Preveza

Two Prevezas exist and you should be clear about which one you are in. There is the peninsula — the old Venetian and Ottoman town, low and dense, with the Fort of Pantokrator at the end of it and the sea on three sides — and there is the mainland at the head of the bay, which is flat, modern and where most of the population actually lives.

The fort is the reason to come. It was built by the Venetians in the sixteenth century on a rock at Adramyttio, about a kilometre and a half from the centre, and it is still substantially intact because the Ottomans kept it and used it. The Ottomans called it Tortuga — the tortoise — which tells you a good deal about how they rated it.

And then there is Actium, which is not where people expect. The tip of the peninsula is only about a kilometre from the town centre. The famous battle happened in the water off this point, and the sanctuary of Apollo Actius stood on the headland, and the victory monument with its bronze rams is a walkable site within the modern town. If you have come for the history, Preveza is much closer to it than the guidebook distance suggests.

Preveza's strategic position has been the whole story since antiquity: it commands the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf and therefore the shortest sea route between Italy and the western Mediterranean.

In 31 BC Octavian's fleet defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra off Actium. Within a year or two Augustus built Nikopolis — the 'City of Victory' — about six kilometres inland, populating it with the inhabitants of some twenty towns, Ambracia among them. Nikopolis was Roman and then Early Christian; its walls still stand in places to a height of twelve metres and the site is on Greece's UNESCO Tentative List.

Venice took the peninsula in the fourteenth century and built the Fort of Pantokrator. The Ottoman siege of Preveza in 1538, when Barbarossa took the town against a Holy League squadron, is the most remembered moment of that period. The town changed hands repeatedly and joined the modern Greek state in 1913.

Preveza is a coastal town and the beaches are the point of a visit.

Mitora is the closest big sweeping strand, and Monolithi, about eleven kilometres out, is the long developed beach on the Ionian coast, reached through the camping grounds and fronting the water for most of its length. Between them and the town are the beaches of the Zalogo municipal unit — Kanalio, Nea Samos, Nea Sinopi — which are more sand and shallow water than scenery, and which is exactly what you want on a hot afternoon. Aktio itself is at the tip of the peninsula, and the beaches on the Gulf side are sheltered and much smaller.

The villages around are worth an evening each. Louros is the best of them, sitting on the river that supplied Nikopolis' aqueduct. Kanalio, Nea Samos and Nea Sinopi form a belt of ordinary Epirus villages five to twelve kilometres inland, and Vonitsa is across the bay on the road toward the Gulf beaches. Parga is forty-seven kilometres south and is a serious trip rather than a stroll — it is a destination in its own right.

Preveza is on the Ionian coast rather than in the strict Epirus interior, so the food sits between the two: grilled seafood on the waterfront, and inland to the west the Epirus cooking that Arta does properly.

The fish is the easy part — the port supplies it. Look for whatever came in that morning rather than a fixed menu. On the inland side of the peninsula the lamb in pastry, the local cheeses and the beans and citrus of the plain are all worth the walk away from the front. Eat at the tavernas inland of the harbour rather than on the quay itself, where the prices are harbour prices.

May to June is the best time for Preveza: the beaches are usable and uncrowded, the temperature is comfortable, and Nikopolis and the fort are pleasant in the heat. September is excellent and is the best swimming month, warm enough without the crush. July and August are hot and busy — busy enough that the fort and Nikopolis, which are the two things worth seeing, are much better early in the morning. Winter is mild but grey, and a lot of the town's waterfront closes down.

Preveza is served by Aktion National Airport, a few kilometres south on the far side of the tunnel — officially Preveza's airport, though it stands in Aetolia-Acarnania, and it also serves Lefkada. The city has no railway; it is reached by road through the Aktio–Preveza tunnel, and by KTEL buses from Ioannina and Athens.

Preveza has the Aktio–Preveza tunnel road and regular KTEL buses, so it is one of the easier regional capitals to reach without a car — though you will want one for Monolithi, Mitora and Nikopolis. Go to Nikopolis in the morning: it is a big site with no shade and the Roman streets are unreadable at midday. The museum and the site share a ticket, so do them together. The fort is exposed and windy; take something for the wind even in August. And if you are here on a clear evening, the sunset over the bay towards Aktio is the thing to stay for.