After your obligatory 3,  5, or 7-day Greek island cruise (which, unfortunately, still stops at the wrong islands), a 4-day classical tour of the mainland, and a couple of days in Athens, it's time to see a bit of real Greece.  And probably the best place to do this is in Epiros, the northwest province of Greece.  North of Epiros is Albania, to the west is Corfu and the Ionian Sea, and Thessaly and Macedonia lie to the east.
 Perhaps because of its remoteness from Athens and the lack of well-known beach resorts, Epiros is virtually unknown to tourists.  The one exception is Parga, a gem of a town on the coast a few miles south of Corfu, but for the last dozen years Parga has been overrun during the summer by Europeans arriving daily by the hundreds on low-cost package tours (any place now in Greece that has a good beach and an airport within forty miles is to be avoided).
 The chief attraction of Epiros is its mountain scenery.  The Pindos Mountains, largest range in Greece, arc through the center of the province and are covered with beautiful meadows and forests, crystal tarns and rivers, and picturesque villages inhabited by people as rugged as the mountains they live in.
 For those with limited time, the highlights of north Epiros can be visited in four or five days.  Here's a recommended schedule:

 Day One:  Arriving at noon on the one-hour flight from Athens to Ioannina, go by taxi or rental car to Hani Terovou, a tiny village on the main road about 18 miles south of Ioannina.  The gas station/bus stop on the left side of the road has one of the best restaurants in Greece.  Their grilled or smoked trout is the finest I've ever had, and if they happen to run out they'll send a boy on a bicycle (carrying a fishing rod for effect) to the trout farm on the Louros River a half mile away.
 Then drive back towards Ioannina.  After about ten miles a left turn will take you to the archaeological site of ancient Dodoni, the second most famous oracle (after Delfi) of antiquity.  Dodoni, situated in a lush meadow filled with wildflowers and surrounded by high mountains, is a gorgeous site, especially in May and June.  Its well-preserved Hellenistic theater, one of the two largest in Greece, has remarkable acoustics.  Just east of the theater is the oracular house, where Zeus spoke from the Sacred Oak.  A group of priestesses called Doves interpreted the sound made by the tree's rustling leaves, and a priest then interpreted the Doves' interpretation for the benefit of the inquiring pilgrim.  The Sacred Oak was torn down when the Roman Empire was officially Christianized at the end of the 4th century, but archaeologists found a huge hole filled with rocks where the tree's roots had been and now another oak grows in the same place.
 The rest of the day can be spent exploring the few but worthwhile attractions of Ioannina, the largest city and capital (pop. 60,000) of Epiros.  Everything to see is in the center; from the verdant belvedere overlooking the Lake of Ioannina it's a short walk to the walled Old Town, a peaceful enclave of Ottoman architecture with two surviving mosques (now local museums), and the waterfront.  Here (and on the island on the east side of the lake) restaurants specialize in local seafood (eel, frog legs, crayfish, and various kinds of fish).  The lake itself is best known for its part in the infamous career of the notorious Ali Pasha, an Albanian-Turkish despot who 200 years ago had his way with local women and then drowned them in its waters.  After dinner you can walk back to your hotel, the Palladion or the Hotel du Lac.

 Day Two:  After breakfast visit the Ioannina Archaeological Museum on the belvedere.  Its half dozen rooms have displays from Paleolithic to Byzantine, and its prize is a large hoard of lead tablets found at Dodoni.  On these tablets are etched the questions asked of Zeus by supplicants at the Oracle (and, often, the enigmatic answers).  The most commonly asked questions are thinly veiled expresions of anxiety about masculinity; e.g., When will I have a son? or, less subtly, Am I the father of her children?  The second most frequent questions ask what god should be worshipped or what cult should be joined in order to have success in business.  This rare glimpse into the private concerns of the ancient Greeks strikes modern visitors as, well, rather modern.
 After the museum drive north about an hour to Bourazani, a wild game park and luxury hotel only a few miles from the Albanian border.   Bourazani is a traditional European hunting lodge and its public rooms are decorated with hundreds of racks of stag and deer antlers, but nowadays most of the hunting that goes on here is with a camera and the antlers come from the animals' annual molting.  Every evening around 5 PM guests are taken to a secluded place in the forest, where wild boar, wild goats, elk, and deer come for dinner.  And for your dinner too, it seems, since the hotel's menu features venison, boar, and wild sheep.

