Stone was built here to be defended, and you reserve a tower house day in the Mani to see how

Three houses, opened in order

The day starts at 09:00 in a village of towers, most of them shut. A builder who repairs these houses has keys to three, and they are opened in a deliberate sequence: an abandoned one first, where the floors are gone and you look straight up four storeys to the sky; then one half repaired, with new beams sitting in old sockets; then one still lived in, where the ground floor holds animals in winter as it always did. Between the three there is a walk of about an hour across the terraces, which is where the second half of the subject sits: why there is almost no soil here, and why families built upward instead of outward. The day closes at 16:00.

Standing, stooping, and loose stone

Seven hours, but the walking is modest: five kilometres or so, on stone tracks and terrace walls with an uneven surface all the way. What tires people is the vertical. Tower stairs are steep, narrow and worn round at the edge, doorways are low enough that tall visitors will hit one at least once, and the upper floors of the abandoned house are reached on a fixed ladder that some people choose to skip. Skipping it costs nothing and is expected. There is very little shade between the villages. Long sleeves are more use than sun cream on the terraces, where the scrub is spiky at knee height and grows right up to the path.

What the figure covers, and what it does not

From $156 per person, the figure holds the builder's time from 09:00 to 16:00, entry to the three houses, and the walk between them. It does not hold road transport to and from the villages, food, water, or the beds either side. You are not asked for a card here at any point, because this office takes no payment and holds no card details: the company running the day invoices you directly, under its own name, and pays a commission to us afterwards. Prices are set by them and confirmed when the booking is placed. If four people do not come together, the day does not run and nothing has changed hands.

Awkward things people ask about this day

What does mark two actually mean for me?

It means the day needs four people before the builder gives up a working day for it. If you are two, we put your date up and wait for it to fill, and we tell you where it stands rather than leaving it open. Many pairs name two possible dates for this reason. You are told yes or no at least a week out.

Can you tell us whether we need a visa for Greece?

No, and the answer is the same for anything a consulate, a doctor or a lawyer would properly deal with, because none of that is work this office does, and that is a flat rule rather than caution in a particular case. Whatever your nationality, the answer comes from the consulate that serves you, and it can change between the day you ask and the day you travel. We book days and beds. That is the whole of it.

Are the houses furnished inside?

Two of the three are not. The abandoned tower is empty to the walls and open to the weather at the top. The half repaired one holds tools, timber and dust. Only the lived in house has furniture, and you see the ground floor and one room above it, because a family sleeps there. Nobody photographs the private rooms. If you were expecting a museum interior, this is not that.