Last month on the way to Greece we changed trains in Lyon from where we could have taken a plane and been in Athens about 3 hours later. Instead we chose the “slow travel” option via Milan that included travel onboard the Italian Frecciarossa train in Executive class. The car had 10 extra-wide leather reclining armchairs (photo in this paragraph) so we had lots of legroom with at-seat dining choices of 3, four-course meals. We were onboard long enough to enjoy both breakfast and lunch and below I’ll include a pdf of the menu. (Tip: don’t be shy about asking for what you want to eat and drink.) While all of this comfort on the train was a pleasant surprise, an unexpected bonus awaited us at our ferry port destination.

Soon after we knew that we’d be going to Athens to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law, Bill asked me where else in Greece I wanted to go. With the stunning landscapes from the movie “Mamma Mia” playing in my head, where every quaint village is filled with whitewashed stone houses topped by domed blue roofs, I said, “the islands”. Although Greece has thousands of islands, only about 200 of them are inhabited including names I knew such as Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, and Rhodes but we chose one that’s not been so popular and it was less than 3 hours by ferry from Athens.