Behind-the-scenes travelogue to holy Mt. Athos

"60 Minutes" producer Michael Karzis is the perfect tour guide to take you behind the scenes on the show's Mt. Athos story. Karzis is the son of Greek immigrants and speaks Greek. Those things surely helped as he and fellow producer Harry Radliffe tried to get permission to film a "60 Minutes" story on the otherworldly Mt. Athos, a self-governed peninsula in Greece that's home to 20 monasteries and some 2,000 monks.

But getting permission was no easy task. "The parliament that exists there, the holy community, is the only parliament on the face of the Earth that has been continually in session since the 10th century," says Karzis. "And these are the guys we were looking to get permission from to shoot on Mount Athos."

The Holy Community turned down requests from "60 Minutes." "They said, 'Thank you very much but, get in line,' Karzis recalls. "I mean, the BBC's been knocking on the door for 40 years, the French, the Germans, they've all wanted to come."

They then appealed to the powerful abbots who run individual monasteries on Mt. Athos and finally had a breakthrough.
Watch part one and part two of Bob Simon's report.

Via http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20056220-10391709.html

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