CAPITAL ATHENS - POPULATION 12 MILLION - AREA 131,940 SQ KM -OFFICIAL LANGUAGE GREEK
Put some effort into your Greek Islands trip and you'll reap rewards. Try Ikaria and Ithaki: both require longish boat trips but compensate with gorgeous walks and a locals-only feel. 2009 is all about the mainland, often neglected but home to 90% of historic sites. In the north, money's improving roads and converting farmhouses into boutique hotels, while in the fairytale villages of the Pindos Mountains you won't find anything so fancy – and so much the better. Athens' New Acropolis Museum opened in 2008, with a room specially constructed for the Elgin Marbles – an unsubtle hint to the British Museum, where the Parthenon friezes currently (and controversially) reside.
AGHIA TRIADA, METEORA, GREECE
One of five hair-raisingly vertiginous cliff top monasteries in Greece's Kalambaka region, Aghia Triada's selection as a climatic finale in For Your Eyes Only didn't wash well with neighboring monks, who reportedly hung dirty washing out in protest at the film crew. Nevertheless, the building became part of one of the most memorable Bond scenes, in which Roger Moore scales the high summit and almost falls to his death when a henchman of arch villain Kristatos dislodges his crampons. To make Moore feel better, the way up was always tough; constructed during 14th-century Serbian-Byzantine wars, the monastery's original access route was via removable ladders that deterred all but the most intrepid. Meteora means' hovering in the air' - and from afar Aghia Triada appears to do just that. |
