May 20, 2025

May 20, 2025

Since breakfast starts a little later than normal, Aimee and I decided to get out early for some exercise in Nafplio, Greece. We follow the port counterclockwise to stroll the Arnvanitia Promenade below the old citadel of AcroNafplio. The gate is closed so Aimee skirts around the barrier. I follow her. It is a beautiful stroll with the cliff on our left and the blue Aegean on our right. Our only companions are a dozen cats. At the end of the peninsula we cut back into town passing the Land Gate of Nafplio and down the center of the old town.

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and our driver took us high above the old city to the Venetian fortress of Palamidi. It is a formidable stone castle perched high on a peak. Seemingly impregnable, but shockingly when the immense Ottoman fleet arrived at the port in 1715, the Venetians immediately capitulated and surrendered the city. The fortress is mostly ruins, but we do get great views of the old city and the circular path around AcroNafplio we walked earlier this morning.

From Nafplio we drove through the countryside to the nearby ruins of Epidavros. In ancient Greece this was the birthplace of Asklepios, God of Medicine, and the most important center of healing. This World Heritage site was the Mayo Clinic of its time. Health is always big business and this site had facilities to care for and entertain you during your extended stay. We started at the Theater, the best preserved in Greece. Aimee and my sister had to listen to me recite the Gettysburg Address. Like all Greek theaters (and stadiums) it is built into a hillside. It took Roman engineering to build free-standing structures.

We ran through the small and mostly uninteresting tiny museum, before moving into the main hospital complex. Besides temples, there is an odeon music hall and a large stadium or running track. The centerpiece is the circular Tholos surrounded by dormitories. Healing took place at night when the sacred snakes underneath the Tholos entered your mind while dreaming. Sounds a lot like the self-healing placebo effect which is still very true and effective today. Epidavros is why US doctors use the Caduceus or Rod of Asklepios with its two intertwined snakes as their symbol.

For lunch we drove to the port of Old Epidavros for a nice lunch of humus, salad, and moussaka before continuing the long drive back to Athens. On the way we stretched our legs at the very tiny ruins of Cenchreae, the eastern port for ancient Corinth. Besides a nice surviving tiled hallway, you can see the stone piers for mooring and unloading ships.

Across the road is one of many little shrines, in the shape of a tiny church, we have often seen beside the road. I thought they had some religious significance, but are memorials to people killed in car accidents.

After checking into our hotel across from Hadrian’s Gate, we strolled around the very touristy Plaka neighborhood. Surprisingly tucked within this very modern urban jungle, we stumble upon a number of tiny 1000 year-old Byzantine chapels and Greek ruins accidentally discovered during new construction. That is always a problem with cities with millennia long histories.

After resting at our hotel we join my sister on the rooftop for a purposefully slow dinner. This is because we have a great view of the Acropolis from our table and we want to watch the sun setting behind the Parthenon.