I come from Aegina!
I love its seas, its alleys and its hidden secrets. Its rich history and its magical sunsets. Its taverns, its mezes, its people.
Every year on the island, the unforgivable happens.
This year even more.
There are reasons for this. The first is the cheap fare with the conventional ferry, and the second, the close destination from Athens.
However, the traveler has much more to enjoy...
You fall in love with Aegina from the first moment...for a thousand reasons!
It is her aura and the look that disappears without disappearing.
Where you look across to Agistri, the Monastery, Petrokaravo, Metope, the vast blue from the terrace of a hotel in Agia Marina, the green of the temple of Aphaia, the awe at the Monastery of Agios Nektarios, the magnificent monastery of Chrysoleontissa tucked away in the forest, the absolute tranquility at the Monastery of Agios Minas, the Tower of Markellos, the ancient Ellaion, the Temple of Apollo, Agios Nikolaos Thalassinos, Paliahora….
It is an island with a soul. A place where every step on the paved beach seems to bring you closer to the heart of Greek history.
You don't come here just to rest. You come to remember.
Aegina was one of the most powerful naval powers of ancient Greece, with its own currency and culture that rivaled Athens.
However, its most glorious moment came many centuries later, when Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first ruler of free Greece, chose the island as the temporary capital of the new state.
It was 1828, and Aegina briefly became the center of the Greek renaissance. The first National Printing House was founded here, where the first official documents of the young Greece were printed. Schools, public services, and even the first “Orphanage” were established here by Kapodistrias himself, a model of social welfare for the time. The small island shone like a beacon of culture and reconstruction, in a country emerging from the ruins of the revolution.
Here, institutions were organized. On a small island, the first bridge between vision and action was built.
Today, traces of this era are everywhere — albeit subtly, like whispers of the past.
The Government House, the historic building that housed the first executive council of Greece, still stands in the heart of the city, humble but full of memories. The Orphanage, with its unique architecture, recalls the humanism and vision of Kapodistrias, who ruled not with the sword, but with ethics.
Here, Kapodistrias did not just build a temporary capital. Perhaps without knowing it, he created the first pulse of a state that was being born in silence.
But Aegina does not live only in the past. In the present, it charms with its simplicity and natural beauty. The coastal road with its neoclassical facades and traditional cafes smells of sea and pistachio. The sunset here needs no filters. And in the interior of the island, the Temple of Aphaia — high on the hill, among pine trees — stands as if suspended between sky and eternity.
Aegina is an island with a past, but also with a heart. It does not shout, it does not show off. It opens its arms to you silently, with terraces, jasmines and stories waiting to be heard. It is the island that teaches you that the true Greece is not only found in monuments, but also in dignity, in care, in memory.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the first governor chose Aegina. Because anyone who wants to rebirth a people starts from places that have a soul.
Aegina doesn't shout. It doesn't try to impress. And yet, anyone who walks it slowly, without a watch and with open eyes, understands why it once became the heart of a nation that was just beginning to breathe.
And when you leave Aegina, the only thing you'll miss won't be the sea. It'll be that strange feeling of having found yourself, even if only for a moment, in a place where everything is built with respect.
photo
By Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0, By Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ - https://el.wikipedia.org/
