Stivania, the traditional Cretan boots, are one of the few souvenirs from Chania you will actually use at home. Not a fridge magnet, not a bottle that leaks in your suitcase, but a pair of handmade leather boots built to…
The sariki, the black fringed Cretan headscarf, is one of the strongest symbols of Cretan identity, and in Chania you do not have to look far to see it: on older men in a village kafeneio, on young men at…
Cretan honey is one of the best things you can take home from Chania, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Plenty of visitors walk into a harbour shop, pick a jar with a pretty label, pay a premium,…
The best night of your trip might not be at a restaurant. It might be at a panigiri, a village feast day: tables in the church square, grilled meat and wine, a lyra and laouto playing until dawn, and a…
If you spend a few evenings in Chania, you will hear the Cretan lyra, and you will not confuse it with the bouzouki music of Greek films. It is a small, pear-shaped instrument with three strings, played upright on the…
A traditional Cretan knife is one of the most authentic things you can take home from Chania, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Walk through the Old Town and you will see knives in almost every souvenir shop…