Greece

April 2024, five days and 1,600 km by car in Greece. There were four of us: Francesco Lietti, Simone Fasolo, Simone Caimi and me. It was a wide loop: the whole Peloponnese, then up to Meteora and back down to Delphi and Athens. A couple of stops we’d found online before leaving: an abandoned train and a walkway on a railway bridge.

The Peloponnese

It starts with the Corinth Canal, 80 metres deep and 22 wide, looked at straight down from the railway bridge, with a walk along the narrow walkway beside the tracks that I titled “no fear” in my stories. Then the theatre at Epidaurus, Mycenae from above with the drone, and the abandoned train at Achladokampos: carriages covered in graffiti on tracks overgrown with grass, to explore inside too, among red seats and rubble.

The next day Sparta, with the statue of Leonidas and his “molon labe”, which I translated loosely as “come and get it”. Mystras with its Byzantine ruins and steps overgrown with wild fennel, and Voidokilia, where the swim stopped at our feet.

Olympia and Meteora

Olympia, with a Judas tree in bloom among the columns and Corinthian helmets in the museum. Then a long drive north to Meteora, where we arrived in time for sunset over the rock pinnacles. The next morning, the monasteries, with their golden icons and carved wood.

Another bridge, Delphi and Athens

Heading back south we walked along another walkway, made of rusty sheet metal, on a very high railway bridge with nothing but air below. Then Delphi and the Temple of Apollo, and finally Athens: the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Parthenon, the city seen from the Acropolis and the Greek flag in the wind to close the trip.

Practical notes

• 1,600 km in five days is a lot: you see a huge amount, but a good chunk of the trip is spent in the car.
• The abandoned train at Achladokampos is an easy stop between Mycenae and Sparta.
• In April the sea is still cold: at Voidokilia we stopped at our ankles.