Day-by-day programme of this 10-day itinerary across Athens, the Peloponnese, Delphi and Meteora.
Day 1 — Arrival in Athens
A travel day and a first taste of the capital: you land, take the metro into the centre and stroll unhurried through the lanes of Plaka, the floodlit Parthenon peeking above the rooftops. You only pick up the car the day after tomorrow: Athens is best on foot.
- ✈️ Athens — Aeroporto di Atene Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH)
- 📍 Plaka — Athens' oldest quarter is the right place to shake off the journey: narrow lanes under the flank of the Acropolis, tavernas with tables outdoors, Byzantine chapels wedged between shops and bougainvillea on neoclassical balconies. You climb without a plan, drift down following the scent of souvlaki, and every so often — at the end of an alley — the floodlit Parthenon appears. Summer evenings are the best time: the air cools and the city lights up. From here it is a five-minute walk to the tables of Monastiraki for your first Greek dinner.
- 🍽️ O Thanasis — A Monastiraki institution since 1964: chargrilled lamb kebab on warm pita with tomato and onion, served at industrial pace at tables spilling onto the square. No frills, a light bill and the bustle of Athens as the show. The perfect baptism of Greek cooking, finished with yogurt and honey. Then a short stroll to the hotel: tomorrow you climb the Acropolis at opening time, ahead of the heat and the queues.
- 🏨 Plaka Hotel — Plaka / Monastiraki, Atene
Day 2 — Ancient Athens
The day of 2,500 years of history: the Acropolis at opening, the museum that guards its marbles, the white lanes of Anafiotika and the Agora where Socrates buttonholed passers-by. The combined ticket is the smart buy (valid 5 days, covering the Agora, Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus and more). In summer, sites may close in the hottest hours: start early.
- 📍 Acropolis of Athens — You are never quite ready: you climb through the olive trees, pass the Propylaea and the Parthenon appears all at once, golden and immense, completed in 438 BC and still able to silence the crowd. Beside it, the Erechtheion with its porch of the Caryatids stands where — myth says — Poseidon struck his trident and Athena raised the olive tree. Arrive at opening time with tickets bought online: three million visitors a year show no mercy. From the terrace, all of Athens lies at your feet down to the sea. Then walk down the south slope, straight to the museum that guards its treasures.
- 📍 Acropolis Museum — The glass-and-concrete museum at the foot of the rock is built over an open excavation and culminates in the Parthenon gallery: the frieze reassembled around a core with the temple's exact proportions, Attic light pouring in from every side. The original Caryatids are here, laser-restored; on the ground floor a transparent walkway reveals the ancient city beneath your feet. Two hours well spent, with a panoramic café to catch your breath. Leaving, you stroll up pedestrian Dionysiou Areopagitou and turn into the little white houses of Anafiotika.
- 📍 Anafiotika — A Cycladic island glued to the flank of the Acropolis: the masons of Anafi, summoned in the 1800s to build the king's palace, rebuilt here the whitewashed cottages of their home village. Lanes a metre wide, cats in the sun, pots of basil and sudden silence two steps from the bustle of Plaka — with views of the Acropolis that seem cut out on purpose. The right spot for a slow pause after lunch, before dropping down to the hum of the Agora, the political heart of the ancient city.
- 📍 Ancient Agora of Athens — This was the civic heart of Athens: the market, the courts, politics, Socrates questioning whoever walked by. You wander a park of ruins dominated by the Temple of Hephaestus, the best-preserved Doric temple in all of Greece, and the Stoa of Attalos, the rebuilt two-storey portico that now houses the museum — essentially a 2nd-century BC shopping arcade. Tortoises cross the paths like little custodians of the site. Included in the combined ticket. On the way out, a ten-minute climb takes you up the rocky knoll of the Areopagus for sunset.
- 📍 Areopagus Hill — The hill of Ares, seat of Athens' oldest court and the spot where St Paul addressed the Athenians, is today the city's best-loved free viewpoint: a slab of rock polished by millennia of footsteps (careful, it's slippery!) with the Acropolis lighting up behind you and the Agora sinking into blue below. Arrive half an hour before sunset, sit wherever you can and watch the light change. Then drift back down to the tavernas of Monastiraki for dinner: tomorrow brings the museums and the sea at Cape Sounion.
Day 3 — Museums and Cape Sounion
Morning at the National Archaeological Museum and the changing of the guard in Syntagma, then you collect the rental car and drive down the Athens Riviera to the Temple of Poseidon for Attica's most famous sunset. Tomorrow the road trip begins.
