Athens and the Cyclades Islands

The seed of Western civilization is a tangle of busy streets and bougainvillea-fringed squares, a romantic litany of ruins and relics. It is no stranger to reinvention: factories are now chic hotels, historic sites a showcase for high-end fashion. But Athens is always poised to offer an education in the classics: turn the corner and she might just present you with a time-worn temple or amphitheater, set beneath the peerless gaze of the Parthenon. 

Myth holds that Zeus grew up on the shores of Naxos, and he apparently blessed his home with ageless beauty: the largest of the Cyclades is a rhapsody of blues, greens and marble whites, sweeping beaches with ouzo-clear waters, mountain villages lost in rustling juniper. Scattered, too, across the island are grand fortresses and old mansions: the decadent remnants of centuries of Venetian rule. 

Pretty Paros, coveted by Cretans, Romans, Byzantines and many others, wears its years well. Ancient ruins speckle the landscape, scattered amongst pristine, whitewashed villages that tumble down hillsides and meet waters as blue as the sky. Vineyards, hidden coves, scenic hikes into church-dotted mountains: Paros has all the ingredients for an extraordinary island escape.