Corinth, Nafplio & Epidaurus

Ancient Corinth--the place Paul lived for a couple of years before his execution (also the letters in 1st & 2nd Corinthians were written to the church members here). I'm sure there's more to say about this ancient city, but at this point of the trip we are all on, what I call, "ruins/statues/pottery overload." It was pretty cool to think that Paul may have walked on this very road some 2,000 years ago.

After we left Corinth, we headed to the lovely town of Nafplio. This was the first capitol of Modern Greece and is considered by many (including our wonderful guide, Kosta) to be the most beautiful town in Greece. We started off at the Palamidi Fortress, high on a hill above the town and planned to walk down the 900+ stairs into town (some say there are as many as 999 steps). The important part of this was the going down! We ended up spending a couple of hours here as there was lots to explore, climb, view and just take a break from our overload of ruins/statues/pottery. The students (and my kids) thoroughly enjoyed themselves here. I mostly watched them and looked at the amazing views while appreciating the cloudy weather with a slight breeze. When our family finally all made it down the stairs (it's harder than you think to go down that many!), we opted for gyros for dinner--yummy & inexpensive. While walking around the town, we met up with some students eating. . .gelato! They said it was pretty good--and they were right! It was yummy--especially the fresh strawberry. The portions were a bit skimpy compared to our Italian ones, but it was like comfort food to me! We even added a few new flavors to our list that day: fresh strawberry, banana split, and one more that I can't remember the name. It started with a k and was some kind of traditional greek flavor made with some kind of greek fruit--wish I could remember what it was called.

We ended our day with a play at the ancient Greek theater in Epidaurus. The play was The Trojan Women by Euripedes. It was performed with modern staging (not a hit with us or the students) in a beautiful setting (a big hit with everyone). This theater was built in the 4th century BC and is amazing for its acoustics. It seats about 15,000 people and the play was performed without microphones. We did get rained on just as we were getting out of the bus, but that just added to the adventure!

Sorry this isn't my picture--ours were much too dark so I found a really nicel one online. But you get the idea, right? The seats, the trees, the stage--all of it made for a wonderful setting.