12 Hours in Athens

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g. 7pm Food is all-important in Athens so end your time here on a high with delicious traditional dishes at Tzitzikas kai Mermigas. Tuck into a Greek salad, all juicy plump tomatoes and crispy leaves, before tasting the perfect moussaka, cooked with tender lamb, and a smoky chicken souvlaki. http://www.greece.com/restaurants/Attica/Athens/Tzitzikas_kai_Mermigas.html

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f. 5.30pm Finish up an afternoon’s exploration at By the Glass, one of the city’s newest bars and one that sells only Greek wines. Introductory glasses (25ml) start at just USD0.50 and the setting in one of the Syntagma area’s arcades is beautiful – and blissfully smoke-free. https://www.bytheglass.gr/

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e. 2.30pm Walk off lunch by pounding the ancient streets of Plaka, the city’s most attractive quarter and one that is largely pedestrianised. Go where the mood takes you – though be sure that this includes the forest of columns that is the Roman Forum and the Byzantine church of Ayía Ekateríni. http://www.athensinfoguide.com/wtsplaka.htm

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d. 12.30pm Take a gourmet tour around the country without leaving its capital, with a buffet lunch at Manas Kouzina Kouzina. Local chef Thodoris Fourakis serves up dishes such as cuttlefish with spinach and aubergine fritters, each one labelled with the Greek region it comes from. Even the drinks are Greek; try an Ouzon soda. https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/athens/2013/manas-kouzina-kouzina/

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c. 11am Get a quick taste of the Greek Isles by getting pleasantly lost in the narrow whitewashed alleyways of Anafiotika, which burst with bright bougainvillea and tumble down the slopes of the Acropolis towards the ancient streets of Plaka. You could easily snap the perfect Greek holiday postcard shot in this charming ancient neighborhood. http://www.athensinfoguide.com/wts.htm

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b. 9.30am In 2009, the magnificent Acropolis Museum opened and was immediately heralded as one of Europe’s best museums. Stroll through its light-filled interior, pausing at marble statues and sculptures by Greece’s greatest artists, to reach the top floor and a complete representation of the frieze and metopes as they would have been arranged on the Parthenon itself. Many of the marbles are missing; some because they have never been found, others because they are in the British Museum in London.

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a. 8am There’s no denying it, the Acropolis is one of Europe’s most crowded tourist sites. Avoid the worst of the shuffling hoards by arriving as soon as it opens at 8am and heading straight up the smooth marble paths to the Parthenon. Take in Pericles’ colossal building, a temple to Athena that dates from the 5th century BC and whose columns tower overhead, before looking down on the Theatre of Dionysos, a vast 17,000-seater venue whose stage has seen masterpieces by Sophocles and Aristophanes, among many others.