At the southern tip of the Peloponnese, on the middle of the three peninsulas that reach into the Mediterranean like fingers, lies the Mani, one of Greece’s most storied and least tamed regions. This is not the Greece of whitewashed island postcards. It is a land of fierce clans who built stone towers instead of houses, of villages that repelled invaders for centuries, and of a coastline where sheer cliffs drop into water of an almost implausible darkest blue. Its beauty reveals itself gradually. It takes a second glance to notice how the stone that abounds here has been shaped into tower houses, roads, charming little cottages, sturdy walls and grand mansions. In other words, how this seemingly “barren” material has, in fact, created wealth.