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Few people get around to exploring inland Thassos - with the post-fire scrub still barely waist-high, it's not always rewarding - but there are several worthwhile excursions to or around the hill villages , besides the aforementioned trek up Mount Ipsarion from Potamia. From Potos you can head 10km along a well-surfaced but poorly signposted road to THEOLOGOS , founded in the sixteenth century by refugees from Constantinople and the island's capital under the Ottomans (the last Muslims only departed after 1923). Its houses, most with oversized chimneys and slate roofs, straggle in long tiers to either side of the main street, surrounded by generous kitchen gardens or walled courtyards. A stroll along the single high street, with its couple of kafenia, a soldiers' bar, sandalmaker and traditional bakery, is rewarding and quickly dispels the off-putting effect of vigorous advertising at the outskirts for "Greek Nights" at local tavernas. Two that eschew musical gimmicks and rely on their good fare are the long-running Psistaria Lambiris , near the edge of town, and Kleoniki/Tou Iatrou , in the very centre, on the right-hand side past the bus stop and police station. They're at their best in the evening when the souvles loaded with goat and suckling pig start turning. Despite its proximity as the crow flies, there's no straightforward way from Theologos to KASTRO , the most naturally protected of the anti-pirate redoubts; especially with a car, it's best to descend to Potos before heading up a rough, seventeen-kilometre dirt track from Limenaria. Thirty ancient houses and a church surround a rocky pinnacle, fortified by the Byzantines and the Genoese, which has a sheer drop on three sides. Summer occupation by shepherds is becoming the norm after total abandonment in the nineteenth century, when mining jobs at Limenaria proved irresistible. There's only one kafenio on the ground floor of the former school, one telephone therein, no mains electricity and far more sheep than people. From Skala Marion an unmarked but paved road (slipping under the main highway bridge to the north) proceeds 11km inland through gnarled, old olive-trees, to well-preserved MARIES at the top of a wooded stream valley; of two tavernas here, the well-signed one to the right, Bethel , is more of a going concern. From Skala Sotiros, a very steep road heads 3.5km up to SOTIRAS , the only interior village with an unobstructed view of sunset over the Aegean and thus popular with foreigners who've bought up about half of the houses for restoration. On the ridge opposite are exploratory shafts left by the miners, whose ruined lodge looms above the church. On the plane-shaded square below the old fountain, O Platanos taverna is congenially run by Maria and Manolis, who offer grills plus one mayirefta dish-of-the-day, good bulk wine and sometimes their potent, home-made tsipouro . From Prinos (Kalyves) on the coast road, you've a six-kilometre journey inland to the Kazaviti villages, shrouded in greenery that escaped the fires; they're (poorly) signposted and mapped officially as Megalo and Mikro Prinos but still universally known by their Ottoman name. MIKRO KAZAVITI marks the start of the track south for the convent of Ayiou Pandelimona, and MEGALO KAZAVITI , 1km beyond, was once the architectural showcase of the island, a fact apparently lost on many of the outsiders who bought holiday homes here and proceeded to carry out appallingly vandalistic renovations, though thankfully some have been done tastefully. On the magnificent platia, arguably the prettiest spot on the whole island, are a couple of decent, normal-priced tavernas , while Vassilis , below in a beautifully restored house, is regarded as a cut above. Some 4km up from its skala , RAHONI is well set at the head of its denuded valley, paired with the small village of Ayios Yeoryios across the way. The road up to the square has plenty of simple tavernas, for example Iy Dhrosia .
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