A day away from Athens: far or near the Greek capital
The new National roads have made getting out of Athens’ center easy and fast. On a day in the nearby countryside, there is much to see and enjoy, from antiquities to wineries to modern art Museums to islands. A respite from the crowds and summer heat, is certain to be welcome.
Peloponnese > One of my favorite day [...]
Mani: Greece’s land of warriors
Set against a rugged landscape dotted with towering villages, Frankish Castles, Byzantine Churches and beautiful beaches, Mani, on the southern Peloponnese coast of Greece, can literally be described as being at the edge of the world.
“Try not to look over the edge and you should be fine”, said Stamatis while weaving his tour bus precariously [...]
Finding family in Greece: tales from Kyparissi
Late uncle’s tales take a traveller in search of his past and bring him home to a village.
The last place late Princess Diana took a vacation.
My uncle’s brother Mihalis is driving us from Athens through the Greek countryside to the seaside village of Kyparissi. It’s an eight-hour trip past towns drenched in myth and history, [...]
Some of my really typical Greek but tasty places
Monemvassia > This incredible Byzantine town, on a huge rock jutting off the coast of the Peloponnese, was once a bustling medieval seaport. People still live in the houses and it’s an unspoilt Byzantine gem.
Areopoli > A formidable Peloponnese coastal town which was named after Ares, the ancient god of war, for its efforts in [...]
A rail trip through Greece
If you are planning to take a trip by rail while visiting Greece, then you may consider to ride on the narrow gauge railway line from Patras to Corinth. Here are some details for you.
In fact, this line is one of the most spectacular branch lines in the world. It runs due south from the town of Diakofto, on the line from [...]
Ziria > a magic mountain
Ziria is the mountain that rises from the shores of the Gulf of Corinth above Xylokastro, in the Peloponnese.
The word is Slavic, meaning “acorn”, and perhaps if you get far enough from it, that’s what it looks like. The other name for it, Kyllini, is an ancient Greek word meaning “cavity”, which stands for the [...]
Greece’s grand tours > watch out for Artemis and her nymphs in Mani
Writers’ adventures in literature: is awed by the Peloponnese mountains, where myth is never far away
In December 1933 Patrick Leigh Fermor, then aged 18, set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, a 1,200-mile journey which he famously chronicled in ‘A Time of Gifts’. During the Second World War, Fermor spent three [...]
On the rock > Monemvasia
Standing on the starlit walls of the Medieval rock-fortress of Monemvasia, watching waves passing far below like an army of migrating birds, you notice one thing above all else: near-silence. Listen carefully and you can hear the water breaking gently on the stone. Behind you, a door rattles in the breeze. There is nothing else [...]
Greece > sex, lies and Helen of Troy
On the trail of the Greek princess across the Peloponnese
When I came running up with a piece of 3,500-year-old Mycenaean pottery, my heart sank. I had been grubbing around in the mud next to a dig at Midea in the Peloponnese and uncovered pot shards overlooked by the excavators. In Greece, if you’re suspected of [...]
Peloponnese > the hidden Greece
In middle May this year my visit to Laconia was direct on the newer roads, now through plains and not over winding mountain passes, with good junctions to lead onto the well worthwhile visits to Mystras and Monemvasia.
There is now a bypass before Gytheio, if you care to get on the country roads leading on to Messinia [...]
