My daughter and I will be travelling to Greece in mid October and visiting these two sites. I haven't found anything that gives me a guideline on how much time to allow for each of these sites. Can anyone help?
Posted by
Brighton, UK
1388 posts
Cindy
Depends a bit on how big a classical buff you are. I'm sure if you knew masses about it you could spend hours on each. Assuming you haven't got that depth of knowledge I would say an hour or so for Mycenae and two hours for Epidavros.
Mycenae is in a great location and the lion gate and the beehive tomb are wonderful. The acoustics of the theatre at Epidavros are incredible, and would be worth hearing even if they'd been built yesterday. The museum on the site, which explains the medical significance of what went on there is also really good.
You could certainly spend longer, but an hour for one and two for the other give you time to get a sense of the sites without rushing.
If you are in the area are you planning on going to Nafplio? A beautiful town with a brilliant venetian fortress.
The site of Tiryns - another site mentioned by Homer - is also worth a visit and if you go make sure to go to the beehive tomb nearby.
The site at Argos, only 20 minutes by car from Mycenae, is also interesting.
Have a great trip
Alan
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
I've visited these sites twice. Once was on a day trip from Athens that included a stop at Nauplia. The other time we took a tour from Spetse. Both were day trips and were about right in terms of the amount of time that was allocated. Of course they are best if you've read your Sophocles and Aeschylus!
Pam
Posted by
OP
Reno, Nevada, USA
2 posts
Thank you both Alan and Pam. As we will be driving from Athens to Nafplio, I can see that it certainly would be fesible to visit Mycenae on the way. We have designated another day to visit Epidavros and will try to incorporate the other sites you've mentioned as well. Again, thank you for your replies and suggestions.
Cindy
Posted by
Brighton, UK
1388 posts
Cindy
If you're driving from Athens to Nafplio you will also pass very close to the two sites at Corinth. The Roman site still has enough standing to get an idea of what it was like in St Paul's day. There are a couple of nice photos here
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Cities/AncientCorinth.html
Acrocorinth, the ancient citadel above the Roman site, is spectacular and huge. From the top you can see both ends of the corinth canal, although to do that you need to do a reasonably steep climb from the gate.
Even if you don't have time to climb up it's worth driving up to the gate and having a quick look inside. Again, pictures here
http://www.sikyon.com/Korinth/Monuments/korinth_veg01.html
Nafplio is wonderful, and I'm sure you'll have a good time. A couple of favourite restaurants are the Omorfi (means beautiful) Taverna in the backstreets behind the run of fish restaurants on the front, and the Fanari (means lighthouse, I think, or perhaps lamp)in Staikopoulou Street. This is the street with many restaurants that runs almost alongside the central square.
Cheers
Alan