Greece
Nafplio
Stone steps climb to a Venetian sea fortress above a harbour of bobbing fishing caïques.
The Palamidi stairway — 999 steps by local count, a few fewer by the pedants' — climbs the rock face to the fortress. From the top the Gulf of Argolis opens wide: the Bourtzi floating in the harbour below, fishing caïques at their moorings, the first capital of modern Greece along the shore.
Nafplio served as the first capital of the modern Greek state before Athens, and its old town still carries that sense of ceremony. Palamidi is reached by road or a demanding stair climb, while Bourtzi sits just offshore as the harbour’s compact fortress. The town also makes a natural base for Mycenae and Epidaurus without feeling merely like somewhere to sleep between ruins.
Couple
Neoclassical rooms, a harbour promenade at dusk and the view from Palamidi when the light softens.
Solo
Museums, bookshops and café tables in a compact old town with major ancient sites close by.
- Palamidi fortress commands the headland above Nafplio and is reached by road or a long stair climb.
- Nafplio served as the first capital of the modern Greek state before the government moved to Athens.
- Bourtzi fortress occupies a small islet directly in the harbour.
- The old town combines pedestrian lanes, neoclassical houses and a long seafront promenade.
Savouras on the waterfront is the fish name locals give first.
Antica Gelateria di Roma scoops the old town's famous gelato — Italy conceding the point.
Hue
Vietnam
Incense smoke drifting through the war-scarred courtyards of an imperial citadel.
Multan
Pakistan
City of saints — blue-tiled Sufi shrines where qawwali rises into the dusk on Thursday nights.
Kanazawa
Japan
Samurai and geisha districts untouched by war where gold leaf gilds everything, even ice cream.
Nagasaki
Japan
A harbour city layered in Dutch, Chinese and Portuguese ghosts, where the churches went underground.
Ithaca
Greece
Olive terraces tumble to a wine-dark sea on the island Odysseus spent ten years reaching.
Kythira
Greece
Venetian ghost villages crumbling above spring-fed waterfalls, sea caves gnawing the island's edges.
Prespa Lakes
Greece
Byzantine hermitages painted on cave walls above a lake shared by three countries.
Amorgos
Greece
A whitewashed monastery clings to a 300-metre cliff face above crashing Aegean surf.