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April 2000

Argolis

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 20:55:57

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Arriving back in Athens' airport on an only slightly delayed Olympic Airlines flight, we rented a car and headed out to do battle with the traffic of Athens and Piraeus. It wasn't actually that bad as we only skirted the city and headed south towards Corinth and the Peloponnese. Hertz actually gave us an automatic transmission (we didn't even ask) which was nice because then I could still eat Pringles while driving in the mountains. The impending election day led to a particularly colorful drive, in stark contrast to the countryside which varied only in shades of brown. The three major parties of Greek politics had each staked a claim to a primary color and they were all busily attempting to spread more of their hue than their opponents could. At toll booths on the highway we were generally bombarded with pamphelets, flags, posters and other paraphenalia. The communist party seemed particularly adept at painting the concrete dividing walls for miles of remote stretches of road. We passed through Corinth, over the canal and into the Peloponnese. We headed straight for Argolis, a province which makes up the eastern section of the Peloponnese peninsula.

Argolis takes its name from the central city of Argos, which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in Greece. Originally founded as the port city for inland Argos, Nafplio is where we planned to stay while in Argolis. Nafplio (1) is an amazing town surrounded by three fortresses and situated on a narrow bay amongst mountains. The Venetians held the city for some time (Nafplio is a Greek form of 'Naples') before the Turks had their turn. In the 19th century, Nafplio became the first capital of the independent country of Greece, a title it held for 5 years before it was moved to Athens. We consider Nafplio to be the nicest town we stayed in while we were in Greece. The enormous mass of stone perched above the town is Palmidi Fortress. We didn't manage to make it ...

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