With well over a hundred inhabited islands and a territory that
stretches from the south Aegean to the Balkan countries, Greece
offers enough to fill months of travel. The historic sites span
four millennia, encompassing both the legendary and the obscure,
where a visit can still seem like a personal discovery. Beaches are
parcelled out along a convoluted coastline equal to France's in
length, and islands range from backwaters where the boat calls
twice a week to resorts as cosmopolitan as any in the
Mediterranean.
Modern Greece is the result of extraordinarily diverse
influences . Romans, Arabs, Latin Crusaders, Venetians,
Slavs, Albanians, Turks, Italians, not to mention the Byzantine
Empire, have been and gone since the time of Alexander the Great.
All have left their mark: the Byzantines in countless churches and
monasteries; the Venetians in impregnable fortifications in the
Peloponnese; and other Latin powers, such as the Knights of Saint
John and the Genoese, in imposing castles across the northeastern
Aegean. Most obvious is the heritage of four centuries of Ottoman
Turkish rule which, while universally derided, contributed
substantially to Greek music, cuisine, language and way of life.
Significant, and still-existing, minorities - Vlachs, Muslims,
Catholics, Jews, Gypsies - have also helped to forge the
hard-to-define but resilient Hellenic identity , which has
kept alive the people's sense of themselves throughout their
turbulent history. With no local ruling class or formal Renaissance
period to impose superior models of taste or patronize the arts,
medieval Greek peasants, fishermen and shepherds created a vigorous
and truly popular culture, which found expression in the songs and
dances, costumes, embroidery, carved furniture and the white Cubist
houses of popular imagination. During the last few decades much of
this has disappeared under the impact of Western consumer values,
relegated to museums at best, but recently the country's
architectural and musical heritage in particular have undergone a
renaissance, with buildings rescued from dereliction and performers
reviving, to varying degrees, half-forgotten musical
traditions.
Of course there are formal cultural activities as well:
museums that shouldn't be missed, magnificent medieval
mansions and castles , as well as the great ancient
sites dating from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Minoan, Classical,
Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras. Greece hosts some excellent
summer festivals too, bringing international theatre, dance
and musical groups to perform in ancient theatres, as well as
castle courtyards and more contemporary venues in coastal and
island resorts.
But the call to cultural duty will never be too overwhelming on
a Greek holiday. The hedonistic pleasures of languor and
warmth - going lightly dressed, swimming in balmy seas at dusk,
talking and drinking under the stars - are just as appealing. And
despite recent improvements to the tourism "product", Greece is
still essentially a land for adaptable sybarites, not for those who
crave orthopedic mattresses, faultless plumbing, Cordon-Bleu
cuisine and attentive service. Except at the growing number of
luxury facilities in new or restored buildings, hotel and pension
rooms can be box-like, campsites offer the minimum of facilities,
and the food at its best is fresh and uncomplicated.