Which is Best - Greece or Italy?

Dear reader... you know this blog avoids controversy... always staying with the 'double verified' facts... and avoiding exaggeration at all costs. In keeping with such values, it is with trepidation that we try to decide which country is the better tourist destination. Such questions arouse tribal responses. If you have been to one country but not the other, then, of course, the country you visited has to be the better. Its a bit like the Apple verses Android debate... whichever one you own has to be the best.

Today, we took the drive from Olympia to Delphi. We are now familiar with Greece's scenic beauty... but our reactions remained strong. We asked ourselves if Italy was going to be as beautiful. Crowd sizes will differ... traffic congestion... parking... temperature... spring colours... age of ruins... prices. There will be lots of differences influencing our reactions. We just think that Greece has the runs on the board... Italy is chasing... and will not be allowed too many slip-ups if it is going to win the comparison. Which one do you think is the better?

Six degrees of separation... no, make that five. We stopped for lunch at a small town recommended to us by Lorraine Foster... seaside village off the main road... largely unspoiled. We were strolling the waterfront, minding our own business... when this lady separates from her group and asked if we speak English. We said 'yes' and answered her question regarding the location of the old port. We asked if she was Australian... she had the accent . "Yes"..." Where do you live? "..." Lismore". We did not know them, but we all knew people in the area. They were the 'Spreckley' family. He used to make concrete tanks... but now is involved with a home for special needs people. Small world! Have to be on your best behaviour all the time .

Visit Olympia Site on 17th April

We visited the Olympia Site on a day when the blossom trees outshone the ruins. When planning your visit, make sure it is on 17th April when you are likely to experience the same marvelous combination.

The Olympic Games history is so well documented that the experts know how each square metre of Olympia was used. The games ran from 776 BC to late in the 4th century AD... with a bit of a gap in the middle... not bad for a cult to retain its following for over 1,000 years. Over a large ceremonial site there is one temple for every god you can think of. Of course, Rome had a go at running the show... choked the temples with their marble statues of politicians in togas (and shoved the buffed bodies of the Greek gods into the cupboard)... persuaded the Greeks to let them compete in the games... eventually overseeing the fall in popularity of the games. The noble goal of competing was replaced by the goal of winning. Emperor Nero fell into the latter category. He wanted to win the chariot race. He arranged for his chariot to have a team of 10 horses... while competitors were only allowed four. He stacked the stadium with his cheer squad. Unfortunately, he fell off his chariot during the race... but had the officials wave the yellow flag to slow competitors. He was able to get back onto his chariot and (guess what) win the race. What a hero!

Like every cult following, the Games eventually lost favour. The site had suffered a few earthquakes and needed a lot of work. New gods became popular... the youngsters wanted a change... you know how it goes. In 426 AD, Roman emperor Theodosius II ordered all the temples destroyed. Can you imagine anything dummer than destroying the most important site in European history? Earthquakes later helped finish what human hands had started, as well as flooding caused by a change in the course of the river that flowed through Olympia. The once-great city was eventually buried... saving a good number of relics from looters.

I know some people resent restoration work on ancient sites. There has been a little bit of restoration work done at Olympia... but there is so much art and bronze plate depictions of the site, the restorers didn't have to use too much imagination to replace the stones one upon the other. Probably, the restorations are pretty accurate.

I think Olympia is the best site of antiquity in Greece that we have seen so far... and Greece has the best sites in the world. So save your pennies and get over here to Olympia at this time of year.

Assault on the Senses

Today was not the best day ever (or was it)? We left Monemvasia bright and early and cruised the 60 kms to Sparta. As expected, the young male car drivers were more aggressive than normal... I was given lots of advice from overtaking motor bike riders. Millennia of leaving wussy male babies on the open mountain to die must have nudged the DNA a little towards the aggressive end of the spectrum. We drove through the ruins... they seem to attract little attention, even though they date back to the Mycenaean civilisation (see picture below). You have to give the early Spartans credit... they gave Athens a run for their money way back in 400 BC. Our Athens guide (who may have authored 'My Fat Greek Wedding' stated that the Greeks invented fascism... Hitler copied everything he knew from the Spartans... who would have guessed.)

The next bit may sound familiar... ravines... high mountain passes... goats... wild flowers... hairpin turns... hilltop villages. Well, after Sparta, we headed for the coast through a spectacular gorge leading to a 2000 metres pass. Gee, driving these roads gets the adrenalin pumping.

