Tours in Laurium

Lavrio is a port town on the southeastern tip of Attica, an hour from Athens, and its history is industrial rather than picturesque. The silver mines here funded classical Athens: the vein struck in 483 BC paid for the fleet that beat the Persians at Salamis, and the shafts, washeries and cisterns are still scattered across the hills, worked by tens of thousands of slaves. The mines reopened under a French company in the nineteenth century, which is why the town has an unexpected industrial quarter of stone buildings and a technological park in the old smelting works. Today its main function is the ferry port — the third of Athens after Piraeus and Rafina, and the one that serves Kea and the western Cyclades, above all Milos.

Most of what is sold from Lavrio is not Lavrio. The port is the departure point for day trips and crossings to Milos, where the boats run out to the sea caves of Kleftiko, the white rock formations at Sarakiniko and the fishing village of Klima with its coloured boathouses. Kea, half an hour away, is the closest Cycladic island to Athens and almost unvisited by foreigners. Locally there is the mineralogical museum, the archaeological site at Thorikos with one of the oldest theatres in Greece, and Cape Sounion with the temple of Poseidon twenty minutes down the coast.

Practical. Lavrio is a working port and not a resort; there is little reason to stay unless you are catching a boat. Ferries to Kea and Milos are cancelled for wind, and the western Cyclades routes are among the more exposed. Athens airport is twenty-five minutes away, closer than the city centre, which makes Lavrio the sensible port for anyone flying in and sailing straight out. Buses from Athens take about ninety minutes; a taxi or a transfer is faster and worth it with luggage. Parking at the port is easy and cheap by Athenian standards.