Its narrow, calm streets are best to be accessed on foot. You will find there a traditional Olive Oil Factory, its owners are G. Skarpalezos- S. Marinis and it is functioning until today in the traditional way. It is like a museum, which still functions as a factory. It has been in his family for four generations since it?s establishment in 1773. Although the picking season lasts for only three months, September, October, November, and the pressing process until the end of February, the bottling of the 80 tonnes of oil which they produce, takes almost all year! The oil produced in this factory is exported to many European Union countries, and, for example, in Switzerland, this oil is used to produce Vitamin E tablets, which are incredibly beneficial for health, but will be one of the items that can no longer be produced after the implementation of the new equipment. At the moment, the oil produced in this factory is naturally organic, and the best produced in Greece. From Stavropigio, head to Kardamyli, which is one of the most beautiful and varied little villages of Mani. Therefore, you will find it in the Beach trip too, but don?t miss its museum, which is in fact the remains of the Old Kardamyli, and old stone wall city with a church, towers and fortifications. Not far from its seashore, you will find the Oil and Soap factory Liakea, which is a very important factory built in the 19th century, the presence of which is a testimony of the importance of olive prodction in the region. Many years ago, before the war, 1000 people lived here and 200 worked in the old olive oil factory. Kardamyli has always been important for oil.

Messinia is the land of the olive tree. With its 15.800.000 trees, it is one of the most important regions in olive oil production and olive cultivating in the whole world. The traditions relating to this tree go back to ancient times. As a self-growing tree, it has existed in the Mediterranean region for many thousands of years. The most ancient testimonies of the olive and its oil were discovered in ancient Pylos. Ancient urns on which the harvesting of the olive and olive oil warehouses are depicted, tablets of Linear B writing on which the ideograms of the olive and olive oil are scribed, are discoveries that prove that Messinia is one of the oldest homelands of the olive. Therefore it would be quite unpolite to visit Messinia without having a taste of the olive tree culture. This trip goes around the places which are the most well known for their olive oil industry: Stavropigio, Kardamyli, Koroni, and finally back to Kalamata. Stavropigio is a tiny but beautiful little village in Mani, on the way from Kalamata to Kardamyli. It has an old abandoned castle on the top of a hill, which is very hard to access, but the view is beautiful and it compensates the visitor for the very abandoned condition of the ruins. The village lies just beneath the castle, still on the hill.

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