The coastal side of the mountain pass opened into country painted with colours that assaulted your senses... visual senses... in a very pleasant way. Whole hillsides were alight with yellow gorse. Avenues of wattle trees (Australian) caught the light in dazzling colour. The cherry blossom today were perfect. Sprinkle their irredescent pink amongst the yellow wattle and the effect is staggering. The highest peaks of the mountains had large trees burdened with brilliant white flowers (they were cultivated trees... probably some type of nut tree). The orange fruit trees are all heavy with flowers and smell heavenly. Mix in the Flanders poppy (brilliant red) with buttercups and dandelions along the side of the road... you can understand why our senses felt assaulted!

Tomorrow, we do Olympia... more history... see the stadium where the boys did their 'nudy' runs... see the rock from which the girls were pushed if they dared take a peek.

Where's My Acropolis?

Today is a designated rest day. We covered over 400 klms in yesterday's drive and we have a similar distance to reach Olympus (our next stop). So 'pottering' is the order of the day... something at which I excel but with which Joye struggles. We did our emails, banking, and post office jobs but could keep still no longer.

We had seen 'brown tourist signs' on the way into town pointing the way to the Acropolis of Zarax... so we headed off to investigate. We turned off busy roads into sleepy back roads... following the frequent directions to our Acropolis. Eventually, the signage stopped... we kept driving... speculating at each bay inlet on the best place to build an Acropolis. There were lots of caves in rock cliffs... so the area was probably popular with Neolithic civilisations. Around a corner, we happened upon a hillside full of tumbled down stone walls... the size of the rocks would require a well organised team of slaves to move... not a farmer's weekend job. There were no signs... no ticket office collecting entry fees... just these big stone walls running through the trees. Could we have stumbled upon a new civilisation? Could we be famous and have lunch with David Leckie? Could we make a film of the Raiders of the Lost Park?

No such luck. Around the next corner of the road was a tiny little sign saying "Epidaurus Limera Archiological Site." We missed out on discovery rights... but the name sounded interesting. Epidavros was the location of the civilisation that sold their medical expertise to the old world... that we had visited three days ago. Do you recall... Gods placing hands on ladies to help with conception problems... having snakes lick the wounds of laceration patients... lots of weird stuff going on there. Had this lot set up an 'outpatients service' in Limera? We hurried back to our hotel to research on the internet.

It turns out that the good burgers of Epidavros saw a vision while holidaying on the island of Kos... forewarning them of the destruction of Epidavros. They hurried back home, shared the bad news with mum and dad, packed their port and headed off. Someone must have known someone who liked Limera... and that's where they settled. Not much archeology has been conducted at the Epidaurus site... there are no reports of them re-establishing their miraculous cure business. The new site appears designed with defence as top priority.

Gee... this place is interesting!

Peloponnese Treasures

Credibility suffers if each and every day is the very best ever. In spite of our previous claims, Joye and I are prepared to put our credibility on the line and say that today was the best day ever (for Greece... and Portugal for that matter). This is a day when we sat in the car for 4 hours... but the countryside we traversed was spectacular! If you are planning a Greek holiday, take out pen and paper and start making notes... you will not want to miss this drive.

We started the day at Nafplio (tucked away at the top of the Gulf of Argolikos). Before we left, we did a folk museum and walked the heights of the Palamidi Fort overlooking Nafplio... not a bad start... little knowing the delights that lay ahead.

We chose to travel to Monemvasia along the coast road... a much slower alternative because of the mountainous terrain... but Lonely Planet said there was an impressive gorge along the way. We are far enough from Athens to free us from traffic. The sun was behind us... the sunshine was brilliant and the water sparkled. The first 50 kms we were travelling up and over the ridges from the mountain range running down to the Gulf. We had clear views to the other side of the narrow Gulf... the scenery was spectacular, so we thought we had struck it lucky.

We turned into the ravine at Leonidio and another world opened up. Driving the Ladron Gorge made the gorges of Crete look like driving down airstrips. We would have climbed 2000 metres in 20 klms of road. The average slope of 1 in 10 disguises the much steeper climbs in some of the hairpin corners. The spring flowers were colouring the mountainsides... we had a monastery... ancient bridges... goat herds... snow capped peaks.. the works! But the depth of the drop at the edge of the narrow road was what held the concentration. The views along the rugged ravines were breathtaking.

