Every year, 3 million of us head to the Greek islands for our holidays.
And it's easy to see why.
This is Greece, and look at that!
I have a strong affinity with the islands.
My mum is Greek.
But I've only holidayed here...
Here we go!
.. until now.
So, I'm going to explore their hidden side.
Look, there's nobody here!
Hello, everybody!
Oh! You're good!
From their breath-taking natural wonders...
Let me show you our real mother.
.. to the colourful customs and the architectural splendour.
That is a miracle of loveliness!
Makes me proud to be just that little bit Greek.
This is a voyage of discovery,
and I'm taking you with me.
Rhodes - or Rodos, as the Greeks call it -
is often referred to as "the island of the sun"
because it's said that Helios,
the Greek God of the Sun, chose this place to be his home.
And it's sunny here for eight months of the year,
so it's easy to see why.
My journey has brought me to the Dodecanese.
Meaning 12, it's named after the 12 main islands
which make up this far-flung archipelago.
Located just 11 miles from the coast of Turkey,
over 200 miles from mainland Greece,
at the crossroads of Europe and the Orient,
these islands are packed with history and culture.
I'll be hopping to the lesser-known Symi.
But first, I'm starting here,
on the largest of the Dodecanese, in search of the real Rodos.
It's dripping in historical treasures,
from Crusader castles to frescoed churches.
Just look at it!
The oldest inhabited Medieval city in the world.
A stroll through its maze of alleyways
reveals ancient reminders of its rich past.
But it isn't a museum frozen in time.
Look at this! Somebody lives here!
And you can't do this at home, all year round,
obviously, because you haven't got the weather.
But here, you can just leave your laundry out.
It smells so good!
It's just so fresh and lovely.
I bet it wasn't nearly as fragrant when
Crusaders occupied Rodos in the 14th century...
Kalimera.
.. who were an order of the Christian knights from across Europe.
Their stronghold was the Palace Of The Grand Master.
I know, quite a name, isn't it?!
But unlike the rest of the neighbourhood,
this fairy tale castle isn't nearly as old as you might think.
In 1856, it was devastated by an explosion.
A lightning bolt struck the powder store
and the place was levelled.
800 people lost their lives.
By then, it was in the hands of the Turks, so maybe Zeus played a role.
He was partial to a bit of lightning.
During the Italian occupation in World War Two,
it was painstakingly rebuilt by Mussolini.
But I'm leaving the tourist trail in search of another
of the island's cultural delights.
'I'm meeting the local artist Giorgos... '
Thank you.
'.. at the little-known ruined church of St John The Baptist. '
Ooh!
It's nice and cool in here.
And it's stunning!
Gosh, look at these wonderful ceilings.
In here, you can catch a glimpse of a treasure trove of religious art
created when Rodos was ruled from the east by the Byzantine Empire
in what's now modern-day Turkey.
What are we looking at?
We can see the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Trinity
in the Christian painting was painting with three angels:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Mm-hm.
How old is this, Giorgos?
This composition was painted on 16th Century.
Over 500 years! And it's still here, it survived!
It's amazing to find
a little gem like this tucked away down a quiet side street.
Giorgos is one of the few left in Greece who knows the secrets
of the medieval art of fresco painting,
and he runs classes teaching visitors.
Into the gallery!
I'm his next pupil.
So, what are we going to do in here now?
We're gonna make a fresco.
Adam in Paradise.
You're gonna make only this part.
'After learning to paint wooden icons in an Orthodox monastery,
'Giorgos studied frescoes in Italy.
'And since then, he's worked in churches all over Rodos. '
Fill it? Just completely fill it? Yeah, yeah, fill it.
'The technique we're using today dates back as far as the Bronze Age.
'Pigments made from natural minerals are mixed with water
'and painted directly onto wet plaster. '
Is this painful, you watching me do this to your...?
No, no, no. I like, because you do it very well.
Oh, good, OK. Yeah, yeah!
Oh, that's lovely. It's so lovely to watch.
Look how straight he holds his fingers.
Nice! 'Travelling along ancient trade routes,
'these colours are the exact colours
'that Byzantine artists used centuries ago. '
You will make the leaves. Mm- hm.
Such a lovely colour.
I'm not sure what they'd make of my efforts!
Oh, don't know what that is,
that's like a random pomegranate morphed strawberry.
One over Adam's head.
A little temptation, the fruit hanging and all that jazz.
Go on, Adam, take a bite, take a bite.
But there we go.
OK, well done.
Duh, duh, duh!
It is the icon of Adam...
.. as painted by Julia and Giorgos.
Thank you, Giorgos. Efharisto poli.
That's lovely. That was such an enjoyable experience,
I can see why you like doing this.
It's a nice way to spend your life.
Around every corner are clues to the island's position
on the historic trade route to the East.
But I'm heading to the steep pine forests of the interior,
on the hunt for an exotic delicacy that Rodos is famous for.
I'm going to meet some ladies now
who are going to teach me all about an ancient Greek super food.
