Macedonia

• 29/12/2016 14:31
• Greece - Hellas, Macedonia

The biggest and most diverse region in Greece, Macedonia (mah-keh-do-nee-ah) also boasts the country’s second city, stylish Thessaloniki.
It’s a place with both natural beauty and a deep history, and the two are often intertwined. Mt Olympus, Greece’s highest peak (2918m), is both the fabled refuge of the ancient Greek gods and an excellent hiking destination, while the isolated monasteries of Mt Athos, deep amid wilderness on the third finger of the Halkidiki Peninsula, have constituted the beating heart of Byzantine spirituality for over a millennium.

Despite being on the mainland, Macedonia also draws big crowds in summer to its beaches on Halkidiki’s first two fingers (Kassandra and Sithonia), though you can still find some idyllic, unvisited stretches of sand there too. Beyond Florina, far up in the northwest of Macedonia, brown bears amble through forested mountains that descend to placid Prespes, aquaeous home to colourful pelicans and magnificent medieval churches. Other inimitable attractions are the palmlined port town of Kavala, crowned by a castle, the ancient Macedonian capital of Pella
and Vergina, where the Macedonian kings were buried.