The Oracle on its mountain, monasteries floating on pillars of rock, and the Bronze Age citadels of the Peloponnese, the Greece of myth and history, away from the islands.
Into the birthplace of democracy and philosophy. After the flight we keep it easy, a first mezze in the Plaka, the Acropolis floodlit above the rooftops, an early night before the ancient world opens up.
The Acropolis and the Parthenon at opening, the superb Acropolis Museum, the Agora where Socrates argued, and the marble lanes of the Plaka. The whole foundation of Western civilisation, walked in a morning.
Up into the mountains to Delphi, which the ancients believed was the centre of the world. The sanctuary of Apollo and the Oracle clinging to the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the temple, the stadium, the eagles wheeling above the olive valley.
On to Meteora, where Byzantine monasteries sit on top of sheer, surreal pillars of rock hundreds of metres high, built when the only way up was a rope and a basket. A UNESCO wonder, and the sunset over the towers is unforgettable.
Visiting the working monasteries on their crags, the candlelit chapels and centuries old frescoes, the dizzying views straight down to the plain. A walk or a scramble among the rock fingers for the keen, hermit caves in the cliffs.
South across the Corinth Canal into the Peloponnese, Mycenae, the gold rich citadel of Agamemnon with its Lion Gate and beehive tombs, and the perfectly preserved ancient theatre of Epidaurus, where a whisper carries to the back row. Into elegant Nafplio.
Nafplio itself, the Venetian Palamidi fortress above the sea, the neoclassical waterfront, the first capital of modern Greece. And a day west to Olympia, where the Games were born, the stadium and the temples among the pines.
The Byzantine ghost city of Mystras tumbling down its hillside below Sparta, or the stone tower villages of the wild Mani peninsula; a swim and a seaside taverna, a Nemea winery on the way back. A last Peloponnese sunset.
A last Greek breakfast before the drive back to Athens for your flight (about two hours). Mainland Greece gives you the myths in the stones themselves, you leave with the Iliad suddenly making a lot more sense.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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