Kolymbia Rock

This guide to Kolymbia Rock in Rhodes opens with a small dispute over how tall the outcrop even is, then turns to the eucalyptus-lined village laid out below it, which was never meant to look Greek at all. It follows Mario Lago, Italy's governor of the Dodecanese, who founded the village as San Benedetto in 1938, one of four model farming colonies built to settle Italian families on the island for good. By 1940 roughly eight thousand colonists had made their homes across these settlements, most of them right here. Look for the straight eucalyptus avenue and the church tower they raised, still standing over the grid they planted.