The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury episode 5 – Rhodes and Symi: This episode, Julia arrives in the Dodecanese, a far-flung group of islands at the gateway between Europe and the East. In the medieval capital of Rhodes she uncovers a treasure of trove of Byzantine Art and has masterclass in painting historic frescoes.
Travelling inland to the mountain village of Apollona, she gets a taste of Greek Girl Power from some inspirational female entrepreneurs producing an age-old superfood made from honey and sesame.
Her trip ends with a visit to the neighbouring island of Symi, an architectural wonder like nowhere else in Greece. After sampling Symi’s famous shrimps, Julia takes to the water and immerses herself in the island’s rich history with a lesson in the ancient and dangerous skill of sponge diving.
The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury episode 5 – Rhodes and Symi
The name “Dodecanese”, meaning “The Twelve Islands”, denotes today an island group in the southeastern Aegean Sea, comprising fifteen major islands (Agathonisi, Astypalaia, Chalki, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kastellorizo, Kos, Lipsi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rhodes, Symi, and Tilos) and 93 smaller islets. Since Antiquity, these islands formed part of the group known as the “Southern Sporades”.
The name Dōdekanēsos first appears in Byzantine sources in the 8th century, as a naval command under a droungarios, encompassing the southern Aegean Sea, which eventually evolved into the Theme of Samos. However it was not applied to the current island group, but to the twelve Cyclades islands clustered around Delos. The name may indeed be of far earlier date, and modern historians suggest that the 12 islands mentioned by Strabo (Geographica Χ.485) was the origin of the term. The term remained in use throughout the medieval period and was still used for the Cyclades in both colloquial usage and scholarly Greek-language literature until the 18th century.
The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury
This new six-part series for ITV features Julia Bradbury exploring the hidden side of the dazzling, sun-drenched Greek Islands. The Greek Islands are loved by Brits – with three million flocking there every summer. Julia Bradbury has a special affinity with them as her mother is Greek, and that heritage has always been a big part of her life – yet despite enjoying her summer holidays on the islands she doesn’t know much about the real Greece.
In this series she uncovers the hidden side of well-known islands like Corfu, Crete and Santorini as well as uncovering some lesser-known island gems like Symi, Thirassia and Skopelos, location for global smash Mamma Mia, island-hopping her way to her ultimate destination, Chios – the island of her heritage.
She goes off the well-trodden tourist track to discover secret beaches, exquisite coves and unspoilt countryside, immersing herself in the islands’ age-old traditions and sampling some of the best food and drink they have to offer to provide a vivid and surprising insight into some of our most popular holiday destinations.
Julia says: “I am going to see the hidden side, from the historical and rugged terrain of Crete to the glamour of a sunset in Santorini. But I’ll also be taking in the lesser known islands from the architectural splendour of Symi to the natural wonder of Skopelos, before ending my journey on the island where my family story first began.”
