LIFESTYLE TRAVEL
✒
brief, accessible and so interesting that the hero killed a stranger, who turned out to
he even persuaded slightly restless teenagers be his own father. We arrived in time for a
to visit the Acropolis Museum. So absorbed huge lamb chop and chip supper, the staple of
were they by the masterpieces that I soon any Greek menu.
overheard them expressing outrage that Making allowances for teenage sleeping
the British Museum still clings to its ill- habits, Rupert had devised our trip so
gotten treasures. that they got a small lie-in every other
From Athens we drove to Delphi, with day. The next morning was a leisurely rise
Rupert relating the story of Oedipus and before heading to the mass of temples that
pointing out the crowd the bottom of Delphi’s sheer cliffs.
crossroads where Once upon a time people from all over the
Mediterranean came here to
get oracular advice
on everything
from wagers to
waging war. Rupert
pointed out the
various sacred to Epidavros to sleep beside the sea and
dolphin images, rise early the next day to be the fi rst at the
from which Delphi amphitheatre, although we were not allowed
took its name. We to call it one. Rupert sternly corrected
examined a large our misuse of the word ‘amphitheatre’,
‘omphalos’, sculpted saying that it should only ever be applied
stone bellybuttons to a completely circular structure, like the
representing the Colosseum in Rome. Set in stunning, empty
fact that Zeus had landscape, we had the biggest and best-
pronounced Delphi the preserved theatre of the ancient world, which
Clockwise from
above: The hotel at centre of the world after can hold a 15,000 audience, completely to
Evia; Acrocorinth
and the monastery two eagles, released from ourselves. The teenagers, still a little bleary,
of Osios Loukas.
Top: The stadium at
opposite ends of the earth, woke up when they found it’s ‘sweet spot’, a
Delphi, pronounced
the centre of the
met overhead. Those marble slab at the centre of the proscenium
world by Zeus.
studying biology gleefully where one’s voice is magically amplifi ed so
Top right: the party
at Lion Gate at the
pronounced it ‘herniated’. that even from the topmost seats we could
Fort of Mycenae.
From Delphi we drove hear a whisper.
68 FIRST ELEVEN SPRING 2010 WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK
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