Rhodos

Rhodes belonged to Helios: the Greeks made the island the home of their god and raised a bronze colossus some thirty metres tall, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Its old town, the Medieval City of Rhodes, still lives inside four kilometres of walls, among cobbled lanes, minarets and sleeping cats. The Knights of St John left the Street of the Knights, a stone street preserved from end to end, and the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes. At the mouth of Mandraki Harbour, two bronze deer mark the spot where tradition places the vanished giant. Above the modern town, the columns of the Acropolis of Rhodes stand on a hill facing west. The coast does the rest: the golden sand of Tsambika Beach under its cliff, the calm water of Lindos Beach below a white village, the pines and rocks of Anthony Quinn Bay. Grilled fish and tomatoes are eaten at the foot of the walls, with island wine.