Veria (Veroia) & Its Turkish Remains
The interesting hill town of Veria (Veroia) is 15km (9 miles) northwest of Vergina. The Municipal Culture Office (tel. 23110/27-914), at the corner of Pavlou Mela and Bizantiou in the center of town, has helpful maps and brochures. Veria, in the throes of development, still has a number of old streets, wood houses with overhanging bay windows, more than 50 small Byzantine churches (usually locked), a 15th-century cathedral, and a good number of buildings from the Ottoman period, including a former mosque and hamam (bath).
At the corner of Anixeos and Pasteur, the handsome 1930s Vlachoyiannis town house displays the collection of the restored Museum of Modern History and Art; it also has a cafe. If you combine visits to the museum exhibits with visits to a cluster of nearby 20th-century houses, "eclectic" in style, you'll get a sense of how people in Veria lived in the first half of the 20th century. Nearby, the new Byzantine Museum is in the restored Markos mill (tel. 23310/29-737). Admission is 2€ ($2.60); hours are Tuesday to Sunday 8:30am to 3pm (closed Mon). Only the truly devoted will wish to visit the small Archaeological Museum, 47 Anoixeos (tel. 23310/24-972), which features finds from local sites. Admission is 2€ ($2.60); hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30am to 3pm. Don't feel bad if it's closed; you'll have much more fun wandering the streets of this old town, with its considerable Turkish remains and old Jewish quarter. You can stop here for a quick coffee and get a sense of the town -- or spend a pleasant day here.
The Naoussa Vineyards
About halfway between Veria and Edessa, on the slopes of Mount Vermion, you'll see roadside signs for several vineyards open to the public. At Naoussa, a region famous for its wine, Stenimachos Winery, run by the well-known Boutari vintners, offers tours (sometimes in English) of the winery most work days. For information, call tel. 23320/41-666 or go to www.boutari.gr. You can also check with the GNTO in Thessaloniki (tel. 2310/271-888).
Where to Stay & Dine--The 37-unit Hotel Makedonia, 50 Kontogeorgaki, Veria (tel./fax 23310/66-902 or 23310/66-946), is the best hotel in town, with a quiet location. It has the bland ambience of a businessperson's, rather than a traveler's, hotel. Rooms come with air-conditioning and TVs. The new Veria, Km 6.5 on the Veria-Naousa Highway (tel. 23310/93-112), gets a fair amount of tour business. Although staying here makes exploring Veria itself a mini-excursion, you may find the pool so welcoming that you never leave. The rooms are standard Greek-hotel quality, but most have pleasant balconies as well as air-conditioning and TVs. Also, the hotel is set back from the highway just enough to make traffic noise manageable. Both the Makedonia and the Veria usually offer doubles from 60€ to 100€ ($78-$130).
Near the Vergina site, you'll find a number of small cafes and restaurants, including the pleasant Filippion (also spelled Philippion), as well as several overnight possibilities at "rent rooms" establishments. Veria's restaurants serve food guaranteed to be better than that dished out near the Vergina site. You should eat well at Nikos or Kostalar; ask for directions in Veria, as the streets are not signposted.
