Patras Letter: Next month Cork passes the torch of culture that it has been carrying in 2005 to this scruffy and cheerful Greek port. And, as if to celebrate Patras's assumption of the title of European City of Culture, even nature seems to be celebrating in the warm December sun. The oranges and the lemons growing in the streets of the chief city of the Peloponnese are ripening beautifully. In the olive groves around Patras the harvest is beginning to be brought in.
Seeming to press the profusion of their fruit on to the rail passengers, the branches of the olive trees constantly brush the carriages of the narrow-gauge train as it potters towards Athens.
Mount Parnassus stands out majestically across the limpid waters of the Gulf of Corinth where Don John of Austria, commanding the Christian fleet, defeated the threatening Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
And the works of man add what they can to the glories of nature. A beautiful new suspension bridge, picked out in blue light at night, links Patras to the northern shore of the gulf, while enormous ferries connecting Greece with Italy glide in and out of Patras with their cargoes of passengers, cars and gigantic lorries.
Arcadia, by long tradition a place of beauty and tranquillity, lies just to the south. But as Patras prepares to take the torch from Cork, Arcadia surely couldn't give off a more powerful impression of harmony and quiet enjoyment than the countryside around this city.
Dig a little deeper, however, and you will find scratches on the Arcadian surface. An Athenian friend of mine put it at its most brutal: "There are three big cities in Greece, Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras. Athens has just had the Olympic Games. In Thessaloniki they're all mad. So that leaves Patras. And I'm not sure than Patras is fully prepared and ready."
There are certainly things left to be done. The narrow streets are as clogged with traffic as they ever were, and the pavements are battlegrounds.
Overall a certain lassitude haunts a city where unemployment affects a quarter of the workforce - some say more. Jobs have been flowing out of Patras to towns and countries where labour is cheaper. Shamingly for a proud Greek city, some of its jobs have even gone to Turkey.
And something must be wrong when the youth are hooked on racing their motorbikes up and down the seafront avenue on one wheel, with often fatal consequences. Unsurprisingly, the authorities have grabbed the opportunities for regeneration and job creation offered by the 2006 year-long cultural celebration - and the €30 million grant from the Ministry of Culture which goes with it - with all the desperation of a drowning man clinging to a spar in a stormy sea.
Patras wants to put itself on the religious and cultural map as one way of getting a little more revenue from the 1½ million visitors it sees every year.
Today they rapidly pass through the port on their way to or from Italy, finding nothing to attract them here and driving away without leaving much cash anywhere except at the city's petrol pumps. Thanos Mikroutsikos, a former culture minister and a voluble and passionate defender of government support for the arts, has been appointed artistic director and is attempting a four-pronged strategy of promoting cultural and religious tourism, child-friendly festivals and conferences.
As far as religion is concerned, the fact that this place is by tradition where St Andrew was crucified is being worked into next year's programme and future tourist strategy. The city already has a new Orthodox cathedral of supreme garishness dedicated to the apostle: his cross, the saltire, is to be seen as much on buildings, monuments and carvings all over the city as in Auchtermuchty on Burns Night.
And, if you want to make the acquaintance of the descendants of those to whom St Paul wrote all those letters, they live only 90 minutes away in Corinth.
But the interweaving of sacred and profane culture may be tricky. For instance, Carnival Days, beloved of students and the city's university and of gays, is scheduled to start on January 21st with a season of "unethical poetry". Disguised actors, acrobats and dancers are being sent into the streets to "fill the city's heart with joy" by "penetrating the lives of passersby with sarcastic and vulgar jokes, disturbing the citizens' routine and daily habits".
That might not go down too well with those going to early liturgy at St Andrew's Cathedral.
But, as Patras's cultural capital boss, Christos Roilos, told a conference in Cork last month, the city wants to find its salvation beyond the sea-and-sun formula.
Today the optimists point out that there were dire prophecies of failure before last year's Olympic Games in Athens and they turned out to be a smashing success.
But the pessimists say Mr Roilos needs all the help St Andrew can give him.