Journey
The Classical Mediterranean
Greek and Roman cities, on both shores
18 days · 6 stops · 3 countries · 1,777 km in a straight line
Three thousand years of the same sea. This route takes in the best-preserved classical cities on either side of the Mediterranean — a Sicilian cathedral built inside a Doric temple, a Roman arena still hosting events, and the Anatolian coast where more of the Greek world survives than in Greece. Two flights or ferries are unavoidable and are worth it.
The route, in order
Every hop is a straight-line distance between two coordinates. This atlas holds no road and no rail geometry, so that number is a floor on the leg and never the leg — Chamonix to Zermatt is 69 km here and about 170 on the ground, round a mountain range. It is here for the scale of the thing, not for planning a day.
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1 Days 1–3 3 nights
Rome Italy
The obvious beginning, and still the right one.
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2 Days 4–6 3 nights
↳ 188 km from Rome in a straight line
Naples Italy
South for the archaeological museum, which holds everything good from Pompeii, and the pizza.
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3 Days 7–8 2 nights
↳ 313 km from Naples in a straight line
Palermo Italy
Across to Sicily: Norman, Arab and Byzantine in one chapel ceiling.
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4 Days 9–11 3 nights
↳ 206 km from Palermo in a straight line
Syracuse & Ortigia Italy
Down the coast to the most powerful Greek city in the world, and a temple inside a cathedral.
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5 Days 12–14 3 nights
↳ 751 km from Syracuse & Ortigia in a straight line
Athens Greece
East across the sea, for the Acropolis at opening and the museum afterwards.
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6 Days 15–17 3 nights
↳ 319 km from Athens in a straight line
Selçuk & Ephesus Türkiye
On to Anatolia and Ephesus, where the library facade and the marble street still stand.
The record
- Length
- 18 days
- From / to
- Rome → Selçuk & Ephesus
- Countries
- Italy → Greece → Türkiye
- Straight-line distance
- 1,777 km, stop to stop
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Transport
- rail, ferry, flight
- Accommodation
- mixed
- Budget shape
- moderate
- Curated by
- EuropeDoor editorial
- Estimated cost
- about €2,250 per person
- Months that work
- April, May, September, October
Experiences along the way
Testaccio, where Rome eats
The market and the streets around it are where Roman offal cooking survives; go at one, order what the sign says.
The Appian Way on a Sunday
The road is closed to traffic on Sundays: basalt paving from 312 BC, catacombs, aqueducts and countryside, inside the city.
Fried pizza on the street
Older and poorer than the baked kind, folded into a wallet and eaten walking; the sign to look for is a queue of locals.
Palermo by street food
Panelle, arancine, sfincione, and — if you are brave — pani ca meusa. A thousand years of occupation in six snacks.
The Acropolis Museum, third floor
The Parthenon frieze laid out at actual scale and orientation, with plaster casts where the British Museum holds the originals — the gaps are the argument.
What you will be eating
- Italy — Pasta by region — trofie in Liguria, orecchiette in Puglia, carbonara only in Rome
- Greece — Whatever is in the pot that day — ask to see the kitchen, which is normal
- Türkiye — Breakfast (kahvaltı), which is a spread of fifteen small plates and takes two hours
What to pack
- A hat and real sun protection — the sites have no shade
- Two litres of water capacity per person
- Boots for Ephesus and the Sicilian sites
- Modest dress for churches and mosques
What this estimate covers
About €2,250 per person: 17 nights at the moderate daily band for each country on the route, plus a distance-based transport figure between stops, plus 12%. It excludes getting to the start and home from the end, and it is planning arithmetic from published bands rather than a quote. How these numbers are made →