- 📍 National Archaeological Museum of Athens — Greece's largest museum is the perfect general briefing before the trip: the gold Mask of Agamemnon dug up at Mycenae (you will see its 'home' in two days), the bronze Poseidon fished from the sea off Euboea, the Antikythera mechanism — a 2,100-year-old astronomical 'computer' — and the frescoes of Santorini. Three hours fly by; in summer it doubles as a cool refuge in the hot hours. On leaving, the metro takes you back to Syntagma just in time for the changing of the guard.
- 🎯 Syntagma Square — In front of Parliament, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Evzones in white kilts and pompom shoes mount guard with the slow-motion choreography that has become a national symbol: the change strikes on every hour, and on Sundays at 11 the full platoon parades in dress uniform. A free ten-minute show worth the detour. Just behind, the National Garden opens up — a gallery of shade you happily cross to emerge at the Panathenaic Stadium.
- 📍 Panathenaic Stadium — The only stadium in the world built entirely of white Pentelic marble: the ancient Panathenaic games were run here, and the modern Olympics were reborn here in 1896. The ticket includes an audioguide and access to the track: a victory lap down the straight is mandatory, as is the podium photo. Half an hour inside, then you collect the rental car and take the coastal road of the Athens Riviera south: seventy kilometres of seaside curves to the headland of Cape Sounion.
- 📍 Temple of Poseidon — On Attica's farthest spur, sheer above the Aegean, the sea god's temple was built the same year as the Parthenon: sixteen Doric columns that sailors greeted as the last sign of home. From here — so the myth goes — King Aegeus threw himself into the sea on seeing Theseus' black sails, giving the Aegean its name; one column even bears Lord Byron's carved signature. At sunset the sun drops straight into the sea before the temple — the moment everyone drives out here for. Then an hour's drive returns you to Athens for the last night in the city.
Day 4 — Corinth, Mycenae and Nafplio
You leave Athens and enter the Peloponnese: the vertigo of the Corinth Canal, the columns of Ancient Corinth and — in late afternoon, when the heat relents — Agamemnon's citadel at Mycenae. You sleep in Nafplio, Greece's first capital and its most romantic town.
- 📍 Corinth Canal — A wound straight as a ruler: 6.4 kilometres of canal cut through the isthmus in the late 1800s, rock walls up to 80 metres high separating the Ionian from the Aegean. From the footbridge the view plunges to turquoise water — and with luck a ship squeezes through right beneath you, brushing the walls. A short, spectacular stop, well signposted on the road into the Peloponnese. Ten minutes' drive and you stand among the columns of Ancient Corinth.
- 📍 Ancient Corinth — One of the richest cities of the ancient world, where St Paul preached to the Corinthians and the Romans rebuilt everything on a grand scale: what remains are the seven stocky columns of the Temple of Apollo, among Greece's oldest, the Peirene fountain and a paved road that ran to the port. Above, on the mountain, the silhouette of Acrocorinth. A good hour among the ruins and the small museum, then you drive south-west into the valley of the Argolid: half an hour on the motorway and the hill of Mycenae appears.
- 📍 Mycenae — Agamemnon's citadel, a UNESCO site: for four centuries the mightiest kingdom in Greece, already 'rich in gold' for Homer. You enter through the Lion Gate — Europe's oldest stone relief, 1250 BC — and climb between Cyclopean walls to the palace, the Argolid valley opening below. Just outside, the Treasury of Atreus: a domed tomb still perfect after 3,200 years, where your voice booms. The site is entirely exposed to the sun: in summer come in late afternoon, as the savviest travellers do. Then a twenty-minute drive brings you down to the sea at Nafplio.
- 🏨 Aetoma Hotel — Centro storico, Nauplia
Day 5 — Epidaurus and Nafplio
A half-hour drive to the theatre with perfect acoustics, then afternoon and evening in Nafplio: the climb to the Palamidi fortress, the lanes, the gelato and the seafront stroll. A slow-paced day, as Greece deserves.
- 📍 Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus — The best-preserved theatre in Greece, 4th century BC, with acoustics verging on the unbelievable: from any of the 14,000 seats you can hear a coin drop on the centre spot of the orchestra — try it, everyone does, and it works like magic every time. Around it, the sanctuary of Asclepius, god of medicine: the sick came here to be 'healed' through ritual dreams and baths, and the theatre itself was part of the cure. In summer it still hosts the festival of tragedies under the stars. The area is well shaded; then you head back to Nafplio for lunch and the climb to Palamidi.
- 📍 Palamidi Fortress — The Venetian fortress looming 216 metres above Nafplio: drive up the back road or — for the brave — climb the infamous '999 steps' cut into the rock (it's 857, but who's counting). Inside, eight self-contained bastions, the cell where independence hero Kolokotronis was imprisoned, and a view that repays everything: the Argolic Gulf, the old town's rooftops and the fortified islet of Bourtzi in the water. Climb as the sun drops and the light turns golden. Then back down into the maze of the old town, where the sweetest stop of the trip awaits.
