The Early Bird Gets the Worm!!

The theater from ground level

We've left Olympia and are now in the town of Nafplio, a seaport town on the Argolic Gulf which is part of the Aegean Sea.   This will be our base for the next two days.  Our first excursion was to the ancient site of Epidavros, which is famed for its acoustically marvelous amphitheater.

We were out the door at 7:15am for the 30 minute drive to Epidavros in order to be there when they opened at 8:00am.  I wanted to be there with as few people as possible in order to experience the famed acoustics.  Our efforts paid off as not only were we the first people through the gates, we were the only ones there for the first 30 minutes.

View from the top row

The theater was built circa 300 B.C. and can seat up to 15,000 people.  During the summer months, it is still used for outdoor theater productions, but we're here too early in the year to catch a play.  What we could do though is test the acoustics, and it was a remarkable experience.  You can stand in the middle of the "stage" area (really just a circle that is surrounded by the first row of seats) and speak in a normal voice.  Even those sitting in the last row at the top of the theater can hear you as if you were sitting right next to them.  We took a brief video with our phone, and while it's not as good as being there in person, it gives you a good idea of how great the acoustics are.

By 8:30am, the first of three tour buses pulled in with gaggles of tourists.  While I hope they could experience the marvelous acoustics as we did, I can't imagine they did because it became too noisy too fast.  Getting up early definitely paid off as they could not have had nearly the appreciation that we did.