Cyprus is a modern country that effortlessly marries European culture with ancient enchantment. Here you will discover a compact world of alluring beaches and fragrant mountain peaks, vineyards studded with olive trees and ancient ruins that stir the imagination, citrus groves and old stone villages where sweet wine flows as freely as conversations at the local café. A carefree place where a sense of timelessness is magnified by the kindness of the people.

Major attractions include the Cyprus Archaeological Museum, which contains cypriot antiquities and art treasures from the Neolithic Age to the early Byzantine period, the Byzantine Museum and Art Gallery, which has the largest collection of 9th- through 18th-century icons on the island and Kourion, the site of an important city-kingdom whose Greco-Roman amphitheater was built in the 2nd century B.C.

The traditional meze (appetizers) provides a unique sampling of everything that is available that day in the restaurant - as many as 30 dishes, starting with soup and salad; then traditional hot dishes such as haloumi, moussaka, afelia, stifado, souvlaki, sheftalia and calamari; ending with sweets. Good but inexpensive wines accompany this lingering repast, and as a finale try a local brandy with a cup of Cypriot coffee.

The official website of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation is http://www.visitcyprus.org.cy