Sightseeing in Laurium

Lavrio is a port town at the south-eastern tip of Attica, an hour from Athens and the second gateway to the Cyclades after Piraeus. In antiquity a whole economy was run from here: the silver mines of Laurium paid for the Athenian fleet that broke the Persians at Salamis, and the traces of that industry — mine shafts, washing floors — can still be read in the surrounding hills. Nearby, on Cape Sounion, stands the temple of Poseidon, but the town's main role today is different: it is the gate from which the ferries leave for the western Cyclades.

The principal direction from here is Milos, a volcanic island three and a half hours away. Excursion programmes out of Lavrio are built around it: a walking tour of Plaka, the island's capital with a Venetian kastro on its summit, old fishing hamlets where the boat-garages called syrmata are painted every colour, and the catacombs — among the largest early Christian ones in Greece, close to the spot where the Venus de Milo was found.

The point of the format is that the island is taken without moving house: a morning ferry from Lavrio, a day on Milos with a local escort, an evening sailing back. For anyone staying in Athens or on the east coast of Attica it is the shortest way to see the real Cyclades — not showcase Santorini, but an island where the tourist season has not yet rewritten the way of life.