- 🍽️ Antica Gelateria di Roma — A Nafplio institution: the gelateria of Roman maestro Marcello, serving artisan Italian gelato in the heart of the Peloponnese for decades — a small cultural short-circuit travellers adore. Cone in hand, you join the evening passeggiata along Staikopoulou street and Syntagmatos square, past komboloi workshops and tavernas with outdoor tables, down to the seafront with Bourtzi lit up offshore. Dinner in an old-town taverna and early to bed: tomorrow you cross the Peloponnese to Olympia.
Day 6 — Across the Peloponnese to Olympia
A three-hour drive through the mountains of Arcadia, coast to coast across the Peloponnese. In the afternoon, once the coaches have gone, the sanctuary of Olympia and its museum. You sleep in the village beside the site.
- 📍 Ancient Olympia — For a thousand years, every four years, the Greek world stopped and came here: among the pines and planes of the Alpheios valley remain the palaestra, the Temple of Zeus that housed the gold-and-ivory statue counted among the seven wonders, and the stadium you still enter through the judges' arch. Stand on the marble starting line and run the 192 metres like the athletes of 2,800 years ago: everyone does, and it is irresistible. Before the Temple of Hera, to this day, the flame of every Olympics is kindled with a mirror. Two steps from the exit, the museum holds the sanctuary's masterpieces.
- 📍 Archaeological Museum of Olympia — Small and formidable: Praxiteles' Hermes, polished like silk, the Nike of Paionios still landing mid-flight after twenty-five centuries, and the reassembled pediments of the Temple of Zeus, the battle of the centaurs exploding overhead. There is even Phidias' workshop, identified thanks to a cup inscribed 'I belong to Phidias'. Between site and museum lies a shaded park with drinking water, perfect for a break. In the evening the village of Olympia is one big terrace: souvlaki, local wine and silence. Tomorrow you cross the gulf on the great bridge.
- 🏨 Hotel Neda — Archaia Olympia, Elide
Day 7 — The Rio bridge and the climb to Delphi
You leave the Peloponnese over the cable-stayed Rio-Antirrio bridge, pause in Venetian Nafpaktos (the Lepanto of the battle) and climb along the gulf to Delphi, the balcony-village hanging above a sea of olive trees. The site itself is for early tomorrow morning.
- 📍 Rio-Antirrio Bridge — Almost three kilometres suspended over the strait dividing the Peloponnese from mainland Greece: the longest cable-stayed bridge of its kind when it opened in 2004, built on seabeds 65 metres deep in a full seismic zone — a national engineering pride. The toll is happily paid for the view: the Ionian on one side, the Gulf of Corinth on the other, the mountains of Aetolia ahead. Just off the bridge, ten minutes along the coast bring you to the fortified little harbour of Nafpaktos.
- 📍 Nafpaktos Old Harbour — Italians know it as Lepanto: before this circular little harbour, enclosed by Venetian walls that almost touch, the 1571 naval battle was fought that halted Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean — and where Cervantes lost the use of his left hand. Today it is a lively, beautiful town: lunch at the harbourside tables, climb (if you wish) to the castle with its five rings of walls, try the local ouzo. Then the gulf coast road, one of Greece's most beautiful, climbs gently towards Delphi between sea and mountain.
- 📍 Delphi — The modern village of Delphi is a balcony of two parallel streets clinging to Mount Parnassus at 600 metres: below, an entire valley of olives — a million trees, Greece's largest grove — slides down to the sea at Itea. You arrive in late afternoon, stroll among the café terraces as the light fades over the valley and dine with the view. Mountain air sharpens the appetite and the sleep: good, because at opening time tomorrow you climb to the oracle's sanctuary, ahead of the coaches.
- 🏨 Nidimos Hotel — Delfi, Focide
Day 8 — The oracle of Delphi and Thermopylae
The sanctuary of Apollo at opening, then the museum with the bronze Charioteer and the tholos of Athena Pronaia. In the afternoon you drive north, pausing at Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the 300 held back the Persians, and reach Kalambaka beneath the rocks of Meteora.
- 📍 Archaeological Site of Delphi — For the Greeks this was the navel of the world: two eagles released by Zeus from the ends of the earth met exactly here. You climb the Sacred Way past the treasuries of rival cities to the Temple of Apollo, where the Pythia, seated on her tripod amid the vapours, delivered the ambiguous oracles that decided wars and colonies. Higher up, the theatre and the mountain-top stadium. The setting is half the spell: the red crags of Parnassus above, the sea of olives below, (real) eagles circling overhead. Go at opening time and you will have the oracle almost to yourself. The museum sits right beside the entrance.
