05_598317 ch01.qxd 10/5/05 11:06 PM Page 6 1 The Best of Greece Greece is, of course, the land of ancient sites and architectural treasures—the Acrop- olis in Athens, the amphitheater of Epidaurus, and the reconstructed palace at Knos- sos 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 the best of the best. 1 The Best Travel Experiences • Making Haste Slowly: Give yourself preparing you for the unexpected in time to sit in a seaside taverna and island boat schedules! See chapter 10, watch the fishing boats come and go. “The Cyclades.” If you visit Greece in the spring, take • Leaving the Beaten Path: Persist the time to smell the flowers; the against your body’s and mind’s signals fields are covered with poppies, that “this may be pushing too far,” daisies, and other blooms. Even in leave the main routes and major Athens, you’ll see hardy species attractions behind, and make your growing through the cracks in con- own discoveries of landscape, villages, crete sidewalks—or better yet, visit or activities. For instance, seek out a Athens’s Ancient Agora, which will church or monastery such as Moni be carpeted with a dazzling variety of Ayios Nikolaos outside Metsovo— wildflowers. See chapter 6, “Explor- you may be rewarded by a moving ing Athens.” encounter with the church and its • Island-Hopping in the Cyclades: caretaker. When you visit the Though the Cyclades are bound by Cycladic Islands, consider a base on unmistakable family resemblance, Tinos, which is very popular with each islandCOPYRIGHTED has a unique personality. Greeks MATERIAL but attracts hardly any for- Distances between islands are small, eigners. See “Metsovo” on p. 528. making travel by ferry pleasant and • Exploring the Naturalists’ Greece: logistically straightforward (at least in There is a Greece beyond the principle). If you are traveling in the columns and cafes—a land of rugged off season, when you do not need terrain and wildflowers and birds and hotel reservations, don’t plan too other natural phenomena. Sign up much in advance and allow yourself for a special tour (see chapter 2, to “go with the flow”—a tactful way of “Planning Your Trip to Greece”), or 05_598317 ch01.qxd 10/5/05 11:06 PM Page 7 THE BEST OF ANCIENT GREECE 7 go it alone with one of the several • Sunrise, Sunset: Get up a little ear- beautifully illustrated handbooks lier than usual to see the sun rise available, such as Oleg Polunin’s (preferably from the Aegean, illumi- Flowers of Greece and the Balkans nating the islands). Then watch it (Oxford Univ. Press); or Birds of sink over the mountains (anywhere in Europe (McGraw-Hill), by Bertel Greece, but try not to miss the sun- Bruun and Arthur Singer. And don’t sets that change the Ionian Sea from forget your binoculars! the deepest blue to a fiery red). 2 The Best of Ancient Greece • The Acropolis (Athens): No matter levels and stairways and corridors and how many photographs you’ve seen, frescoed walls—this is the Minoan nothing can prepare you for watching Palace of Knossos. It can be packed at the light change the marble of the peak hours, but it still exerts its power buildings, still standing after thou- if you enter in the spirit of the sands of years, from honey to rose to labyrinth. King Minos ruled over the deep red to stark white. If the crowds richest and most powerful of Minoan get you down, remember how cities and, according to legend, his crowded the Acropolis was during reli- daughter Ariadne helped Theseus kill gious festivals in antiquity. See p. 181. the Minotaur in the labyrinth and • Nemea (Peloponnese): This gem of a escape. See p. 307. site has it all: a beautifully restored • Delos (Cyclades): This tiny isle, just stadium, a handsome museum, even 3.2km (2 miles) offshore of Myko- picnic tables with a view of the nos, was considered by the ancient romantic Doric temple. Look for the Greeks to be both the geographical three long-standing columns—and and spiritual center of the Cyclades; several newly restored and reerected many considered this the holiest ones. If you’re lucky, you may see sanctuary in all of Greece. The exten- Nemea’s archaeologists at work lov- sive remains here testify to the island’s