Athens & Surrounds

Day 1 | Sunday 2 May
Arrive Athens
Athens is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, its history stretching back at least 5,000 years. It gave Western civilisation its first democratic institutions, its foundational philosophical traditions and some of the most celebrated works of art and architecture ever produced. Arriving individually in Athens, our hotel is based in the historic Koukaki neighbourhood – steps from the Acropolis itself. In the evening, we gather in the hotel lobby for introductions, followed by an orientation walk through the immediate surroundings. We then gather for a welcome dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight Athens (D)

Day 2 | Monday 3 May
Ancient Athens
The Acropolis has dominated Athenian life since the Bronze Age, when it served as a royal citadel. In the 5th century BCE, under the leadership of Pericles, it was transformed into one of the most ambitious building programs of the ancient world – a permanent statement of Athenian power, piety and aesthetic ambition. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike remain among the greatest achievements of Greek architecture. This morning we embark on a walking tour of the Acropolis, moving at a considered pace through its principal monuments. Lunch is then enjoyed together at the Museum Restaurant below the hill, before our afternoon is spent exploring the Acropolis Museum, whose light-filled galleries house the finest collection of sculpture from the sacred rock, including the remarkable Caryatid porch and the celebrated Parthenon frieze. An evening talk in the hotel brings the day to a close. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 3 | Tuesday 4 May
Athenian Art and Artefacts
Athens’ collections of ancient art and material culture rank among the richest in the world. Beyond the celebrated classical period, the city’s museums trace an extraordinary span of human creativity, from the abstract marble figurines of the Cycladic islands to the jewellery, textiles and ceramics that illuminate everyday Athenian life across the centuries. Today we depart by coach for Lycabettus Hill, Athens’ highest point, where sweeping views across the city and the Acropolis provide an ideal orientation to the urban landscape. We then visit the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, one of Greece’s foremost museums, whose collections span antiquity to the 20th century. We pause for lunch together at the museum café before we continue to the Museum of Cycladic Art, home to the finest collection of Cycladic figurines in existence. On return to our hotel, an evening talk draws the day’s threads together. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 4 | Wednesday 5 May
Agora, Hadrian and Zeus
If the Acropolis was the sacred heart of ancient Athens, the Agora was its civic soul. Here, citizens gathered to vote, trade, argue philosophy and attend the law courts. It was in the stoas and open spaces of the Agora that Socrates conducted his dialogues, and where the institutions of Athenian democracy took concrete form. The Roman emperor Hadrian, an ardent philhellene who visited Athens multiple times, left his own considerable mark on the city in the 2nd century CE. A walking tour this morning takes in the ancient Agora, the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos and Hadrian’s Library, whose colonnaded façade remains one of the most evocative Roman structures in Greece. After a break for lunch at leisure, we continue to the Kerameikos archaeological site – Athens’ ancient cemetery and a remarkable repository of funerary sculpture and urban topography – before visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus, completed by Hadrian in 132 CE after six centuries of intermittent construction. Returning to our hotel, we reconvene in the evening for a talk on the layers of history encountered throughout the day. Overnight Athens (B)

Day 5 | Thursday 6 May
Daphni, Eleusis and Mycenae
The landscape around Athens is rich in sites that shaped the ancient world far beyond the city limits. The monastery of Daphni preserves some of Greece’s finest Byzantine mosaics; Eleusis was for more than a millennium the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries – the most revered religious rites of the ancient world; and Mycenae, perched on its commanding ridge in the Argolid, was the dominant power of the Bronze Age Aegean, its rulers immortalised by Homer. Venturing out of the city by coach today, we first visit Daphni Monastery before arriving at the Eleusis archaeological site, where the great Telesterion and its surrounding precincts recall the ceremonies that drew initiates from across the Greek world. Lunch is enjoyed together at a nearby café before we continue to Mycenae, where we explore the Lion Gate, the monumental palaces, and the tholos tombs, including the magnificent Treasury of Atreus. We return to Athens by coach as the evening draws in. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 6 | Friday 7 May
Schliemann and the National Archaeological Museum
Heinrich Schliemann’s 19th-century excavations at Mycenae and Troy transformed the understanding of the ancient world, providing physical evidence for civilisations that had long been dismissed as myth. His Athenian home – built in the 1870s in the image of an ancient palace – reflects his lifelong obsession with antiquity, and today houses the National Numismatic Museum, one of the most significant coin collections in the world. Making our way to Schliemann’s house this morning, we explore its remarkable interiors and the numismatic collections within. Lunch is then enjoyed at the museum coffee shop before we continue to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens – the largest archaeological museum in Greece and one of the great museums of the world – with galleries ranging from prehistoric and Cycladic material to the full sweep of ancient Greek and Roman collections. After touring the museum, we return to our hotel in the late afternoon. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 7 | Saturday 8 May
Temple of Poseidon
Cape Sounion, at the southernmost tip of Attica, has been a place of religious significance since at least the 8th century BCE. The marble Temple of Poseidon that crowns its cliffs dates from around 440 BCE – a near-contemporary of the Parthenon – and its columns remain one of the most dramatic sights in the Greek world. Closer to the city, quieter corners of Athens preserve layers of Ottoman, Byzantine and classical history that most visitors never find. Today we depart by coach for Cape Sounion, arriving at the temple with time to explore the precinct and take in the views across the Aegean towards the islands. Lunch is enjoyed at a seaside restaurant before we head back towards the city. On our return, we visit the Benizelos Mansion and the Bathhouse of the Winds – a rare surviving Ottoman bathhouse in the heart of Athens – before continuing to the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum of Antiquities, a distinguished private collection housed in a neoclassical mansion on the northern slopes of the Acropolis. On return to our hotel, the rest of the evening is at leisure. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 8 | Sunday 9 May
Aegina Island
The island of Aegina lies just an hour by boat across the Saronic Gulf, yet its history sets it apart from the mainland. As one of the most influential city-states of the archaic era, Aegina was Athens’ main maritime rival during the 5th century BCE. The two city-states engaged in a series of fierce naval battles until Athens subdued the island in 457 BCE. The Temple of Aphaia, built around 500 BCE and perched on a pine-covered hill overlooking the sea, is among Greece’s most well-preserved temples. This morning we travel to Piraeus, where we board our boat for Aegina to explore the island’s archaeological sites at our leisure. After enjoying lunch at a local restaurant, we visit the Temple of Aphaia and its surrounding precincts before returning to Athens late in the afternoon. If weather conditions make the crossing inadvisable, an alternative program will be arranged. Overnight Athens (B, L)

Day 9 | Monday 10 May
Corinth
Ancient Corinth occupied one of the most strategically advantageous sites in the Mediterranean world – positioned at the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece with the Peloponnese, it controlled trade between the Aegean and Adriatic seas for centuries. A major power in the archaic and classical periods, Corinth was destroyed by Rome in 146 BCE and refounded as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, beginning a second flourishing that produced some of the most impressive public architecture in Greece. Departing by coach, we first pause at the Corinth Canal – completed in 1893 after a construction history stretching back to antiquity, when Nero himself attempted to cut it with a golden pickaxe – before visiting the archaeological site, which encompasses the Temple of Apollo, the ancient Agora and the towering citadel of Acrocorinth above. Lunch is then enjoyed together at the local Taverna Gemelos, overlooking the archaeological site. In the afternoon, we climb to Acrocorinth and walk its sweeping fortification walls before returning to Athens for our farewell dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight Athens (B, L, D)

Day 10 | Tuesday 11 May
Depart Athens
The tour concludes this morning after breakfast. (B)