Rethymno Greece is a laid-back prefecture located between the regions of Chania and Heraklion, relatively untouched by international tourists, it still keeps its traditional charm. Some cosmopolitan seaside resorts, such as Bali, Adelianos, Kampos, Panormos, and Platanias, perfect for your stay, as they offer a wide selection of hotels and villas. The Old Town is the center of activities, the architecture is strongly influenced by the Venetians, who ruled the island in the past. In northern and southern coasts are fringed with beautiful beaches, such as Bali, Panormos, Adelianos Kampos, Plakias, and Agia Galini. There are also, traditional villages, impressive gorges, and monasteries, such as Preveli and Arkadi.

Apart from the castle, Rethymno has been described as “the best preserved example of Renaissance domestic architecture found outside Italy.” Some 600 to 700 Venetian buildings, mostly houses, flank the narrow lanes, some sporting Turkish additions like latticework balconies through which harem women used to keep tabs on street life without revealing themselves. Graceful arched doorways crowned with coats of arms or Turkish inscriptions give enticing glimpses of flowering courtyards or vaulted ceilings. Some of these masterpieces have been converted into elegant pensions, bars and antiques stores and even the souvenir shops and restaurants here are on a higher plane than their counterparts on the beach, where plasticized photos of plastic-looking food act in lieu of menus to lure the sunburnt.

Among the obvious pleasures of Rethymno are the herb and spice emporia with their whiff of the Orient and unexpected positions like the gruff vendor guarding his rounds of cheese in a slot between the vitrines displaying brand-name minis and bikinis. A closer prowl around the back streets will reward you with sights and tastes rarely found today. The Xenakis bakery is considered to have the best lichnarakia in town – sweet cheese pies shaped like an old oil lamp – Gasparis has the best boukies, bite-sized rusks, and Spanoudakis boasts the most beautiful bread. A menagerie of buns and loaves decorates the bakery window, but who could bear to munch such an adorable antelope? Maria Spanoudaki practises the little known art of bread sculpture, creating whole scenes from dough. Her “secret school” with priest and schoolboys won her second prize at the biannual Artoza International Competition in Athens a few years ago. Perhaps the most startling find behind a Renaissance portal is the Hadjiparaskos fyllo factory. Watching the owner and his wife take a ball of dough, pull it and flap it till it’s as broad as a double-bed sheet is better than going to the circus. Thin as an onion skin but surprisingly elastic, the sheet is stretched over a table measuring 2.50 x 2.50 m and covered with a burlap “blanket” to keep it moist. One sheet is equivalent to a packet of strudel leaves.

Food for the mind is as plentiful as raki in Rethymno, which prides itself on being the intellectual/cultural capital of Crete, scorning Heraklio’s money-minded intensity and Chania’s claims to being chic. Besides hosting the humanities department of the University of Crete, it has outstanding museums whose exhibits are doubly enhanced by their setting. Near the Kastro, the archeological museum occupies what used to be a Turkish jail, and near it the Kanekakis Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art is a converted soap factory with breath-taking spaces and provocative works. In the vicinity the folk museum in a noble Venetian mansion has stunning embroideries, costumes, farm tools and intricately decorated traditional breads specially sculpted with birds, flowers and other symbols to commemorate baptisms and weddings. The Nerantze mosque, once a Venetian church, now houses the Conservatory; Rethymno’s tallest minaret soars above it. And the newly opened Rethymno Center for Contemporary Visual Creation hosts temporary exhibitions.

Where to head next?

Keep exploring the best of Greece! After Rethymno, the top destinations to visit are Santorini, Chania, and Heraklion.