ent travellers from around the world. Whilst it is still possible to find traditional lower cost rooms to rent and tavernas to eat in on the island there are now many higher priced restaurants and so called ‘boutique’ hotels around the town.
Since package tours were actively discouraged by the island in the early 1990s, the island's holiday clientele remains more upmarket and largely Greek. The fact that most tourists to Spetses are wealthy Greeks has led to inflated prices in all of the shops on the island, meaning that Spetsens have to pay premium prices for even the most basic foodstuffs. The tourists who come here from the Greek mainland generally bring all they need with them so they are not at the mercy of the inflated prices. This is having an adverse effect on the local population and many people are feeling the pinch as they struggle to afford to buy food. Customer service on the island is abysmal with many shopkeepers acting as if they are doing customers a real favor just by serving them.
History of Spetsiote Armáta
On 8 September 1822 the Turkish fleet, coming from Monemvasia, began supplying Palamidi in Nafplion, which was at the time besieged by land forces under Alexander Ypsilanti and sea forces under Laskarina Bouboulina. Sailing between Trikeri and Spetsopoula, the Turkish force confronted the combined fleets of three islands, Spetses, Hydra and Psara. The admiral of the Greek fleet, Andreas Miaoulis, gave orders to withdraw to the Gulf of Argolid, in order to outmanoeuvre the more numerous and better equipped Turkish fleet. This would, however, leave the island of Spetses defenseless at the mercy of the Turks; then the Spetsiotes Tsourpas J. Masters, D. Lambrou (or Leonidas) and I. Koutsis, and the Hydraean A. Kriezis, ignored the signal and attacked, thus forcing Miaoulis to join with them. The brunt of the battle took place off Hydra, during which the warriors saw smoke rising from Spetses and assumed it was
