by John Fisher
Compendium
Níkis 28.
Long-established, friendly and good-value English-language bookshop, with a small secondhand section; it also sells magazines.
Eleftheroudakis
Níkis 20.
Not as impressive as the main branch of this bookshop chain, Eleftheroudakis still has a good selection of English-language books, maps and guides.
Elliniko Spiti
Kekropós 14, just off Adhrianoú.
Amazing artworks and pieces of furniture from found materials, including driftwood metal and marble. Probably too big to take home (for your wallet as well as your suitcase), but well worth a look.
Frissiras Museum Shop
Monís Asteríou 3.
Classy store in this modern art museum selling posters, cards and upmarket gifts.
Spyros Aravandinos
Adhrianoú 114.
Perhaps the ultimate tourist shop. With a branch directly opposite at no. 95, between them they sell every souvenir conceivable, from shadow puppets, sponges and shells to tacky T-shirts and priapic Pans.
Tribos
Angélou Yéronda 9.
Alternative gift shop that’s more interesting than most, with folk art and puppets among the hippy accoutrements.
Bars
Brettos
Kydhathinéon41 tel 210 32 32 110.
By day a liquor store, selling mainly the products of their own family distillery, at night Brettos is one of the few bars in Pláka. It’s a simple, unpretentious place with barrels along one wall and a huge range of bottles, backlit at night, along another.
Cafés
Dhioskouri
Dhioskoúron, cnr Mitröon.
Popular café right on the edge of Pláka overlooking the Agora. Simple food – salads and omelettes – as well as the inevitable frappés and cappuccinos.
Galaktopolio Iy Amalthea
Tripódhon 16.
Tasteful if pricey “dairy”, serving mostly crêpes as well as non-alcoholic drinks.
O Glykis
Angélou Yéronda 2.
A secluded corner under shaded trees just off busy Kydhathinéon, frequented by a young Greek crowd. It has a mouthwatering array of sweets, as well as cold and hot appetizer plates.
Ionos
Angélou Yéronda 7.
Good coffees and snacks, but above all a great place to people-watch on the busy Platía Filomoússou Eterías.
To Tristrato
Dhedhálou 34, cnr Angélou Yéronda. Daily 2pm–midnight.
Coffee, fruit juices, salads, eggs, desserts and cakes. Exquisitely decorated but expensive.
Restaurants
Damingos (Ta Bakaliarakia)
Kydhathinéon 41 tel 210 32 25 084. Eves only; closed mid-July to end Aug.
Tucked away in a basement since 1865, this place has dour service, but the old-fashioned style (hefty barrels in the back room filled with the family’s home vintages including a memorable retsina, excellent cod with garlic sauce and good value make up for it.
Daphne’s
Lissikrátous 4 tel 210 32 27 971, www.daphnesrestaurant.gr.
If you want to impress the in-laws, this is the place to bring them. Everyone from the Clintons through half of Europe’s royalty to Angelina Jolie has eaten here – and they make sure you know it. Classy Greek food is served in an attractive courtyard out back – expect to spend at least €50 a head.
Eden
Lissíou 12, off Mnisikléous tel 210 32 48 858. Closed Tues.
Thecity’s oldest and classiest vegetarian restaurant, in a retro setting on the ground floor of an old mansion. Dishes include mushroom pie, chilli and soya lasagne; portions aren’t huge but are very tasty.
To Háni
Adhrianoú 138 tel 210 32 28 966.
Right in the heart of pedestrianized Adhrianoú, this slightly old-fashioned place has linen tablecloths and tables in a garden courtyard at the rear as well as on the street in front. Prices are high for standard Greek food, justified by the position and because they often have good traditional music.
Iy Klimataria
Klepsýdhras 5 tel 210 32 11 215. Eves only.
Having recently celebrated its centenary, this unpretentious and pleasant taverna has decent inexpensive food, mainly grilled meat and fish. In winter, you’re likely to be treated to live guitar and accordion music, which inspires sing-alongs by the mostly Greek clientele. In the summer, the roof opens.
Nefeli
Pános 24, cnr Aretoúsas tel 210 32 12 475. Taverna eves only, Ouzerí open all day.
Delightful setting, with tables under a secluded grape arbour or in an old mansion with a panoramic view, on a peaceful side street. Does a small but interesting selection of moderately priced classic Greek dishes such as veal and lamb stamna (casserole baked in a clay pot). There’s live Greek music most nights and a small dance floor. The adjacent synonymous ouzerí, overlooking the church of Ayía Anna, is a busier local hangout favoured by young Greeks.
