Getting Oriented

The northern Peloponnese comprises the Argive peninsula, jutting into the Aegean, and runs westward past the isthmus and along the gulf of Corinth to the big transportation hub of Patras and the Adriatic coast. The oldest region is the fertile Argive plain (Argolid), the heart of Greece in the late Bronze Age and the home of the heroes of Homer's Iliad. Heading southward, travelers love to visit beautiful Nafplion, famed for its Venetian, Ottoman, and German neoclassic houses. The southern Peloponnese's main regions—Arcadia to the north and Laconia in the southeast—are bisected with rugged mountain ranges. Arcadia is most accessible to Athens; exploring Laconia means traveling down the fingerlike peninsulas that dangle from the southernmost extremes of the Greek mainland. Highway E65 allows travelers to speed from Athens to Sparta in half a day or less.