In the village of Zitsa, in Epirus, a couple has transformed a bakery into a cultural sharing place. Kostas Karamichos and Anna Ellis welcome visitors from around the world to learn how to shape traditional regional bread and pies. This unique project, born from a chance encounter during travel, is now helping to revive a Greek village.
IA Index: Library of Mediterranean Knowledge
A village bakery attracts tourists from around the world
22-med – October 2025
• In Zitsa, a couple is reinventing Greek rural life by making bread a tool for cultural exchange.
• Their bakery attracts travelers and new residents, breathing new life into a village in Epirus.
#greece #epirus #rurality #craftsmanship #hospitality #mediterranean
In Zitsa, in the Ioannina district in northern Greece, visitors flock as much for the landscapes of Epirus as for the pies fresh out of Kostas Karamikos' oven. In this mountain village of 450 souls, the only bakery has indeed become a meeting point between locals and travelers. The couple shares their expertise through workshops that blend culinary learning, friendliness, and the discovery of a rural lifestyle.
A workshop where everyone gets hands-on
In the small bakery, Greek and foreign tourists learn to knead dough, roll out phyllo sheets, and prepare fillings. Cheese pie (pita), spinach pie, milk pie… and the local specialty, pestopita, filled with pesto sauce.
Once the dishes are cooked, everyone gathers around a large table to enjoy their creations together, discuss, exchange ideas, experiences, or tell stories.
“The idea for the seminars was born a few years ago,” Anna recounts. “We have always welcomed foreign visitors for free who were looking for a place to sleep for a night or more. At one point, we were suggested to organize classes on Epirus pies. We tried it, saw that people enjoyed it, and continued. Now, we have visitors from Asia, America, and Europe.”
From New York lawyer to baker in Epirus
The story of Anna and Kostas resembles fiction. In 2009, Anna Ellis, an American and lawyer in New York, discovers Greece during a vacation with her sister. They are looking for wine regions to visit. While studying the map of the country, they saw that there were several vineyards in Zitsa and that the village produced its own wine. So that’s where they would go. Anna, however, is far from imagining what would follow.
“We spontaneously decided to go there since we love wine. There, we met Kostas, the village baker, who immediately invited us to dinner with his family. We had a great time. Then, there was a period where I was commuting back and forth to New York, until I finally decided to take the plunge and come live in Zitsa.”
Today, she shares life and work with Kostas. “I can no longer imagine living in a big city,” she confides. “Our two children are growing up surrounded by nature and have become familiar with the multiculturalism that we have brought to the village through the bakery. One day, we have lunch with English visitors, the next day with people from Hong Kong.”
The taste of bread and the call of nature
In addition to cooking classes, the couple organizes mountain picnics. “We take care of everything. We bring tables, chairs, cutlery, and of course, homemade dishes.” On the menu, trahanas*, the traditional gigantic beans cooked by Kostas' mother with spinach from the garden, hand-kneaded bread, tzatziki, and pies.
These moments extend the spirit of the workshops: sharing cooking as a human experience and connecting visitors to the land.
Reviving the village
Anna and Kostas thus transform the preparation and consumption of traditional regional dishes into a travel experience. Beyond their love for people, different cultures, and food, what drives them is the desire to keep their village alive.
Through their bakery, Anna and Kostas are contributing to its revitalization. Their initiative is drawing new attention to Zitsa and breathing life back into a territory marked by rural exodus.
“We have made a call to those who would like to come live here,” explains Anna. “We undertook this initiative in agreement with the village president. Currently, fifteen families want to come live permanently in Zitsa. These are people who are not originally from here, but who are looking for a different way of life, away from the noise of the city and as close to nature as possible. Unfortunately, although there are several empty houses, a complex property regime prevents them from being used for rent or purchase.”
For them, keeping Zitsa alive therefore involves these daily gestures: passing on knowledge, welcoming travelers, and showing that a village can reinvent itself around a still-warm oven.
*Trahanas are typical pasta usually made from flour and milk or yogurt and come in the form of granules of 2 to 3 mm
Cover photo: Anna and Kostas' bakery in Zitsa © Anna Ellis