It's a rich, opulent, sweet and sticky treat.
Yum!
I've travelled 27 miles inland to the village of Apollona,
where an unusual group of entrepreneurs
is making melekouni, a unique Rhodian snack
of honey and sesame seeds.
Hello, Katherina! Hello, lovely to see you!
So, ladies, I'm so excited to meet you,
because my little boy, Zephyrus,
when he was in my tummy, I used to call him a sesame seed.
All: Ooh!
So, we have all my favourite things here!
What I really love is they're all related.
Mums and daughters, aunts and cousins
making what you could call an Ancient Greek energy bar.
You will find melekouni in the whole island.
Yes. But our melekouni, I think it's the best.
Of course!
I'd like to help you, so can I do something? Yes!
You may help us make melekounis. Fantastic!
OK, oh, I can see the sesames.
Spiced with aromatic cinnamon and nutmeg, traders brought
sesame from India in the 1st Century BC.
OK. So now we're going to put the honey in the sesame.
OK, can I do that? Yes.
OK, anywhere? In, just, yes, and stir it.
Right, OK.
Start a little bit at a time. Mm.
Mm, the smells!
Traditionally given to newlyweds,
the seeds represent the years of marriage.
Oh! You're good! Hey!
Local honey from the island's pine forests
give melekouni its unique flavour,
and apparently keeps the marriage sweet.
There's another selling big point, too.
Hi, Versillia. Hi, there you...
Oh! Oh, look!
This is, this is a...
I've been anointed!
This is a tradition we do. OK.
In, when we make melekouni... Yeah... in houses.
The whole time... Look, I've been honeyed!
A week before the wedding we make melekouni. Yes.
And everybody gets... Gets this.
Stuff with the honey, so we have a nice face at the wedding.
Cos it's very good for you, the honey, isn't it?
Very good for the skin and the complexion.
Maybe that's the secret to all those happy marriages.
So, it's like pastry-making.
Put it together, yes, like that.
Ah! It feels so good!
It feels so good! It smells so good!
So, what are we doing, just flattening it? Yes.
Making 1,000 Melekouni a day,
skills passed on for centuries, are giving financial independence
to the latest generation of the village's women.
So, it's the melekouni moment of truth. Yes.
It's still warm.
Ooh! Lovely!
You can hear the honey going... SHE SLURPS
Mm, that's right!
Aww!
THEY SPEAK IN GREEK
THEY LAUGH
I don't want to spoil that now,
so I'm going to taste this little bit here.
Here, look, I'm just gonna...
Now I can see why this stuff has been around for so long.
Oh, it's so delicious!
It's low-calorie, yeah?!
Yeah, it's just honey and sesame.
Yeah, it's just honey and nuts, not fattening at all!
Ah, what's a few calories between friends?
Next, I'm off to Symi, to a tiny island with a big history
and a style all of its own.
I've come to the Dodecanese,
a remote group of Aegean islands
closer to Turkey than the Greek mainland.
After exploring Rodos' rich cultural history
as the gateway to the Middle East,
I'm heading 41 kilometres away to neighbouring Symi.
And it's like nowhere else in Greece.
I mean, really?!
Have you ever seen anywhere so beautiful?
It reminds me of Portofino in Italy, but it's quite unique.
It's like ferrying into some sort of opera set.
The island was named after a nymph
who stole the heart of Poseidon, God of the Sea.
Just 7 miles by 5, its rocky interior is largely uninhabited.
And maybe more than any of the Dodecanese,
Symi was shaped by its relationship with the ocean.
Hidden among steep winding streets away from the tourist haunts
of the harbour, I've been told
there's another, less mythical, sea creature I have to try.
Symi shrimp.
Simply fried in olive oil,
these tiny crustaceans aren't found anywhere else in the world.
Ooh, lovely! Oh, yes!
The whole thing?
Yes, like chips. Like chips, OK.
Mm! Shrimp chips!
They are supremely sweet.
Yummy!
Symi might be famous for its shrimp,
but the grand neo-classical mansions
which make it so different from the rest of Greece
also owe their existence to the rich waters around the island.
Author Yannis is an expert in a unique chapter in Symi's history.
You must be Yannis. Hello, Julia.
Nice to meet you. Great to meet you, how are you?
Welcome to Symi. Ah! And what a delight!
When you step off the ferry and you see this
for the first time, it's... It's beautiful.
It's breath-taking! Yep.
Why does Symi look like this?
Symi and the islands around here
had the sponge diving fleet, and that was going on
for thousands of years,
so they really became very, very wealthy.
By the 19th century, sponges were used for everything
from taking a bath to padding soldiers' helmets.
Growing in abundance under the sea here,
tiny Symi became the centre of a huge global trade.
One that relied on a unique skill learnt over centuries.
Why were the people of Symi so good at freediving?
The fathers and grandfathers taught it to their children, grandchildren
to make an income for themselves.
And, of course, they loved the sea,
because it wasn't an easy life for them. Mm.
