The real Daphni monastery is a Byzantine church of the eleventh century on the western edge of Athens, along the old Sacred Way to Eleusis, and it is a UNESCO site together with Hosios Loukas, which lies only a few kilometres from this point.
What surrounds you is a high, open plateau with terraces, thin soils and a surprisingly red colour in places, caused by bauxite, the ore of aluminium, which is mined in the mountains of this region. Helicon rises above to nearly 1,750 metres, and the ancient Greeks believed it was the home of the Muses. The roads run through thickets of oak and kermes oak, olive groves and pastures where goats graze. Eagles and buzzards soar on the thermals above the slopes, and in spring the verges are bright with wildflowers.
It is quiet riding, and quiet is the point. The roads between the villages are narrow, with tight bends and sometimes patches of loose stone, and in the afternoon the heat and the glare make attention hard to hold. Livestock wander across the road, and in the early morning you may meet a shepherd with a flock. Farm trucks move slowly, and there is little traffic in the evening.
Neither Steiri nor Kyriaki has more than a small shop and a taverna. The nearest proper town is Livadeia, about twelve kilometres away, where there are fuel stations, a supermarket and an old stone bridge over the Erkyna springs. Livadeia was once home to the oracle of Trophonius, where visitors were said to come out so shaken that they could not laugh again. It is an odd and fitting bit of local legend. If you are in the area, spend the afternoon at the nearby monastery of Hosios Loukas, where the mosaics are the real thing and the setting is just as good.