Karpenisi

Greek-American students use their study abroad programs as an opportunity to learn about their homeland and deepen their "Greekness."

FOURNA - Fourna, home to 180 people and hidden in the fir-tree covered mountains of central Greece, is a vanishing village that is determined to keep its place on the map.

At 7pm, as the sun begins to set over downtown Athens, the temperature hovers at 21°C. In contrast, just 279 kilometers away in Karpenisi - the mountainous capital of Greece's least populated region - the thermometer dips to a brisk 13°C. What can this striking contrast be attributed to? 

The phone of local officials in the village of Fourna, Evrytania, has been ringing nonstop from people responding to the priest and teacher’s call for families to relocate, offering them homes and employment to keep the village “alive.”

Hundreds of people will flock to the village of Helidona in Evrytania, Central Greece, for the All-Day Grape Festival on September 28. The festival is breathing new life into this village, whose population has dwindled dramatically over the last 40 years to 13 permanent residents, even if the census puts them at 50.

A group of residents of the municipality of Agia Paraskevi in northern Athens are expected to mount a legal challenge in administrative courts against the conversion of a green space located at the corner of Psara and Agia Triada streets into an area for placing tables and chairs.

The new mayor of Athens, Costas Bakoyannis, was sworn in Sunday.

The swearing-in took place in the open, at the Akadimia Platonos park, and not at the city hall, as is the custom.

Bakoyannis, 41, until now regional governor of Central Greece, was elected mayor last June 3, in a runoff, with 65.25 percent of the vote.

Greece's understaffed regional medical centers are reportedly struggling to cope again this summer due to the increased demand created by tourism.

According to complaints filed to the Health Ministry, medical centers across the country are suffering from serious shortages of medical and non-medical personnel.

Greece and its attractions will feature in two popular television shows in France and Estonia this year with the backing of the Hellenic Tourism Organization (EOT).

More specifically, France 5's highly rated travel show "Echappees Belles" will start shooting in the northern region of Macedonia and central Greece in June and is expected to air on September 14.

"Athens needs a lot of hard work, planning and a target-oriented strategy" in order to become "liveable" once more, New Democracy's candidate for mayor of the Greek capital said on Friday.