Palm Sunday in Greece

Palm Sunday is a very important day in the Greek Orthodox Church, celebrated on the Sunday before Easter. It commemorates Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey following the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead—an event described in all four Gospels. The people of Jerusalem greeted Him waving palm…

Patras (Patra)

Greece’s third-largest city sits where the Peloponnese meets the Gulf of Patras—a working port town that’s less concerned with posing for tourists than with its wine industry, agriculture, university life, and hosting Europe’s largest carnival every spring. Patras (also spelled Patra) is totally different from Athens or Thessaloniki—grittier, more industrial, less polished—but it’s also more…

Mycenae

Mycenae, home to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology, is one of the must-see attractions of the Peloponnese. Once a thriving fortress city that launched the “Mycenaean Period” and dominated Crete and the Aegean islands from 1600-1100 BC, today it sits windswept and haunting on a rocky hill, its massive Cyclopean walls and royal tombs…

Corinth

On the Isthmus of Corinth—the narrow strip of land linking the Peloponnese to mainland Greece—stands ancient Corinth, a city that once controlled Mediterranean trade and shaped Western history.