional inn that's far better value than anything in Flórina; you can eat nearby at Kyra Panayiota's simple streamside diner. From here the road follows the headwaters of the Aliákmonas River, the longest and one of the most beautiful in Greece, most of the way to Kastoriá.

Information by Rough Guides

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