The journey down the western side of the Mani’s rugged spine is dotted with small villages, notable for their Byzantine churches and clusters of stone towers – ancient mini-Manhattans built as refuges against invaders and as protection against local blood feuds. Vathia and Limenio are among the prettiest of them.

But the point of Mani is less architectural than natural, with jagged cliffs falling away on one side of the road, as you look south ahead of you, along the narrowing spit of land, to the humpbacked hills of Cape Matapan. There is no coastal drive in Greece that is as dramatic.

Still, the Mani is only one small chunk of the Peloponnese – the peninsula that has been at the heart of Greek theatre, literature and history for more than 3,000 years. Many of the city states that formed the constituent parts of ancient Greece are in the Peloponnese – and it’s rich in Homeric sites, too.

Heading north into the Peloponnese from the Mani, you pass the Greco-Roman city of Gytheion, with its ancient theatre. Connected to Gytheion by a causeway is the tiny island of Marathonisi, where Paris first made love to Helen of Troy after stealing her from her husband, Menelaus.