- 📍 Delphi Archaeological Museum — The star is the Charioteer of Delphi, the 478 BC bronze with onyx eyes and copper lashes, so alive he seems about to turn round: he reached us intact because an earthquake buried him beneath the sanctuary. Around him, the Sphinx of Naxos on a ten-metre column, the twins of Argos and the omphalos, the navel-stone of the world. An hour is enough and it stays with you. Out of the museum, two minutes' drive along the road brings you to the tholos of Athena Pronaia, the perfect rotunda of every Delphi postcard.
- 📍 Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia — Three re-erected Doric columns of a circular 4th-century BC temple, suspended above the olive valley: the tholos of Athena Pronaia — 'she who stands before the temple' — welcomed pilgrims before their climb to the oracle, and has remained Delphi's photographic emblem. Entry is free and half an hour of absolute peace does it justice. Then lunch in the village and the drive north: two and a half hours with one stop no history lover would forgive you for skipping — the pass of Thermopylae.
- 📍 Leonidas Monument — 'Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie': in 480 BC, in this bottleneck between mountain and sea, Leonidas and his 300 (plus a few thousand allies legend forgets) slowed Xerxes' army. The bronze of the Spartan king with his spear dominates the road; opposite, the low hill of the last stand. The name means 'hot gates': behind the old petrol station the thermal springs still flow free at 40 degrees — a quick dip is standard practice. Then two hours across the Thessalian plain until the rock towers of Meteora rise, unreal, on the horizon.
- 🏨 Hotel Meteora — Kalambaka, Tessaglia
Day 9 — Meteora
The most scenic day of the trip: the panoramic road linking the six inhabited monasteries, visits to Great Meteoron and Varlaam, Roussanou among the rocks and sunset from the viewpoint. Shoulders and knees covered to enter (wrap skirts lent at the door); each monastery has its own closing day, check ahead.
- 📍 Great Meteoron Monastery — 'Meteora' means 'suspended in mid-air', and on arrival you understand: sandstone towers 400 metres high, shaped by a vanished sea, with monasteries perched on top where 11th-century hermits took refuge, climbing retractable rope ladders. Of the original 24, six remain inhabited. Great Meteoron is the highest and oldest: you climb steps cut into the rock to the frescoed katholikon, the cellar with its giant barrels and the windlass tower whose net hauled up monks and supplies ('the rope is replaced when the Lord lets it break', they told the curious). From the terrace, the whole valley. Five minutes away, its neighbour Varlaam.
- 📍 Varlaam Monastery — The second-largest monastery, on a crag that looks drawn by hand: its building materials were winched up in the net for 22 years in the 1500s — the windlass still works and can occasionally be seen in action. Inside, the vivid frescoes of the katholikon (the Last Judgement pulls no punches), a small museum and the monks' flower gardens, kept like jewel boxes. Many travellers' favourite monastery for its intimate atmosphere. Back in the car, you wind down the panoramic road towards the most photogenic crag of all, Roussanou.
- 📍 Roussanou Monastery — The convent that occupies its entire rock pinnacle like a hat: you enter across a little suspended bridge, and the nuns keep it scented with wax and flowers. Dedicated to St Barbara, it is the most 'human' in scale and offers the loveliest views of the neighbouring crags. Meteora legend says it was village women who warned the monks of a fire, earning the right to monastic life up here. A short, intense visit, then you drop back to Kalambaka for a late lunch facing the cliffs.
- 🍽️ Meteoron Panorama — The name does not lie: from the terrace of this Kalambaka restaurant the crags of Meteora fill the horizon like a stage backdrop. No-frills Greek mountain cooking — oven-baked lamb, fried saganaki cheese, salad with slabs of feta, Thessalian wine — at honest prices despite the postcard view. The slow lunch of day nine is a small ritual: you replay the journey and refuel. At sunset you drive back up for the final show, the viewpoint on the rocks.
- 🎯 Meteora Observation Deck — The Meteora evening ritual: park along the monastery road and sit on the rock slabs of the viewpoint, Roussanou and Varlaam floating in the slanting light and the Thessalian plain glowing far below. Everyone finds their own ledge; the silence is broken only by camera shutters and the odd raven. When the sun slips behind the Pindus, the rocks turn violet, then blue. It is the image to close the journey with: tomorrow morning you drive down to Athens for the flight home.
Day 10 — Home from Athens
Breakfast with one last view of the rocks, then four hours of good motorway through Thessaly and Boeotia to Athens airport: drop off the car and board the evening flight home, your head still full of temples, theatres and suspended monasteries.
- ✈️ Athens — Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa (MXP)
