Odysseus lingered ten years before coming home; Byron fell in love with the land and people; Lawrence Durrell wrote lyrically of island life: Greece seems to inspire all who come here. While it is commonly associated with blue seascapes and whitewashed villages, Greece, with a rugged Balkan hinterland, architecture from classical to modern periods, and islands dotted across three seas, exhibits stunning diversity. There are olive groves, Chios’ mastic villages, ancient Athens, crimson poppies every April, hirsute priests, old men sitting for hours over a single coffee, and ferries nudging into rickety piers. Many visitors come seeking sun and sea but are smitten by the hospitality of the Greeks and find they are as captivated as all who went before.
