The misadventures of a group of tourists who landed in the wrong Athens

All right, this has absolutely nothing to do with anything ancient Hellenic, but I laughed so hard at this, I had to share. Residents of the village of Atena Lucana, in the province of Salerno, south of Naples were left scratching their heads as three tourists asked for directions to the Acropolis recently.

The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported on the hilarious (to them, anyway) adventure of three Colombian tourists who planned to visit the Parthenon and the archaeological sites of the Greek capital. Instead, they found themselves wandering the streets of the sleepy village which has approximately 3,000 residents.

"Initially we thought that these three, who spoke only Spanish, had come to the village because he had organized an evening with Latin music. When they start asking directions to the Hotel “Museum” at Bouboulina Street and the Acropolis, we thought they were in the wrong place. Their mistake was confirmed when they (took out) a map of Athens."

The comedy of errors began as a thirty-year-old Colombian named Michel, his girlfriend and another friend, arrived at Naples Airport. But instead of waiting for their connecting flight to Athens, they went out for a walk in the city. During their exploration of Naples, they spotted a bus which listed, among its various destinations, the city of “Atena.” The paper says that the group had no internet connection on their cell phones to confirm their destination.

When they realized their mistake, “they froze in embarrassment,” a local resident said. “We offered them food and refreshments but they refused. They were so angry with themselves.” Eventually the wayward travelers were taken to the local bus stop to take a bus back to Rome to try to find another flight to Athens. “They had such a look on their faces that we did not even think of asking them for a selfie to remember the hilarious incident,'” said a local resident.