3 Best Sights in Attica and Delphi, Greece

Even if you're just drifting through, this small mineralogical museum is worth a stop to get a gist of the history of the area. Its 700 exhibits—including several rare and beautiful specimens such as laurionite and azurite—are housed in a charming late-19th-century building once used by the French Mining Company to wash minerals. Coins made from the silver that the ancient Greeks mined around Lavrion are also on display.

Five rooms contain very well preserved objects from excavations in the area, ranging from neolithic pottery from the cave of Pan to Hellenistic and Roman inscriptions and statues (labeled in English and Greek). Eight larger-than-life sculptures came from the gates of a nearby sanctuary of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. In the center of one of the rooms stands part of the Marathon victory trophy—an ionic column that the Athenians erected in the valley of Marathon after defeating the Persians. Next to the museum, the Middle Hellenic cemetery is well sheltered from the forces of nature and very visitor-friendly.

Housed in an 1868 neoclassical building, this small collection includes paintings with nautical themes (though some are rather undercooked sketches) and many local artifacts from Greek ships and old sea captains' houses. There's nothing jawdropping, but you'll come away with a good background of the history of the village. There is also a small archaelogical collection excavated from a series of ancient cemeteries and isolated tombs around Galaxidi on view.