Delphi

Up in the mountains, modern Delphi is perched dramatically on the edge of a grove leading to the sea, west of an extraordinary ancient site. The hospitable people of modern Delphi take great pride in their town. They maintain a tradition of comfortable, small hotels and a main street thick with restaurants and souvenir shops. It's no secret, though. In summer, a few thousand people a day will find their way up here, to what is essentially a town made up of two main streets. They come for one thing: Ancient Delphi, the home of a famous oracle in antiquity. It's easily reached from almost any point in the central town, at most a 10-to-15-minute walk. When the archaeological site is first seen from the road, it would appear that there is hardly anything left to attest to the existence of the ancient religious city. Only the Treasury of the Athenians and a few other columns are left standing, but once you are within the precincts, ascending the slopes, the plan becomes clearer and the layout is revealed in such detail that it is possible to conjure up a vision of what the scene must have once been when Delphi was the holiest place in all Greece.