It is one of Athens’ most prominent squares and perhaps its most blighted. Its radically controversial and often unappealing design changes have pock-marked its 175 years of existence. So there was justifiable cause for celebration as Omonoia finally got the makeover it deserved when its 20-metre high water fountains soared into the night...
Read morePoet, philhellene and avid hiker John Kittmer leads us through forts and cloisters, battlefields and tombs, encountering characters -mythological, historical or just mortal - exchanging stories and verses over tsipouro through an imaginary personal odyssey across his beloved Greece. In the last few days of June, I have a retur...
Read moreBold new plans are afoot to make Athens a walker’s delight with the Municipality voting in favour of an ambitious pedestrianization project. The quarantine was perhaps a gentle reminder of how wonderful a walking experience car-free Athens could be. It also drove home the need to increase public space and decongest public tran...
Read moreAs Greek hoteliers check their options before opening their doors on June 1, it is an uphill task both in terms of implementing the necessary changes and in training staff to adopt new health protocols, when so much is still unclear. The de-Covidization era desperately needs a new narrative. In the absence of clear guidelines, the World T...
Read moreFor a truly transformative holiday experience, Athens Insider suggests an alternative destination billed as offering hands-on learning about living in sync with nature on the verdant slopes of Mt. Pelion. The Pelion Homes Retreat Center could well be the starting focal point to your personal pursuit to finding yourself, or indeed, losing ...
Read moreGreece has been a powerful muse for countless scribes throughout the ages. Athens Insider rounds up 8 must-read contemporary tales that will help you get under Greece’s skin. Dinner with Persephone, Patricia Storace Dinner with Persephone is the product of Patricia Storace’s year spent living in Greece and provides a great ...
Read moreBeyond the ringing endorsement for our little nation’s brave response to the pandemic, Yuval Noah Harari believes that ‘decisions being taken by governments today will shape countries for years to come, not just for a few weeks.’ In a shape-shifting tourism landcape, it is the same nimble response to ‘flattening the curve’, that will se...
Read moreA timely promotional tool for Greece, The Trip To Greece promises plenty of mouth-watering Mediterranean meals – with a side helping of ancient ruins and stunning seascapes. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite to follow in Odysseus’ footsteps in director Michael Winterbottom’s culinary and comedic travelogue series, The Trip to Greece. ...
Read moreIrish journalist, writer and founder of the Corfu-based Durrell Society, Richard Pine on why lockdown isn't a hostile term anymore, even in traditionally anarchic Greece. There are two focal points in Greek life: the kafeneion or local bar, and the kitchen table. Both have been transformed by coronavirus. The kafeneion, the tr...
Read morePulitzer shortlisted poet and MacArthur Fellow Alicia E. Stallings mines the surrealities of the pandemic to evoke insights into life on a tiny island where the raucous mating dance of its “pullulating population of feral peafowl” substitutes Netflix! View of Eleus...
Read moreA unique, engaging interface that allows visitors to relive their holidays in Greece and to make future plans by offering a glimpse of what this ancient yet contemporary destination can offer “Greece from Home’ developed by Greece’s Tourism Ministry, the Greek National Tourism Organization, Marketing Greece and Google aims to promote Greece...
Read moreA brilliant read, full of humour and spontaneity, Polly Samson’s skilled writing offers a fascinating, often voyeuristic account of the sexual jealousy, alcoholism, and bohemian lifestyle that pervaded the creative set in 1960’s Hydra. Recounted through Erica, the daughter of Australia’s tragic literary couple, writers George Johnston and...
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