One of the most beautiful winter destinations in Greece is the beautiful Metsovo, the gem of Epirus.

A village so beautiful, so picturesque and with such a rich history that we rarely know in our country.

Metsovo combines many winter activities for its guests. A ski resort, just 20 minutes away, you can take a stroll through the beautiful lake of Ioannina and finally you are within walking distance of the Vikos Gorge and the beautiful Zagorohoria.

Metsovo could be an example for the exploitation and regeneration of a mountainous area that until 10 years ago to visit was a not so small Odyssey. Viewed before the construction of the Egnatia road even from the city of Ioannina you needed more than 1.5 hours to visit it.

The pioneering for the period mutation and evolution of Metsovo by the Evangelos Averoff Benefactor.

Since 1990, in the center of Metsovo, is the statue of the politician and writer Evangelos Averoff. The locals in this way wanted to honor him because he helped Metsovo to evolve from a village of breeders to a model for the development of a mountainous place. The way Averoff managed to reach the wealthy homonymous Tositsa and make his fortune to his place of origin was fictional. The family of Averoff originated in Metsovo. However, the first time Averoff visited it was in the early 1930s. For Mr. Evangelos Averoff, Metsovo was “love at first sight”. As his daughter Tatiana Averoff had told in the TV show “Time Machine”, her father “fell in love with Metsovo instantly”. He was moved by the village, people, the landscape. From that moment on it was the target of his life to find the resources that would make Metsovo save itself from poverty and get out of the isolation it was in.

In November 1934, Evangelos Averoff met with 19 people originated from Metsovo in Athens to discuss what they could do to save their place. However, whatever work they were thinking, there was a major common barrier. Money was needed. Thus, Averoff began to search for people who came from the region and could afford to develop the site.

Averoff thought of the wealthy Tositsa family who came from Metsovo and its members lived abroad. Initially, he sent a letter to Baroness Tositsa, from which he never got an answer. The next communication was with the baron Constantine Tositsa, who replied that he had nothing to do with Metsovo and Greece. However, Averoff did not lose his faith and continued to look for the savior of Metsovo. So he sent a letter to baron Michael Tositsa.

Finally, Averoff’s Epirotic stubbornness and insistence paid off and after many years to come, and after a close friendship having been established between him and Michalis Tositsa, Averoff’s vision became reality, and Metsovo changed his history forever thankfull to Tositsa’s benevolence .