Delphi - lush and quiet

It’s a crisp day of December. Our winter trip has started. Our first night will be spent in the village of Delphi, 400m away from one of the most beautiful antique site of Greece.

Just a few days before our arrival, the torrential rains have provoked an important landslide just at the entrance of the site. Fortunately, none of the old stones have been affected by the environmental incident. The mountain, cut in all parts to create roads and connect humans faster, rebalance herself by readjusting her slope, shedding some her weight down hill, reminding us that we are nothing in front of her.

The winter quietness of the village - once packed with visitors in the summer - is interrupted by the relentless passage of trucks and their “beeps”, dragging out of the way gravels and stones.

We are a handful of visitors at the opening. The main site only is accessible as the temple of Athena is very close to the landslide.

It’s enough. Delphi is an historically extremely dense place to feel and understand. Our visit will take us a good couple of hours at least. And we will leave the place full of questions and wonder, as always.

The place is lush and green, the air is clear, the sun is bright.

We make our way through these stones and impressive views, through this mountain area once a highly spiritual place - the belly button of the world.

Delphes is one of the philosophical and religious craddles of Ancient Greece and has produced three famous maxims – "Know thyself", "Nothing in excess", and "Give a pledge and trouble is at hand" - that were inscribed on the Temple of Apollo.

A few thousand years later, we still haven’t got the lesson quite right of these statements.