We traveled from Athens, down into the Peloponnese. Away from the dereliction and homeless of the city the smaller country town seem to be doing better.
We first took a coach down to 'new' Corinth and I made the mistake of thinking a bus bound for Corinth would terminate there and we didn't get off there! Luckily the bus to Ancient Corinth also stops there so crisis averted we got off there and with the help of a local managed to get the right bus! (The Greek character set can be a bit hard to read!)
After Checkin we strolled into the village center and visited the Ancient Corinth archeological site, something I've always wanted to do. Little remains of the original Greek settlement, most of the remains are from later Roman occupation . Afterwards we took a taxi up the hill to the Arco Corinth, the Ancient Greek/Roman/Byzantine/Frankish/Venetian fortress on top of a mountain that was extended by each successive conquerer and so is consequently MASSIVE. Most of the buildings have been destroyed so only the walls and gates remain. We walked over the top of the mountain (besieged by literally hundreds of locusts and grasshoppers) and climbed into the remains of an underground Byzantine cistern that was built around a mountain spring.
The old town in Nafplio is largely made of of 16th - 17th century Venetian villas with bougainvillea cascading down the sides. It's a really beautiful place with a homey country town feel. There are LOTS of castles and fortifacations as each invading force fortified it a little more. The town has been controlled by the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the Franks, the Venetians and now the Greeks!
The first day we visited the Archeological museum and saw some 32,000 year old clay hearths used by early setters in the region - the oldest thing we have seen yet! (Along with your standard collections of Bronze Age, classical and Hellenistic artifacts). They were also showing video about the Neolithic finds in the area which was interesting - not something you see very often. Later that day we visited Bourtizi fortress in the harbor - a cute little baby castle in the harbour built by the Venetians that was also used as a boutique hotel between 1930 - 1970 (till the government took it back - now it's derelict....)
On the second day we visited another castle, Palamidi - the big daddy castle on top of the hill. We cunningly took a taxi up to the back of the castle to avoid the 1000 odd steps to get there from the town (we did walk down em though!) the views were great, could see both sides of the peninsula. We spied a great looking swimming beach but by the time we got to it the tide had come in and the people were crammed into a tiny 2x10m space (plus the water was cold...) so we did a spot of shopping.
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