Greece (Gold Guides)

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Destination Greece

On Santorini, while gazing at the whitewashed houses perched on a cliff 1,000 feet above a wine-colored sea, you may decide you've found the sort of spectacle that drew you to Greece. This shock of recognition will occur again and again during your visit. You may experience it looking down the 55 rows of seats from atop the perfectly preserved theater at Epidauros; glancing up from a bustling street in Athens to see the silhouette of the Acropolis against a bright blue sky; or even tucking into a platter of fresh fish at a simple taverna in the port of Pylos. The truth is, just about anywhere else your wanderings will take you here, you'll come upon sights that fulfill your long-held expectations by being quintessentially, delightfully, Greek.

Athens

In Greece, all roads lead to Athens, a fascinating city that is both the birthplace of Western civilization and a bustling boomtown. The Athenians seem to take the resulting juxtaposition of ancient splendor and cacophonous modernity with good-natured appreciation, and you would be wise to do likewise. Raise your eyes nearly anywhere and you're likely to be stopped in your tracks by the sight of the Acropolis, where Pericles rose to the heights of power, and creative achievement, with the construction of the Parthenon and Propylaea. After enjoying this time-trip back to the golden age of Greece, join Athenians for some contemporary delights. Take in a twilight view from their favorite “violet-crowned” aerie, Mt. Lycabettus, and drink in the twinkling lights of the metropolis that is home to 4.5 million souls, still growing and still counting. To leave the whirl of cars behind, stroll through the 19th-century Plaka district, where pastel-hued houses and vestiges of an earlier, simpler life keep beloved traditions intact, and then explore the port of Piraeus, the lusty setting for the film Never on Sunday.

Corfu

A coastal island that is said to have been the inspiration for Prospero's island home in Shakespeare's The Tempest; moved Homer to call it a “beautiful and rich land”; possibly sheltered Odysseus on his journey homeward; and today seduces more than a million visitors a year must have something going for it. You begin to get a sense of just how considerable this island's charms are as soon as you set foot in Corfu Town. This little beauty of a city retains evocative traces of its Venetian, French, and British occupiers, and is such a pleasant stage setting as to turn a simple stroll along the Esplanade, or selecting produce in an outdoor market, into a special outing. Across the popularity may take its toll with summertime crowds, but no matter how clogged the roadways or how sophisticated the pleasures, nature still dominates the scene with a profusion of emerald mountains and bougainvillea-clad hillsides. A quiet, uncrowded beach like that at Kalamaki is never far away, while Pontikonisi Islet — according to legend, Odysseus's ship turned to stone — is an easy swim offshore.

The Cyclades

Homer is allegedly buried in these islands, and there couldn't be a more fitting resting-place for the peerless poet. Neither can there be a better recipe — a heady mix of vineyards, olive trees, whitewashed houses and churches, bright skies, and sapphire seas — for the living. As memorably picturesque as they are, though, the six major Cyclades — Andros, Paros, Mykonos, Naxos, Tinos, and Santorini — along with dozens of smaller islands, provide much more than hedonistic pleasures. On Mykonos, for instance, backpackers and jet-setters alike share the beautiful beaches and the Dionysian nightlife (this island is not called the St. Tropez of the Aegean without reason), but the old ways of life continue undisturbed in fishing ports and along mazelike town streets. In fact, uninhabited and ruin-strewn Delos, just a short boat trip away, is proudly other-worldly, a sacred island that was once the religious center of the ancient world. On Santorini — Atlantis refound, according to some wishful historians — the striking combination of natural beauty, stunning architecture, and ancient ruins is a perennial winner. Here you’ll find villages so artfully designed they seem to be posing for your cameras.

Crete

The largest and southernmost of the Greek islands, Crete seems to have a continent’s worth of extraordinary sites and mysterious landscapes. Evidence of the brilliant Minoan civilization lies thick on the ground, most splendidly at the Palace of Knossos — it is a spectacular sight to see the oldest throne in Europe still standing in the original throne room, adorned with legendary frescoes of griffins. The island's cities, graced with vestiges of Venetian and Turkish conquerors, are among the most fascinating in Greece. Its beaches include some of the finest in the world — the one at Matala comes with the added attraction of second-century [ad] Roman tombs — while its soaring mountains and deep gorges are popular targets for ramblers from all over the world. Other priceless treasures, such as the rural landscapes near Akrotiri and folkloric traditions that Cretans simply take for granted, are free.

Rhodes and the Dodecanese

A succession of remarkable visitors has left its mark on the twelve islands that wrap around the coast of Asia Minor. St. John the Divine received the Revelations in a cave on Patmos, still a place of pilgrimage. For those with less spiritual goals, however, the island of Symi beckons with its unsullied villages and topaz coves. Everyone begins on the big island of Rhodes — including the medieval Knights of St. John, who, back in the 11th and 12th centuries, fled from Palestine to Rhodes, where they lavished their wealth on building palaces, churches, and loggias. An ancient cult settled on the island of Kos and established the Asklepieion, the once-great healing center and medical school that produced the most famous physician of all time, Hippocrates.