To join the gathering of the deathless gods who dwell in the house of Olympus (Hesiod, Theogony 803-804)

This tour and our other tour The road to Delphi bring a novel answer to an old problem.

Our origins are somehow set in ancient Greece, but how are we to approach the ancient Greek psyche, its way of life and its beliefs  when 2000 years have passed since its apogee? This unique tour brings the modern traveller to the essence of ancient Greece, its sacred sites, with the aim of contextualising these very sites in a larger sacred landscape.

The tour begins in Dion (from 'Zeus' in Greek), the ancient City of the Gods, a thriving Hellenistic city abandoned after one too many ancient earthquakes in the foothills of Mount Olympus. Water in Dion is still supplied by the Vaphyras River, in which the nymphs threw Orpheus' head. We will pursue our journey to the Meteora, the Christian monasteries sitting high on hill-tops near Kalambaka.

Then to Thessaloniki, the port and capital of Northern Greece, built on a hill, with meandering streets, and crowned by Byzantine walls. We will discover the vestiges of this imperial capital of the 3rd c. A.D. up to the Byzantine and Christian periods. We will visit some of its many museums (the Archaeological museum, the Byzantine museum, possibly the Jewish museum).

We will also visit Olynthos, a rare vestige of a Greek City in Halkidiki, and bathe in Kassandra. We will end our journey on the island of Thassos, where the old ways join the new. There, the ancient agora still is a meeting place for the modern traveller, seeking an answer to ancient riddles, or simply a place to rest, for the sheer beauty of this marvelled island is enough to cleanse to most tired soul.