Private tours, live concerts and “undiscovered” sites—these are all promised for an upcoming trip to Greece with the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach, in partnership with New York-based luxe travel company, Thalassa Journeys.
The Center hosted a luncheon Dec. 19 to discuss the trip with potential travelers, featuring as a special guest, Thalassa Journeys Sales Manager Lacy Marx.
To sample a little of Greece at home, a table of Greek delights, including stuffed grape leaves and hummus with pita and spanakopita, was served.
“The food there is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted,” Marx said before her presentation. “The tomatoes were ripe and juicy and had this distinctive flavor. It felt like when biting into it, it would just explode into my mouth.”
Marx said she took her first trip to Greece last year. “It’s very diverse,” she said of the popular tourist destination. “It’s very mountainous in places. They do have the islands that are volcanic, but they also have islands filled with vegetation. It’s very rich and absolutely beautiful.”
The 12-day trip, to take place in the fall of this year, is open to the public. Planned for Sept. 29 through Oct. 12, it will feature multiple cities that are normally off the beaten-tourist map, including Thessaloniki, Larissa, Volos, Skiathos and more.
The trip will include historical insights, museums, archaeological masterpieces, natural beauty and music. Internationally accomplished chamber musicians will be accompanying the group and play intimate shows in private, historical sites.
To top it off, Helen Events, curator of Byzatine Art from the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, will be the expert guest lecturer on the trip.
“She’s well known, respected and won the Friendship Award from the president of Armenia for her work and presenting Armenians in such a wonderful light, helping develop Armenian and American relations,” Marx said.
“We went to Italy for our first trip,” Jennifer Jordan, Community Connections Director of the Cultural Center, said of a previous tour the cultural center hosted. “It was a small group, but after, we heard so many of our guests say, ‘If we only had known sooner…,’ so now we’re trying to get them informed.”
Donna Guzzo, the Center’s executive director, said that trips with her guarantee a little spontaneity, but a great time.
“Some of us ended up at (luxe shoe designer) Salvatore Ferragamo’s home,” she said, recalling their Italian escapades. “Some of us dined and toured at the (Ferragamo) restaurant. They closed it off for the public. It was just us. They weren’t really planned on the trip, so you never know when you’re traveling with Donna!”
For more information on the “Treasures of Greece” trip and the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra Beach, visit www.ccpbb.org. For more on Thalassa Journeys, visit www.thalassajourneys.com.
