She has a point; one Leonidas I would probably agree with. The fabled 5th-century-BC warrior-king – a slayer of Persian invaders famously depicted by Gerard Butler in the 2006 movie 300 – still (supposedly) lies in his tomb, two miles away on the central square in the modern version of Sparta (Sparti). He would surely also approve of what personal trainer Dimitra has me do next – shuttle runs, 13 of them, up the steps of the Sainopouleio Theatre, until I can barely see for the sweat in my eyes. “Don’t do this next time you go see a play,” she laughs, apparently as encouragement. “You will really put off the actors.”
The amphitheatre is not strictly authentic. It is a contemporary construction, designed to make the most of warm evenings, Greece’s love of the arts, and some truly gorgeous scenery. Its setting, 130 miles south-west of Athens, amid the mountainous folds of the Peloponnese peninsula, is shared by my refuge for the week. At least, I think it’s a refuge. The people who run it are responsible for the “Spartan Spirit of Adventure” – a five-day fitness and conditioning programme which also makes excellent use of this fine location. By the end of my stay, I will have sprinted, jumped, hiked and squatted until my legs ached. Leonidas would be on board with this. Polus, I can only assume, would not.
The retreat
Euphoria Retreat is that refuge, built into the hill in Mystras, the next dot on the map west of Sparti. Built into it so subtly, in fact, that you might not know it is there. It has just 45 rooms, hewn from the same honied stone as the houses beneath them. It revolves around a spa, laid out on four levels, with a series of treatment areas, gym spaces and sauna zones – but even this main structure is hugely inconspicuous, set back into the rock-face, and accessed via a core staircase that spirals down within it. Seen from below, the whole complex is practically indistinguishable from the cluster of cafes, churches and carelessly parked mopeds – the classic, glorious Greek template – which shape the rest of the village.
