Lavrio

Lavrio lies about 60 kilometres south-east of Athens, on a bay looking across to the long low island of Makronisos. It is a real town rather than a resort, with a busy fishing and ferry harbour, a grid of nineteenth-century streets and an industrial past that still shapes its character. For travellers, its chief role today is as a port: the departure point for the shortest crossings to the western Cyclades.

The town's history runs far deeper than its ferries. The hills behind Lavrio, known in antiquity as Laurion, held rich veins of silver-bearing ore. These mines were among the main sources of revenue for Classical Athens, and the fleet they helped finance defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Traces of that industry are everywhere: ancient shafts and ore-washing works in the surrounding countryside, and later the tall chimneys and stone workshops of a nineteenth-century mining revival led by French and Greek companies. The Mineralogical Museum and the technological park on the old industrial site tell this story well.

From the harbour, ferries run year-round to Kea (Tzia), barely an hour away, and to Kythnos, with seasonal links reaching on to Syros, Paros, Naxos and other Cycladic islands, as well as the north-eastern Aegean. Because these crossings are short and the port is easy to reach by road, Lavrio has become a practical alternative to the larger and busier hub at Piraeus, especially for the nearest islands.

Around the port you will find the ordinary pleasures of a Greek seaside town: a lively Sunday market, fish tavernas along the waterfront, and cafes on the main square. Cape Sounion and its temple lie only a short drive to the south, making an easy pairing with a visit here.

Most people pass through Lavrio on the way to or from an island, but it repays a slower look. Reached by car or by KTEL bus from Athens, it offers a glimpse of a coast that has been mined, fished and sailed for two and a half thousand years, without the polish of the tourist Riviera.