If you asked each one of the 18 millions of tourists that storm Greece every year why they chose to visit this country, each one will probably give you a different answer. Some visitors will tell you what brought them to Greece were their fading high-school memories, acquired in their history class or for a few of them during the classes of ancient Greek language. They will say they came here to admire the ancient sites and architectural treasures, the legacy of numerous civilizations that lived and prospered thousands of years ago, yet they impregnated their distinctive and indelible marks on today’s world. They came here to see the temples, the theaters, the sculptures, or maybe just the stray silhouettes of a few sun-bleached doric columns set against the ever changing backdrop that the Greek landscape is: modern, bustling cities, soothing rolling hills with cypresses flirting with the cool evening breeze, or the austerity of barren, windblown rocks sizzling under the midday Aegean sun.
Some others will state they came to Greece to take in its natural beauty. They learned about it from the colorful posters that decorate the walls of most Greek restaurants abroad or from the shabby, picturesque postcard their best friend sent them when he took six months off to "see the world". They jump hastingly on the shiny ferry boats that leave from Piraeus and set sail to explore the country's sapphire-rimmed islands, stroll amongst the maze-like clusters of cubical, whitewashed houses tumbling down hillsides, sprawl on the soft, warm sand, dive in the impossibly blue waters of the Aegean and gaze in awe at the colorful Greek sunsets. The most curious of them find time to plow Greece's mainland and Crete or some of the lesser known isles, drive around to explore majestic mountain ridges that were once the natural playgrounds of ancient gods and mythical creatures, hike on the myriads of donkey or goat trails, cross yawning precipitous gorges, absorb the serenity radiating from landscapes as stunning as the Meteora, Prespes Lakes and Vikos. Their encounters with colorful, multicultural or sometimes nondescript, yet somehow charming, cities and historic, perfectly preserved villages that look as if they just jumped out of a master`s painting are always in the heart of their travel stories when they get back home. During their journeys, they accidentally stumble upon countless architectural landmarks - Mani's haunting stone towers guarding each hill peak like sentinels, Nafplion's or Methoni's and Koroni's massive venetian fortifications, the preserved medieval cities of Corfu and Rhodes, countless Byzantine churches and monasteries nestled in places unimagined. They discover that one of the things that make Greece unique is the degree to which each molecule of its land is intertwined with history, culture and legend, and they decide to come back next year for more.
Some other visitors simply come to try out their partying endurance at the stamina-testing nightlife scenes of Mykonos, Ios or Hersonissos to name but a few, while others enjoy the hard-to-beat combination of mouth-watering yet healthy food, deliciously fresh local produce and the typical Zorba-like joie de vivre of the Greek people, which will always find time for you.
Now how about you? Well, no matter which Greece you came to savor, you will definitely find it here as countless people before you did for thousands of years. And if you are still hesitating whether Greece is the right place for you, the slogan of the 2004 Olympic games might give you the last push you need... "Welcome home".