At the top of the mountain, we drove through tiny mountain villages... that had made very few concessions to accommodate modern life... with roads barely wide enough for our small car.

Late in the day, we arrived at Monemvasia... an isolated medieval fort built on an island... similar in some ways to Mount Saint Michael. As you would expect, it has a colourful history... fortifying itself against barbarians... being conquered by the Turks... eventually causing the Turks to surrender... and then massacaring the Turkish population... you know, the usual thing.

That's all for today... and I promise not to claim a 'best day ever' status for tomorrow.

Where Fact Meets Legend

I know many of you have visited the Greek Peloponnese region. Have you been surprised how attractive the east coast looks? We spent the best part of a week on Santorini and have been beguiled by its manicured beauty. The time allocated to the Peloponnese was mainly for the history lesson... we didn't expect to be stopped in our tracks by natural beauty. I think that's the difference... natural beauty.

Santorini tries so hard to look beautiful. All that blue and white decor... all those donkeys trudging up and down the cauldron wall... all those shops offering trinkets at prices that are all bargains of the century. When I look at Santorini, I think of someone who may have had botox ... had a bit of nip and tuck around those body parts that tend to sag with the passing of the years... and have gold and trinkets dangling from other body extremities. You can admire the appearance of such people, but the effort to achieve beauty is clearly evident.

Peloponnese, on the other hand, has a beauty that is not cosmopolitan... unassuming... without self-awareness... multidimensional... bright without being flashy... you know what I mean. It comes as no surprise to me that civilisation blossomed in the Peloponnese.

Our first stop for today was the Palace of the Mycenaean civilisation at Mycenae. This is the family that Homer slandered so mercilessly in the Iliad. The reputation of Agamemnon and his descendants never recovered. Standing on the heights of the fort at Mycenae, you could get a sense of feeling of how Agamemnon must have felt seeing the hordes of attacking soldiers making their way up the steep slopes towards the fort walls. It was how I felt watching those cruise ship passengers at Santorini launching themselves towards shore.

Our second stop was visiting ruins from a civilisation that blossomed just before Roman times (300-400 BC) at Epidavros. With our daughter's recent entry into the medical profession, this spot held special interest for us. This civilisation made a fortune from selling medical services to the old world. It had the first hospital... and it was a large institution... probably enough for 50 beds. They made a killing when Rome suffered from a plague and the senators sent their wives to Epidavros for treatment (or preventative treatment). No doubt, the peace and quiet enjoyed by the senators back in Rome was well worth the expense.

Medical science has changed a bit over the years. Today, I would not be keen to defend the professional damages claim from the poor lass struggling with conception problems (see photo below). Let's hope the god that laid his hand on her belly proved to be a reliable witness. Even the guy with the sore leg being left alone overnight in a pit of snakes seems a bit of a high risk by today's standards (see photo below). (Jodie, I just hope none of such nonsense like this goes on today!)

Where the Greek Tourists Go

Today, we left Santorini... a pretty place by any measure. The place can be packed with tourists... but the number of Greek citizens choosing to spend their touring time at Santorini is very few... hardly a Greek tourist in sight. We have flown to Athens, picked up a hire car and headed for the Peloponnese. Our first stop has been Nafplio... a small resort town around the corner from the Korinthus Canal (see picture below). This place was the first capital of Greece... during the war of independence - 1821 - 1826... but I hadn't heard of the place before today. It has a bloody history... the site of two massacres... the first of Turkish citizens when Hellenic forces won one battle... followed by the razing of the town when the Turks won a subsequent battle. (I guess that is why they made this place the capital when Hellenic forces ultimately won.) The town has three fine forts to evidence earlier periods of conflict.

Nafplio has a great feel to it. Sitting on the boadwalk down by harbour you see real Greek citizens taking their leisure. Generally, they appear to be young couples from Athens down for the weekend (its Friday evening here). We found a small restaurant offering traditional Greek food... full of Greek patrons... around 8 PM, a mandolin player and guitar accompanist rolled in an started picking out sounds of the Mediterranean.

We had planned only one night's stay in Nafplio... but there is so much history to cover, we'll need at least 3 nights.