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Greeks do not simply go to Arachova to ski. They go to live, briefly, in the way people used to live before the lowlands filled up with traffic and noise. The village sits at 960 metres on the flank of Mount Parnassos, its stone houses stacked above each other in layers, and it has been doing this for centuries — long before anyone brought a chairlift up the mountain. What surprises most first-time visitors is not the skiing (though the Parnassos ski centre has twenty runs and is the closest resort to Athens) but the village itself: its main pedestrian lane lined with bars serving mountain tea and tsipouro, shops selling the local Formaela cheese that has been produced here for as long as anyone can document, and restaurants cooking winter food with the seriousness that cold weather demands. Arachova is extraordinarily alive.

Trip

The Oracle of Apollo: A Guide to the Delphi Archaeological Site and Museum

Feb 28

Travel

The Amalfi Coast: Where Mountains Meet the Mediterranean in a Masterpiece of Light and Stone

Feb 28

Trip

Venetian Vibe: Walking the Alleys of Nafplio's Old Town and the History of the First Pharmacy

Feb 28

Trip

999 Steps: The Ascent to Palamidi and the Panoramic View of the Argolic Gulf

Perched 216 metres above the rooftops of Nafplio, the Palamidi fortress commands what may be the finest panoramic view in the entire Peloponnese. The legendary 999 steps — closer to 857 by honest count — switchback up the eastern face of the rock in a relentless stone staircase that has been testing calves and rewarding persistence since the 18th century. Built by the Venetians in just three years, seized by the Ottomans in a single week, and liberated by Greek revolutionaries in a single night, Palamidi is a fortress whose history is as dramatic as the climb to reach it.

Trip

Spiritual Silence: A Journey Through Meteora's Six Living Monasteries and Their Thousand-Year Story

Perched on sandstone pillars that rise three hundred metres from the Thessaly plain, Meteora's six active monasteries are among the most extraordinary religious sites on Earth. Built between the 14th and 16th centuries by monks who hauled every stone, every beam, every icon to the summit by rope and net, these communities have survived Ottoman occupation, world wars, earthquakes, and the slow erosion of time itself. Today, they remain working monasteries — places where bells still ring for matins, where Byzantine frescoes glow in candlelit naves, and where the silence of a thousand years of prayer hangs in the air like incense. This is their story.

Trip

Climbing the Giants: Rock Climbing and Ancient Trails Among the Sacred Pillars of Meteora

Rising from the plains of Thessaly like the ruins of some impossible city, the sandstone pillars of Meteora have drawn monks, hermits, and pilgrims for a thousand years. Today they draw another kind of seeker — climbers and hikers who come to scale these ancient towers and walk the trails that thread between them, navigating a landscape where geology and faith have conspired to produce one of the most surreal natural environments in Europe. With over 700 climbing routes and a network of footpaths that wind through forests, gorges, and Byzantine hermitages, Meteora offers a physical encounter with stone that no photograph can adequately prepare you for.