Mytilini Town

Introducing Mytilini Town

Easygoing Mytilini, the port of Lesvos, is kept lively year-round thanks to its capital status and irrepressible student population. The laid-back attitude to life in Mytilini reflects ingrained political preferences (Lesvos was long a bastion of the left), but even more so, perhaps, its love of food, drink and the arts on an island known eternally for its poets and painters, its olive oil and wine.

As with most Greek port towns, the action is centred on the waterfront; however, Mytilini boasts bigger attractions than the average island capital. It is interspersed with palm-fringed churches, grand 19th-century mansions and several museums, the most remarkable being the Teriade, boasting paintings by Picasso, Chagall and Matisse. Handmade ceramics, jewellery and traditional products are available on and around the main shopping street, Ermou, and epicureans will be delighted by the town’s many fine ouzeries. Mytilini’s student-fuelled nightlife, concentrated around the waterfront bars, carries on during summer and winter, too.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009