03 524569 Ch01.qxd 10/1/03 9:30 AM Page 6 1 The Best of Greece Greece is, of course, the land of ancient sites and architectural treasures—the Acropolis in Athens, the amphitheater of Epidaurus, and the reconstructed palace at Knossos being among the best known. But Greece is much more: it offers age-old spectacular natural sights, for instance—from Santorini’s caldera to the gray pinnacles of rock of the Meteora—and modern diversions ranging from elegant museums to luxury resorts. It can be bewildering to plan your trip with so many options vying for your attention. Take us along and we’ll do the work for you. We’ve traveled the country extensively and chosen the very best that Greece has to offer. We’ve explored the archaeological sites, visited the museums, inspected the hotels, reviewed the tavernas and ouzeries, and scoped out the beaches. Here’s what we consider to be the best of the best. 1 The Best Travel Experiences • Making Haste Slowly: Give your- for the unexpected in island boat self time to sit in a seaside taverna schedules! See chapter 10. and watch the fishing boats come • Leaving the Beaten Path: Persist and go. If you’re visiting Greece in against your body’s and mind’s sig- the spring, take the time to smell nals that “this may be pushing too the flowers: the fields are covered far,” leave the main routes and with poppies and daisies. Even in major attractions behind, and make Athens, you’ll see hardy species your own discoveries of landscape, growing through the cracks in villages, or activities. For instance, concrete sidewalks—or better yet, seek out some obscure church or visit Athens’s ancient agora, which monastery such as Moni Ayios will be carpeted in a dazzling vari- Nikolaos outside Metsovo—to be ety of wildflowers. See chapter 6. rewarded by a moving encounter • Island-Hopping in the Cyclades: with the church and its caretaker. Though the Cyclades are bound • Exploring the Naturalists’ by unmistakable family resem- Greece: There is a Greece beyond blance, each island has its own the columns and cafes—a land of unique personality. Distances rugged terrain and wildflowers between islands are small, making and birds and other natural forms travel by ferry pleasant and logisti- and phenomena. Sign up to join a cally straightforward (at least in special tour (see chapter 2) or go it principle). If you are traveling off alone with one of the several beau- season, when you do not need to tifully illustrated handbooks avail- have hotel reservations, your vaca- able, such as Oleg Polunin’s tion will be much less stressful if Flowers of Greece and the Balkans you don’t plan too much in (Oxford Univ. Press) or Birds of advance and allow yourself to “go Europe (McGraw-Hill), by Bertel with the flow”—a tactful way of Bruun and Arthur Singer. And suggesting that you be prepared don’t forget your binoculars! 03 524569 Ch01.qxd 10/1/03 9:30 AM Page 7 THE BEST OF ANCIENT GREECE 7 • Sunrise, Sunset: Get up a little (anywhere in Greece, but try not earlier than usual and see the sun to miss the sunsets that make the rise (preferably out of the Aegean, Ionian Sea change from the deep- illuminating the islands) and then est blue to a fiery red.) watch it sink over the mountains 2 The Best of Ancient Greece • The Acropolis (Athens): No mat- it still exerts its power if you enter ter how many photographs you’ve into the spirit of the labyrinth, seen, nothing can prepare you for where King Minos ruled over the watching the light turn the marble richest and most powerful of of the buildings, still standing Minoan cities and, according to after thousands of years, from legend, his daughter Ariadne honey to rose to deep red to stark helped Theseus kill the Minotaur white. If the crowds get you down, and escape. See p. 300. remember how crowded the • Delos (Cyclades): This tiny isle just Acropolis was during religious fes- 3.2km (2 miles) offshore of tivals in antiquity. See p. 176. Mykonos, was considered by the • Nemea (Peloponnese): This gem ancient Greeks to be both the geo- of a site has it all: a beautifully graphical and spiritual center of the restored stadium, a handsome Cyclades; many considered this museum, and picnic tables with a the holiest sanctuary in all Greece. view of the romantic Doric temple The extensive remains here testify with its three long-standing to the island’s former splendor. columns—and several newly From Mount Kinthos (really just a restored and re-erected ones. If hill, but the island’s highest point), you’re lucky, you may see Nemea’s you can see many of the Cyclades archaeologists at work lovingly most days and the whole archipel- reconstructing and re-erecting ago on a very clear day. The 3 hours more columns from the temple’s allotted by excursion boats from north facade in their ambitious Mykonos or Tinos