Hania Old Town

(notes prepared by Hania's most fondly missed resident, Tony Fennymore) Any visitor with the simplest of tourist town maps can find the main tourist spots of Hania - the Agora (the colourful daily indoor market and its 'earthier' counterpart that spreads along Minoos Street on Saturday mornings), the Inner and Outer Harbour, Leather Lane etc. Our tour has been specifically designed to show the real, true town of Hania beneath the veneer of recent tourism. You will visit places in the Old Town that are not shown on the tourist maps and are off the beaten track, places that the usual Town Tours do not go. On this tour you will discover 'lost' Turkish fountains and Bath Houses; the only ruined Venetian period Jewish Synagogue, quaint mediaeval back streets and alleyways, Venetian and Turkish houses, mosques, churches, fortifications, old tradesmen's shops and a host of other gems that are the secrets of this truly Greek working town. Neolithic, Minoan, Mycenaean, Dorian, Classical and Hellenic Greek, Roman, Arab, Byzantine, Venetian, Turkish and modern Greek; are all exposed to the knowing eye like a slice of multi-layered cake; a kaleidoscope of architectural styles and building techniques spanning over 5,000 years of civilisation. After this tour you will be aware of what Hania is really about, and your eyes will look beyond the colourful awnings of the harbour side tavernas, and you will see and appreciate one of the oldest settlements in the world, which has been in continuous occupation for some 8,000 years. Hania is a fascinating town with all its hustle and bustle, its variety of colours and sounds, its mysteries and secrets, many of which have survived despite 2,000 years of subjugation and slavery, the ravages of World War II and all those years of poverty and deprivation.