It’s time to celebrate: May is Mediterranean Month – travel to less crowded places!
In case you didn’t know, May is Mediterranean Month. At Oldways, we’ve brought special recognition to the celebrated Mediterranean Diet all year long, but especially during the month of May. Every year is different -- this year, we are offering prizes (gift cards and Mediterranean cookbooks) through Mediterranean Bingo, as well as a 28-day Mediterranean challenge of cooking along with Oldways’ Make Every Day Mediterranean book.
While Mediterranean bingo and the Mediterranean Challenge are delicious and a lot of fun, here’s another challenge: take a Mediterranean trip or join an Oldways Culinaria. Mediterranean travel is a delicious and fun way to embrace all the best of the Mediterranean Diet. Take a quick (although not complete) tour around the Mediterranean, with some less crowded places that I’ve loved visiting.
GREECE: Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is a happening place. Food, wine, restaurants, markets, historic sites, culture, museums. It was spectacular when Oldways visited with a culinary tour in 2016, and from all I’ve heard, it’s only gotten better. The New York Times included it on their list of 52 places to visit. Highlights include world-class museums, such as the Archaeological Museum and the Byzantine Museum; a great restaurant and bar scene; wonderful nearby wineries; and the UNESCO Heritage archaeological site, Vergina, where you can find the “tomb of Philip II, who conquered all the Greek cities, paving the way for his son Alexander and the expansion of the Hellenistic world.”
Place to stay: Electra Palace Thessaloniki, on the Aristotelous Square, looking out at the sea. The views are special -- you can have dinner (and breakfast of course) at their rooftop restaurant, looking out at the Aegean, and the rooms are lovely.
TURKEY: Izmir and the Cesme Peninsula
I never tire of visiting Izmir and driving west toward Cesme, with a view toward the Greek island of Chios. Izmir’s Kemeralti Market is lively and fun, and you’ll find restaurants featuring vegetable olive oil dishes and seafood lining the promenade. Outside of town, heading toward the west, you’ll want to stop at Urla for the daily 10 a.m. fish auction, and for sustenance before lunch, enjoy Katmer at Unal Kardesler Katmer Salonu: pastry dough cooked on a griddle and filled with meat or cheese. If you’re interested in wine, Urlice Winery, a family-owned boutique winery, is well worth a visit. In the village of Ildırı, you’ll find Erythrai, one of the 12 cities of Asia Minor. It was famous for producing millstone, wine and timber. If you climb from the theater to the Athena temple you will have a view of the Greek island of Chios.
What you can’t miss is lunch at Asma Yapragi. We first went there in 2014 and 2015, and just returned in 2023 to find it housed in a new location outside Alicati. It’s even more enchanting and delicious than before. We had our spectacular Mediterranean lunch inside a little glass house, filled with tables and chairs, tables and couches. Very special.
Place to stay: Izmir Marriott, at Alsancak, Akdeniz Mahallesi, Gazi Blv. No:1, 35220 Konak. No doubt, there are wonderful boutique hotels in Izmir – online research shows plenty, but because I travel with a group in mind, I am most familiar with larger hotels in Izmir. The Izmir Marriott has been good to us – very nice rooms, a great staff, a fabulous Turkish breakfast and a water view.
MOROCCO: Essaouira
Oldways has organized two culinary journeys to Morocco, first in 1994 and then again in 2008. We spent most of our time in Fes and Marrakech, both are magical, exciting places like no other. Perhaps not as well known, but equally beautiful and magical, is Essouaira, a 2+ hour drive west from Marrakech and a World Heritage Site.
Thirty years ago, Chef Jesse Cool and I ventured to Essaouira after we’d been to Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Fes and Marrakech during the 1994 Oldways Symposium in Morocco. It had been a wonderful but exhausting week (including pushing a 50-person tour bus with a Tourism Ministry friend to unlock the parking brake), and Jesse thought I needed some R&R. Essaouira delivered in spades. We ate grilled sardines on the dock, wandered through the medina inside the walls of the Old City, shopped for spices and pottery, drank gallons of mint tea, and ate simple and delicious meals. We capped off our days by drinking wine on the rooftop of our truly lovely hotel, the Villa Maroc, composed of four traditional riads, looking out at the sea.
Place to stay: Villa Maroc, 10 Rue Abdellah Ben Yassine. It has been thirty years since I’ve been there, and looking at the website in 2024, I can say it is only more beautiful. The common areas, looking inside as all Riads do, looks just as I remember it. The rooms look luxurious.
SPAIN: Cordoba
I love Spain, and it’s hard to choose one place that is not Madrid or Barcelona or San Sebastian. While it’s tempting to pick Segovia, I’ve landed on Cordoba.
I was in Spain in the fall of 2017 for a dual purpose. Oldways organized a Culinaria in Granada and Sevilla, and we had a one-day excursion to Cordoba to visit the La Mezquita, the enormous Mosque built in the 8th century which later became a Cathedral, and another one-day journey to Montilla to learn about olive oil and sherry. I needed to scout.
My daughter Casey joined me, as we were also waiting for her wedding dress to be altered in Madrid. We, of course, visited the La Mezquita in Cordoba, and most importantly, spent the day with the Alfonso Fernandez, who I had been told is one of the nicest persons anywhere. This is true. Casey and I spent a spectacular day with Alfonso, going to places we would visit during the Culinaria day in Montilla. Alfonso first took us to Alcubilla—Luque in Castro del Rio, to learn about olive oil and then to Bodegas Perez Barquero to understand sherry – how it is made and to taste four sherries paired with our lunch.
Returning to Cordoba, we made sure to have dinner at La Regadera.
Place to stay: Las Casas de la Judería de Córdoba. This is a boutique hotel that encompasses five noble houses, and opens out to the Jewish Quarter, not far from the Alcazar. It is easy to get lost in the winding streets of Cordoba – well worth it when returning to Las Casas de la Juderia.
ITALY: Parma in Emilia Romagna
While Parma is known for some amazing food – Parmigiano Reggiano, Pasta, Prosciutto di Parma – the town itself is also wonderful, walkable, and so very welcoming and comfortable to visit. Not surprisingly, UNESCO officially declared Parma a “creative city for gastronomy.” Parma thus became the first Italian city to obtain the prestigious title, which UNESCO awards cities with unique capabilities in the field of food and agriculture. Located in the Po River Valley, the city is filled with churches, theatres, historical sites, as well as a charming historical center with lots of shopping and restaurants. There’s plenty to do outside the town center – visit a producer of Prosciutto di Parma, tour the Castle of Torrechiara (also close to Langhirano, where you can visit a Prosciutto di Parma producer), or travel to Modena to learn about traditional balsamic vinegar.
Place to stay: Grand Hotel de la Ville. A modern, 5-star hotel located close to the Barilla Center, across a courtyard from Academia Barilla, where it is possible to take cooking classes. The hotel has the kindest and most efficient staff, a lovely breakfast, great lunch and dinner menu, and it is an easy walk to the center of Parma from the hotel.