are hardly suffi- restoration project. See p. 261. cient to explore this vast archaeo- • Olympia (Peloponnese) and Del- logical treasure. See chapter 10. phi (Central Greece): Try to visit • Vergina (Northern Greece): In the both Olympia, where the Olympic brilliantly designed museum here, Games began, and Delphi, home you can peek into what may have of the Delphic Oracle. That’s the been the tomb of Alexander the only way you’ll be able to decide Great’s father, Philip of Macedon; whether you think Olympia, with nearby there are more than 300 its massive temples and shady burial mounds that stretch for groves of trees, or Delphi, perched miles across the Macedonian plain. on mountain slopes overlooking See chapter 16. olive trees and the sea, is the most • Messene (Peloponnese): This beautiful ancient site in Greece. sprawling 4th century B.C. site has See chapters 8 and 12. the best-preserved ancient fortifi- • Palace of Knossos (Crete): A cation walls in Greece, an enor- seemingly unending maze of mous Sanctuary of Asklepios rooms and levels and stairways and a stadium—and views of and corridors and frescoed walls— almost all Messene and Laconia the Minoan Palace of Knossos. It from the summit of Mount can be packed at peak hours, but Ithomi. See p. 282. 03 524569 Ch01.qxd 10/1/03 9:30 AM Page 8 8 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE Greece 0 25 mi 0 25 km FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC Tirana OF MACEDONIA Adriatic Sea Serres Kilkis ALBANIA MACEDONIA Giannitsa Edessa Pella Thessaloniki Kastoria Vergina Stratoni Kozani Dion ZAGORI Mt. Kalpaki Olympus Elassona Metsovo Meteora Ioannina (Kalambaka) Larissa Igoumenitsou Trikkala EPIRUS LLakeake THESSALY Pelion Corfu PPamvotisamvotis Karditsa Peninsula Volos Skopelos GREECE Paxos Arta Praveza Skiathos Karpenissi Lamia Ionian Loutra Sea Vonitsa Edipsou Lefkada CENTRAL Mt. Agrinio GREECE Parnassus Astakos Messolongi Delphi Livadia Kefalonia Ithaka Patras Thebes IONIAN ISLANDS Megara Kyllini Corinth Athens PELOPONNESE Piraeus Mycenae SARONIC Zakinthos Pirgos Olympia GULF Argos ISLANDS Tripoli Nafplion Andritsena Epidaurus Megalopolis AAegeanegean Mistra Sparta AAthensthens SeaSea Kalamata Pilos Mediterranean Githio Sea CCRETERETE Mediterranean Sea Areopolis Monemvassia CRETE Chania Sea of Crete Kythira Rethymnon Ayios Iraklion Nikolaos Ayia Galini To Crete Ierapetra (approx. 60 miles from mainland) 03 524569 Ch01.qxd 10/1/03 9:30 AM Page 9 THE BEST OF ANCIENT GREECE 9 Black BULGARIA Sea Drama Xanthi THRACE Komotini TURKEY Kavala Alexandroupolis Sea of Marmara Thasos Samothraki Mt. Athos Limnos Aegean Sea Lake Pamvotis GGREECEREECE Alonissos Lesvos (Mitilini) SPORADES TURKEY Skyros NORTHEASTERN AEGEAN ISLANDS Kimi EVVIA Izmir Hios Karystos Andros Samos Sounion Ikaria Kea Tinos Mykonos Siros Patmos Delos Aegean Naxos Paros Athens Sea Serifos Donoussa Kalimnos Antiparos Sifnos CYCLADES Kos Amorgos CRETE Ios Milos Folegandros Simi Anafi DODECANESE Santorini Rhodes Karpathos Mountain 03 524569 Ch01.qxd 10/1/03 9:30 AM Page 10 10 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE 3 The Best of Byzantine & Medieval Greece • Mistra (Peloponnese): This excellent tours sometimes offered Byzantine ghost town has streets by the monks. The mosaics in the lined with the remains of homes cathedral dome are works of both humble and palatial, as well extraordinary power and beauty; as some of the most beautiful even in the half-obscurity of the churches in all Greece. If you have nave they radiate a brilliant gold. the energy, climb to the top of the Check out the small museum, and defense walls for the superb view take some time to explore the over the plain of Sparta. Try to extensive monastery grounds. See visit in the spring, when Mistra is chapter 17. carpeted with wildflowers. See • Monemvassia (Peloponnese): chapter 8. Long-called “The Gibralter of • Church of Panayia Kera (Kritsa, Greece,” this rocky promontory Crete): If Byzantine art sometimes crowned by a medieval citadel and seems a bit stilted and remote, this church has only one real street striking chapel in the foothills of (just wide enough for two donkeys eastern Crete will reward you with to pass each other), no cars, cob- its unexpected intimacy. The bled lanes, beautifully restored 14th- and 15th-century frescoes stone houses (some of which are not only are stunning, but also now hotels), and views that stretch depict all the familiar Biblical sto- forever over the sea. See chapter 8. ries. See chapter 9. • A Clutch of Castles: Acrocorinth, • The Churches of Thessaloniki Argos, Nafplion, Methoni, and (Northern Greece): Thessaloniki’s Korone (Peloponnese): Some of Byzantine churches are the finest these castles have ancient founda- not just in Greece, but in the entire tions, all were added onto by the world.