No, it sounds very romantic and it sounds very adventurous.
Yes it's very, very hard.
Very hard. It's very hard. A really tough existence.
A world-renowned expert in the modern discipline of freediving,
Yannis has arranged for me to see how hard it is for myself.
Kalimera!
Opa!
There we go! How are you?
I'm OK. Good, thank you, thank you.
Ya su, Ulysses. Hello! Hello, hello!
Vassilis and his son Ulysses are giving me a crash course
in how it was done here long before it became a competitive sport.
How deep will we go?
How long do you want? How long do you want?
How deep will you go?
Not very, not very. It's about 11, 12 metres.
OK.
Seems quite deep to me, but anyway...
Today, tourism is Symi's main industry,
and the lucrative sponge trade, along with the huge wealth
it brought with it, are just a memory.
We know, sadly, the sponges are gone now.
Yes, since 1960s that was the last season
for the sponge divers.
Since then, we don't earn money from sponges, it's a long history.
In 1863 came in Symi the first scuba-diving suit.
Mm-hm.
And this was the suit with the big helmet...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This one.
The big goldfish bowl helmet.
This one. It was a disaster. Mm.
But also, the problem was that the scuba divers vacuum the depth.
They clean, they take all of them, all of them.
They over-fished the sponges, they wiped out...
Exactly... all of them. Exactly.
Until then, the number of sponges
collected was limited by how long a diver could hold his breath.
Armed only with a very basic bit of kit to help them reach the seabed.
So, gentlemen, I'm in your hands. What happens first?
Yep, you can see how the old fishermen
free-dived with the stone, the marble.
This, next to you? This one.
How heavy is that?
This is about 10 kilos. You keep it
first of all as a weight, and second
as a steering system.
You keep the stone like this, and...
Like a laptop?
Yes! And you walk. You start walking.
And you walk. It's... it's very funny.
Let's go. Let's get in the water, gents.
Let's go.
Look at this father and son.
He's 15, Ulysses is 15.
My little boy is eight.
God, I'd love him to experience this kind of life.
It's hard to imagine going for a leisurely stroll
12 metres underwater, but I've been told the trick is to breathe deeply,
empty your mind and stay calm.
Watching Vassilis is fascinating,
because he's taking these deep breaths now.
Look, he's perched on the back of the boat,
he's breathing in, he's really focussed.
He's got the stone in front of him.
It's a real moment.
This would be considered a shallow dive,
but oxygen leaves the blood fastest in the first ten metres,
so blacking out is still a very real risk.
30 seconds already.
One of the world's most primitive animals,
there are over 6,000 types of sponge.
Before overfishing, the rocky seabed and crystal-clear water here
was the perfect habitat for Symi's native species.
Nearly a minute down there.
And I think he definitely got to the bottom of the sea bed.
He's back in the boat.
My turn. OK.
It takes years of practice to walk
on the seabed like Vasilis,
so I'm just going to try and touch the bottom.
Ooh! Hello!
What's this?
More easy?
Yeah! Look at that, I've never had my sleeve blown up before!
I'm smiling, but the nerves are starting to kick in.
So, before I get in the boat... Yeah?
What's it like down there? How was that?
Always fantastic.
Yes? You will see, you will see.
I will see, I will see if I'll see.
How far down do you think I'll get?
It's freediving, so don't care about depth.
Ready? Yep, ready!
Steady. Steady.
I've done a bit of diving and snorkelling before,
but I've never tried anything like this.
What is the aim for me here today now?
What is going to make this different to me
when I sort of try to get down to the bottom of the sea bed
in a shallow bit of water when I'm on holiday?
It's like you return in your mother.
To the womb? Yes.
Back to the womb.
The sea is our mother. OK.
But the feeling is strong. OK.
There's no going back now.
But I have Yannis in the water with me just in case anything goes wrong.
TENSE MUSIC PLAYS
It really isn't as easy as Vassilis makes it look.
Ah!
I couldn't get down! My ears were going "Pow!".
But I'm not ready to give up.
So, there's a black sponge down there.
I need to keep breathing, keep myself calm
and try just to pop down to it.
I can't believe I did it!
So, I made it!
To the black sponge, I touched it.
My ears were popping like crazy.
Yeah!
But it is beautiful!
My time in the Dodecanese is coming to an end,
but the places I've seen and the people I've met
will leave me with memories as rich as the history
of these incredible islands.
That moment as you come up, because the buoyancy is just, like,
whooshing you through the water, and you see the light above you,
and it's just magic!
That feeling when you go "boom", and you just explode on the surface.
Oh! But that was a special experience.
Symi's a pretty special place.
Next time, the final leg of my Greek odyssey takes me to Chios,
the island where my own story began.
It's strange being here,
because this island is a part of us,
it's a part of our family. Absolutely!
I'll be taking my mum on an emotional journey into our past.
So, what do you think of the house? Um...
Unearthing magical customs and colourful traditions,
unchanged for generations.
Oh! Here he goes!