ingly reconstructing and reerecting former splendor. From Mount Kin- more columns from the temple’s thos (really just a hill, but the island’s north facade in their ambitious highest point), you can see many of restoration project. See p. 268. the Cyclades most days; on a very • Olympia (Peloponnese) & Delphi clear day, you can see the entire archi- (Central Greece): Try to visit both pelago. The 3 hours allotted by Olympia, where the Olympic Games excursion boats from Mykonos or began, and Delphi, home of the Del- Tinos are hardly sufficient to explore phic Oracle. That’s the only way this vast archaeological treasure. See you’ll be able to decide whether chapter 10. Olympia, with its massive temples • Vergina (Northern Greece): In the and shady groves of trees, or Delphi, brilliantly designed museum here, perched on mountain slopes over- you can peek into what may have looking olive trees and the sea, is the been the tomb of Alexander the most beautiful ancient site in Greece. Great’s father, Philip of Macedon. See chapters 8 and 12. Nearby, more than 300 burial • Palace of Knossos (Crete): A seem- mounds stretch for miles across the ingly unending maze of rooms and Macedonian plain. See p. 593. 05_598317 ch01.qxd 10/5/05 11:06 PM Page 8 8 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE Greece 0 25 mi Tirana FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC 0 25 km OF MACEDONIA Serres Kilkis Adriatic ALBANIA MACEDONIA Sea 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 Zakinthos PELOPONNESE Piraeus Mycenae SARONIC Pirgos Olympia GULF Argos ISLANDS Tripoli Nafplion Andritsena Epidaurus AAegeanegean Megalopolis AAthensthens SSeaea Mistra Sparta Kalamata Mediterranean Pilos Sea CCRETERETE Githio CRETE Areopolis Monemvassia Chania Sea of Crete Rethymnon Ayios Iraklion Nikolaos Kythira Ayia Galini Ierapetra Mediterranean Sea 05_598317 ch01.qxd 10/5/05 11:06 PM Page 9 THE BEST OF ANCIENT GREECE 9 BULGARIA 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 Aegean Patmos Sea Delos Athens Naxos Paros Serifos Donoussa Kalimnos Antiparos Sifnos CRETE CYCLADES Kos Amorgos Ios Milos Folegandros Simi Anafi DODECANESE Santorini To Crete Rhodes (approx. 60 miles from mainland) Mountain Karpathos 05_598317 ch01.qxd 10/5/05 11:06 PM Page 10 10 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE 3 The Best of Byzantine & Medieval Greece • Mistra (Peloponnese): This Byzan- by the monks. The mosaics in the tine ghost town has streets lined with cathedral dome are works of extraor- the remains of homes both humble dinary power and beauty; even in the and palatial, as well as some of the half-obscurity of the nave, they radi- most beautiful churches in all of ate a brilliant gold. Check out the Greece. If you have the energy, climb small museum, and take some time to the top of the defense walls for the to explore the extensive monastery superb view over the plain of Sparta. grounds. See p. 615. Try to visit in spring, when Mistra is • Monemvassia (Peloponnese): Long carpeted with wildflowers. See p. 277. called “The Gibraltar of Greece,” this • Church of Panagia Kera (Kritsa, rocky promontory crowned by a Crete): If Byzantine art seems a bit medieval citadel and church has only stilted and remote, this striking one real street (just wide enough for chapel in the foothills of eastern two donkeys to pass each other), no Crete will reward you with its unex- cars, cobbled lanes, beautifully pected intimacy. The 14th- and 15th- restored stone houses (some of which century frescoes are not only are now hotels), and views that stretch stunning but depict all the familiar forever over the sea. See p. 280. biblical stories. See p. 338. • A Clutch of Castles: Acrocorinth, • The Churches of Thessaloniki Argos, Mistra & Nafplion (Pelo- (Northern Greece): Thessaloniki’s ponnese): Some of these castles have Byzantine churches are the finest not ancient foundations; all were added just in Greece but in the entire world. onto by the Franks, Venetians, From tiny Osios David to towering Byzantines, and Turks. Several were Ayios Dimitrios, these churches boast used as fortresses as recently as World mosaics and frescoes that give you War II.