The Peloponnese in Greece is steeped in history

By Amanda Jones, Special to the Los Angeles Times.

Costa Navarino, Greece. — "The Peloponnese," my friend Peter Poulos tells me, "is the real Greece. Really. This place is less populated and more beautiful than most of the trendy tourist places in this country." He says this as we cross the slender isthmus between mainland Greece and the paw-shaped southern peninsula of the Peloponnese. "It's a different world down here," he adds. Peter is a saint. He's a recent transplant from San Francisco to Athens, a Greek American who loves his roots so much he chose to move to a place where he has never lived. He's saintly not because of this but, rather, because he has agreed to drive me and my two teenage daughters around the Peloponnese for a week. Peter is an entrepreneur, and one of his passions is the export market for Peloponnesian olive oil and honey.

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June 25, 2012