 Day Three:  This morning investigate the environs of Bourazani.  Natural water pressure from nearby springs provides a laundry where people from the area come to wash their flokati rugs and handmade carpets, and the same springs power an antique grain mill.  Five minutes away is the 800-year-old Orthodox monastery Molybdoskepastou, currently being restored.  The only other people there besides you will be the monks and two young Greek soldiers; they're there because the Albanian border is just across the river and they're very bored and anxious to talk with foreign visitors.
 From Bourazani it's a 15-minute drive to Konitsa and the picturesque packhorse bridge over the Aoos River at the entrance to Vikos Gorge, one of the premier natural wonders of Greece.  Another half hour brings you to the village of Monodendri, the best place from which to view the gorge.  The town (current population about 70) is an architectural national monument; houses are built entirely of stone with slate roofs and carved wooden ceilings.  The gorge itself is in the Guinness Book of Records; over 3000 feet deep and 3000 feet wide, it is the world's deepest gorge in proportion to width.  A 600 yard walk from the village center leads to an abandoned 15th century monastery with a spectacular view of the gorge, and for the brave acrophiliac there's a narrow walk along the side of the gorge with breathtaking views.  The bottom of the gorge is a favorite site for hikers and campers, but that would require adding several days to an Epiros stay.
 From Vikos it's a 2-hour drive back around the Lake of Ioannina and up into the Pindos Mountains to Metsovo.  This town of 5000, about a mile high, is quite unlike the rest of Greece.  The richest city per capita in the European Union, its citizens all speak Greek but most are ethnic Vlachs and speak Vlachika as their native tongue (it's a Romance language similar to Italian).  The older people still wear traditional mountain clothing (the women wear their hair in long braids and dress in long skirts and velvet bodices, while the older men will not be seen outdoors without their shepherds' crooks).  A recommended hotel is the Egnatia on the main street (so named because the Roman highway from Constantinople to Rome, the Egnatian Way, passed through Metsovo).  This hotel, like most of the homes of Metsovo, is made of stone and wood, with intricately carved and painted wooden ceilings.

 Day Four:  The early Metsovites made their fortunes from logging and grazing, and the two richest families, Tositsas and Averof, multiplied their riches in 19th century commerce and finance.  Beginning in the 19th century the Barons Tositsas lived mostly in Alexandria and Paris, and after the death of the last Baron almost 50 years ago the town was the recipient of a substantial part of his fortune.  There's a Tositsas Foundation lumber mill and cheese factory and weaving cooperative, an impressive Tositsas-Averof modern art gallery, and the ancestral mansion of the Tositsas is now an ethnographic museum.
 After visiting the museum and perhaps the art gallery, spend the rest of the day walking inside and outside the village.  Metsovo lies at a steep angle on the mountainside; a half hour walk below the village leads to St. Nicholas, one of the most richly decorated old monasteries in Greece, and flocks of sheep on the opposite side of the valley appear as tiny white dots in the green landscape.  Above the village are meadows and forests with marked hiking paths and ski lifts (Metsovo is one of Greece's most popular winter ski resorts).
 For dinner visit the traditional Galaxy restaurant on the plateia (town square).  Its specialties are bean soup and cheese soup, home-made sausage, and a beef stew made with the local flat pasta.

 Day Five:  From Metsovo it's a 90 minute drive back to Ioannina and the airport; flights leave every day at 1235 and 1030 PM.

For pictures of Epiros and surrounding areas, click here

 IF YOU HAVE MORE TIME:  Many experienced travellers (mostly Europeans) spend a week or two in the Zagori (the area of Vikos Gorge) and Metsovo.  But there are also places of unique interest not far from Epiros, and here are three of them for those who would like to extend their individual itinerary:

 METEORA.  90 minutes down the mountain from Metsovo is the plain of Thessaly and Meteora, a group of old Orthodox monasteries perched crazily on the steep tops of sheer rock pinnacles that have been shaped and pitted by endless centuries of wind and water.  There are usually a lot of tourists here, but the bizarre landscape is in itself worth a visit.

 MOUNT OLYMPOS AND VERGINA.  An hour east of Meteora is Larissa and the National Highway.  Go north through the Vale of Tempe, past the well-preserved Crusader Castle of Platamona and around the majestic peaks of Mount Olympos to the turn-off for Vergina.  Here a new state-of-the-art museum has been built, entirely underground, to house the royal Macedonian tombs and their contents discovered by Andronikis in 1977.

 MOUNT PELION AND SKOPELOS.  From Larissa take the National Highway south and the Volos turnoff (about 45 minutes in all) to Volos, where you can get a ferry boat or hydrofoil (many sailings daily) to Skopelos, the most beautiful and interesting of all the Greek islands.  If you have time, spend a few days exploring the incredibly verdant range of Mount Pelion above Volos; in a few minutes you can go from mountain villages amid waterfalls and forests to some of the best beaches in Greece.

HOW TO GET THERE.  Daily 1-hour flights on Olympic Airways, Athens-Ioannina at 11 AM and 820 PM and Ioannina-Athens at 1235 PM and 1030 PM.  Car rental is available at Ioannina airport and town center, or can be arranged in advance in Athens.

WHERE TO STAY.  The Palladion (about $70 double, tel. 0651-25856) is the best hotel in the center of Ioannina; more luxurious is the Du Lac on the lake (about $110 double, 0651-59100).  The Bourazani hunting lodge is about $70 double (0655-61283), and the Egnatia in Metsovo is about $60 double (0656-41263).  All hotels (and rental cars) can be booked through an Athens agency like Travel One (tel. 1-3314094, fax 1-3314239).