Argos · Where AERIS stands · On foot
ArgosΆργος
Argos has been lived in for some four thousand years, and it wears that without ceremony. The ancient theatre on the slope of Larissa was among the largest in the Greek world, with the Roman baths and the agora beside it. Above the town, the Larissa castle layers Byzantine, Frankish and Venetian walls over a view that takes in the whole Argolic plain. Down in the centre, the Saturday market is the largest in the region. This is a town that belongs to itself rather than to its visitors — which is precisely why staying here reads differently from staying on a harbour front.
View on mapTown · Approximately 12 km · About 20 minutes
NafplioΝαύπλιο
Nafplio was the capital of Greece from 1823 to 1834, and that decade left the town its neoclassical scale, its squares and its unhurried civic manner. The old town is compact and walkable — Syntagma Square, the Venetian arsenal that now holds the Archaeological Museum, the Vouleftikon where the first parliament sat. Above it stands Palamidi, built by the Venetians between 1711 and 1714, reached by road or by the long stairway from Arvanitia. In the harbour sits Bourtzi, the fifteenth-century island fort that is the image most people carry of the town. An evening in Nafplio, then the short drive back to the quiet of Argos.
View on mapArchaeology · Approximately 20 km · About 25 minutes
MycenaeΜυκήνες
Mycenae gave its name to an entire civilisation, and is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list together with Tiryns. The Lion Gate, the grave circles that produced the gold of the shaft graves and the great beehive tomb known as the Treasury of Atreus can all be walked in a single morning, with the site museum at the entrance. Go early: the citadel holds the heat.
View on mapArchaeology · Approximately 8 km · About 12 minutes
TirynsΤίρυνς
Tiryns is a Mycenaean acropolis whose fortifications later Greeks assumed had been laid by giants: limestone blocks of a scale that still reads as improbable. Its corbelled galleries and casemates are remarkably intact, and it is listed by UNESCO alongside Mycenae. It is also the quietest of the region's great sites, and the easiest to reach from the house.
View on mapArchaeology · Approximately 45 km · About 50 minutes
Ancient Theatre of EpidaurusΑρχαίο Θέατρο Επιδαύρου
The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus was the most important healing centre of the ancient Greek and Roman world and is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Its theatre, built in the late fourth century BC, seats around 14,000 and carries an unamplified voice to the highest row. Performances are staged there through the summer festival season. Note the distinction: the theatre and sanctuary lie inland at Epidaurus, while Palaia Epidavros — Ancient Epidaurus — is the small seaside town on the Saronic coast some way further on, with its own small sunken and Roman theatres.
View on mapWine & Archaeology · Approximately 25 km · About 30 minutes
Nemea — Ancient Greece & WineΝεμέα
Two things share one valley here. Ancient Nemea holds the Temple of Zeus, the stadium where the Nemean Games were run, and a careful site museum. Around it, the slopes are planted with Agiorgitiko, the red grape the region is known for, and wine tourism has grown up alongside the archaeology — a number of estates receive visitors, most of them by appointment. A morning at the sanctuary and an afternoon of tasting is the way the valley is usually read.
View on mapCoast · Approximately 10–25 km · About 15–35 minutes
The Argolis coastΑκτές Αργολίδας
West of Nafplio, Arvanitia sits directly beneath the fortress rock and is reached on foot along the sea path. Karathona is the broad sandy bay just beyond it. East of town, Tolo and Kastraki offer shallow, sheltered swimming and tavernas along the water, and the small harbours of Kiveri and Myloi lie closer to Argos on the gulf's western shore. All of it is a short drive from the house.
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