Arachova

Arachova spills down a steep ridge of Mount Parnassus at around 960 metres, its grey stone houses stacked in tiers above a single winding main street. Only eight kilometres east of Delphi, it has become the fashionable base for Greek skiers and weekenders, a place of wood smoke, mountain air and cafes that stay busy long after dark. Yet beneath the boutiques and the four-wheel drives it remains a genuine working mountain town, proud of its crafts and its cooking.

The town's fortunes turned on the nearby Parnassos Ski Centre, the largest in Greece, whose Fterolakka and Kellaria pistes climb to well above 2,000 metres a short drive up the mountain. From December to March the population swells and every taverna fires up its grill, but Arachova is rewarding out of season too, when the streets empty and the surrounding gorges and fir forests open up for walking.

Arachova wears its traditions plainly. It is known across Greece for its woven flokati rugs and textiles, for a sharp red saffron, for formaela, a firm local cheese best eaten grilled, and for tsipouro poured freely in winter. Climb the steep stepped lanes to the church of Panagia and its clock tower for a sweeping view over the rooftops and the valley falling away towards the Gulf of Corinth.

The town comes fully alive each April for the Panigyri of Agios Georgios, a three-day festival around Saint George's day, when men in traditional dress race up the hill above the church and the whole town dances. It is one of the most vivid folk celebrations in central Greece.

Most visitors pair Arachova with Delphi, treating the ancient sanctuary as a morning excursion and returning to the town's tavernas and fireside cafes in the evening. That combination, ancient ruins by day and a lively mountain town by night, is what makes this stretch of Parnassus so appealing, whatever the season.