A little history

Crete has been fought over by more or less everyone, and the south coast wears the evidence lightly. None of this needs a whole holiday — but a couple of afternoons are well spent.

Preveli Monastery — 11 km

In one of the finest positions on the island, above the sea. Nobody is quite sure when it was founded; there are indications of a small monastery here by the tenth century. It is really two: the Kato monastery below, now abandoned, and the Piso Monastery of St John the Theologian, still inhabited by monks and open to visitors, with a museum of icons, ritual objects and relics. Shoulders and knees covered, please.

The Venetian harbour, Rethymno — 35 km

Built by the Venetians around 1300 and still in working use seven centuries later, which is the most impressive thing about it. Its lighthouse still stands. For most of that time it was a commercial harbour and a meeting point for people from all over the Mediterranean; today it is a horseshoe of tavernas and moored boats, and it is very hard not to enjoy.

The Fortezza — 35 km

Rethymno's fortress, finished in 1590, built by the Venetians on the Palaiokastro hill to hold off Ottoman attacks and pirate raids. Most of the walls and interior buildings survive in good condition and the view over the old town and the sea is the best in the city. Inside the walls is the open-air Erofili theatre, which hosts most of the Renaissance Festival each summer — worth checking the programme if you are here in July or August.

Historical & Folklore Museum — 35 km

Housed in a restored seventeenth-century Venetian mansion with an interior courtyard — the building alone would justify the ticket. Inside is a permanent collection of Cretan textiles, tools, ceramics and everyday things, which does more to explain how this island actually lived than any amount of fortress.

The gorges and villages guide covers what to see between here and Rethymno on the way.