I have a passion for travel, whether it's solo, with my husband or with my grandchildren. This is how I nourish my mind and discover and embrace history, cultures, architecture and landscapes. Sometimes, a travel experience is absolutely indelible.

While on a Greek Islands cruise aboard the beautiful and very Italian ship, Costa Classica, I saw fertile, pine-clad valleys, sleepy olive groves and hilly, goat-trodden terrain. I explored the ruins of Doric temples and fragments of statuary fashioned from limestone and legend. For me, the most enchanting port was Kithera.

Mythology dictates that Aphrodite sprang from the waters of Kithera, an island of goat farmers, old churches and narrow, sand-and-rock beaches lying at the crossroads of the sea routes to the Ionian, Aegean and Cretan Seas.

Here, the smell of fresh-caught fish wafts from old wooden boats. At the tavernas, tourists eat al fresco beneath striped umbrellas. Royal blue shutters and red flowers in window boxes give a vibrant flush of color to the white stone houses along steep paved streets. I passed a narrow alleyway garden bordering a modest house.

Behind the garden gate, three middle-aged women dressed in black cotton dresses were gathered around a wooden table laden with bowls. The women were shelling nuts. One woman, a grandmotherly sort with an apron around her waist, noticed me standing by her gate. I held up my camera and pointed to it. She smiled, rose from her chair, scurried to the gate, and gently took hold of my wrist to draw me into her garden.

"Do you speak English?" I asked. She shrugged. She asked me a question in Greek. I shrugged. Ignoring the language barrier, the woman laughed and turned my hands palms upward. She dipped her hand into the bowl of almonds and scooped the nuts into my palms. The other two women laughingly dropped nuts into my skirt pockets. I kept saying, "Thank you." I snapped a picture of the women.

The woman wearing the apron patted my back as she accompanied me to the gate. Silently, we nodded, smiled and waved goodbye. With one generous gesture in a Greek garden, we had bridged opposing cultures to connect in a moment of friendship. Here's what I think: If grandmothers ruled the world, there would be peace.

Kithera is accessible via ferry from Athens. Tripadvisor.com gives a great review to a B&B in Kithera: Hotel Pelagia Aphrodite (Agia Pelagia, Kythira, Lakonian Islands; 00 30 27360 33926; kythira.com).

– Roberta Sandler is an award-winning writer/author. Her newest book is A Brief Guide to Florida's Monuments and Memorials, published by University Press of Florida. She and her husband live in Wellington, FL.

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posted at 02:01:41 PM