The Greek landscape has inspired and delighted writers as diverse as Homer, Byron, Twain and Henry Miller. Here's how you can recreate some of your favourite literary and cinematic moments.
Homeric archaeology
The Peloponnese archipelago was the setting for much of Homer's epics The Iliad and The Odyssey . Mycenae was the home of the bloody King Agamemnon and his murderous wife Clytemnestra, Hercules performed his first two labours here, killing the monstrous lion at Nemea and the multi-headed Hydra at Lerna. Archaeology specialists Andante Travels' (01722 713800) eight-day Homer's Heroes tour takes in these and many other extraordinary ancient sites from the Bronze, Spartan and Byzantine ages. Including flights, hotels, transfers, local transport, meals, entry fees, guide lecturer and tour manager, the tour costs £1,450.
Shirley Valentine's Mykonos
The latter scenes of Willy Russell's classic tale of escape, Shirley Valentine, were filmed on the island of Mykonos, one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. The town scenes were taken around the harbour in Mykonos Town. Just outside Mykonos Town sits one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the five-star Kivotos Club hotel with its own beach and yacht to use. Filoxenia (01422 375999) offers one week in June for two people sharing, £1,043 per person including direct Gatwick flights and B&B.
Captain Corelli's Cephalonia
'The half-forgotten island of Cephalonia... is so immense in antiquity that the very rocks themselves exhale nostalgia and the red earth lies stupefied not only by the sun, but by the impossible weight of memory. The ships of Odysseus were built of Cephalonian pine, his bodyguards were Cephalonian giants, and some maintain that his palace was not in Ithaca but in Cephalonia.' So says Louis de Bernières in his modern classic Captain Corelli's Mandolin . Bars and restaurants have been renamed after the novel's eponymous hero, racks of glossy guides have gone on sale and business around the port of Sami, where the novel was filmed, has never been brisker. Down the road from Sami is the small port of Agia Efimia, where Sunvil Holidays (020 8568 4499). offers £460 per person for a week's B&B at the four star Gonatas Hotel, including flights and transfers.
Zorba's Crete
The Oscar-winning 1963 film Zorba the Greek, adapted from Nikos Kazantzakis's novel, won fame for stars Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Stavros, Crete. Now you can recreate the celebrated scene on the beach where Zorba teaches uptight author Basil to dance to the famous theme tune. One week in a self-catering studio at the Blue Beach apartments, on a sandy beach on the outskirts of Stavros, with taverna and pool, costs from £345 per person with Grecofile (01422 310330), plus flights.
The Magus of Spetses
When a young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, accepts a teaching position on the imaginary Greek island of Phraxos, his friendship with the owner of the island's most magnificent estate leads him into an Epicurean nightmare. However, the small pine-clad island of Spetses, on which Phraxos was based in John Fowles's novel The Magus, is as beautiful as Urfe's journey is violent. Stay at Petradi, a house overlooking Spetses Town, with shaded terrace and swimming pool, sleeping six. Renting the property for a week, including transfer from the port and maid service, costs from £1,355. Call CV Travel for the Greek Islands Brochure (0870 787 9712;).
