In the spring of 2025, Athanasios Alexopoulos from Syrna picked up his tools and started clearing an old path that had disappeared under scrub. On 11 August 2025, neighbours and volunteers joined him to paint the first waymarks, with Ioannis Lagos of the Menalon social cooperative showing them how. Syrna now has its own trail, and it follows one of the oldest roads in Arcadia.
A village above the Alpheios
Syrna sits at about 800 metres on the southern slopes of Mount Menalon, looking out over the Megalopolis basin and down to the Alpheios. It is one of a small group of ridge villages, together with Psari, Palamari and Pavlia, that have looked down on this valley for centuries. Karytaina is only about 6 km away.
Walking on Pausanias’ road
The Syrna Trail is a loop of roughly 3 km, about two hours of easy to moderate walking, starting and ending at the village square. Part of it runs along the ancient road that joined Megalopolis to Trikolonoi, Thyraion and Methydrion, the same road the traveller Pausanias described around 160 AD. You can still see the cart ruts cut into the rock. Along the way you pass an old well, a small chapel, a lime kiln and a stone spring, with the valley opening up below you.
The trail is open to walkers. Volunteers are still finishing a short section between Stavros and the chapel of the Virgin, so expect a little rough ground there.
Lunch in the square, bread in Psari
The trail begins and ends right at the Syrna Gastrokafeneio in the village square, a good place to stop for coffee before you set off and to eat when you get back. If you want to keep walking, a 3.3 km path (about an hour and a quarter) links Syrna with neighbouring Psari, home of Arcadiani, a member of the Arcadia Hospitality Network. Young people from the village run a workshop, kitchen and small museum there, and they cook with what the land around them produces.
Make a day of it from Karytaina
Stay the night at Hotel Pelasgos in Karytaina, under the castle. In the morning, ride along the Alpheios with Stefi’s Equestrian Tours, who are based just below the Koukos Bridge. Then drive the short way up to Syrna for the trail and lunch in the square, and end the day in Psari at Arcadiani.
Syrna, Gortynia, Arcadia, Peloponnese.
Don’t miss
- The ancient cart ruts, where you walk the same stone Pausanias wrote about
- The lime kiln, a reminder of how these villages built their own houses
- The view over the Megalopolis basin from the upper part of the loop
- Coffee in the square before you start, when the village is waking up
How to reach Syrna
Syrna is about 6 km northeast of Karytaina, above the right bank of the Alpheios, and within easy reach of Megalopolis. The trail starts from the village square.