Palea Taverna Tou Psarra
Erekhthéos 16 at Erotókritou tel 210 32 18 733.
A restored old mansion in a splendid setting, on a tree-shaded and bougainvillea-draped pedestrian crossroads. You’re best off sticking to the mezédhes, which include humble standards as well as pricier seafood and fish dishes.
Palio Tetradhio
Mnisikléous 26, cnr Thrassívoulou tel 210 32 11 903.
One of the tavernas with tables set out on the stepped streets beneath the Acropolis. The food is a cut above that of most of its neighbours, though you pay for the romantic setting.
O Platanos
Dhioyénous 4 tel 210 32 20 666.
One of the oldest tavernas in Pláka, with outdoor summer seating under the namesake plane tree around the corner from the Roman agora. Reasonably-priced specialities include chops and roast lamb with artichokes or spinach and potatoes. The barrelled retsina is the real thing.
Skholiarhio
Tripódhon 14 tel 210 32 47 605.
Attractive, split-level taverna, also known as Ouzerí Kouklis, with a perennially popular summer terrace, screened from the street. It has a great selection of mezédhes (€2–4 each), brought out on long trays so that you can point to the ones that you fancy. Especially good are the flaming sausages, bouréki (thin pastry filled with ham and cheese) and grilled aubergine, and the house red wine is palatable and cheap.
Vyzandino
Kydhathinéon 18, on Platía Filomoússou Eterías tel 210 32 27 368.
Reliable, traditional taverna that still attracts locals on this busy, touristy square. Take a look in the kitchen at the moderately priced daily specials, such as stuffed tomatoes, youvétsi and the like.
Monastiráki and Psyrrí
Monastiráki and Psyrrí are enjoyable parts of Athens. Less touristy than Pláka to the south, there are nevertheless plenty of sights and extensive opportunities for eating, drinking and shopping. The Monastiráki area has been a commercial hub of the city since Roman times at least. The Roman Forum is still one of the major attractions here, and though the district is no longer at the heart of the city’s business life, its streets are still crowded with shops and offices. The area around the Forum feels like an extension of Pláka, with its narrow lanes and traces of the ancient. To the east, though, Odhós Ermoú and parallel Mitropóleos are noisier, busier and more geared to everyday living.
The traffic-free upper half of Ermoú is one of the city’s prime shopping streets: if you’re after Zara or Marks & Spencer, Mothercare or Benetton, this is the place to head for. Funkier shops can be found in the Flea Market area around Platía Monastirakíou.
Between them, Monastiráki and Psyrrí probably have more eating places per square foot than anywhere else in Athens. Their characters are quite different, though. Monastiráki restaurants tend to be simple and functional – especially the line of places that spills onto Mitropóleos as it heads up from Platía Monastirakíou.
Psyrrí is more of a place
for an evening out – home to a throng of trendy restaurants, mezedhopolía and bars.Buzzing till late every evening, it doesn’t have a great deal to offer by day, although the cafés seem to attract crowds whatever the time. Psyrrí’s own website – www.psirri.gr – is an excellent place to find out what’s going on and lists virtually every restaurant, bar, shop and gallery in the area.
Roman Forum
Entrance at Pelopídha, cnr Eólou. Daily: April–Sept 8am–7pm;Oct–March 8.30am–3pm. €2 or joint Acropolis ticket.
The Roman Forum was built during the reign of Julius Caesar and his successor Augustus as an extension of the older ancient Greek agora. Its main entrance was on the west side, through the Gate of Athena Archegetis, which, along with the Tower of the Winds, is still the most prominent remain on the site. This gate marked the end of a street leading up from the Greek agora, and its four surviving columns give a vivid impression of the grandeur of the original portal. On the side facing the Acropolis you can still make out an engraved edict of Hadrian announcing the rules and taxes on the sale of oil. On the opposite side of the Forum, a second gateway is also easily made out, and between the two is the marketplace itself, surrounded by colonnades and shops, some of which have been excavated. Inside the fenced site, but just outside the market area to the east, are the foundations of public latrines dating from the first century AD.
The Tower of the Winds
Roman Forum.
The best preserved and easily the most intriguing of the ruins inside the Forum site is the graceful octagonal structure known as the Tower of the Winds. This predates the Forum, and stands just outside the main market area. Designed in the first century BC by Andronikos of Kyrrhos, a Syrian astronomer, it served as a compass, sundial, weather vane and water clock – the last powered by a stream from one of the Acropolis springs.
Each face of the tower is adorned with a relief of a figure floating through the air, personifying the eight winds. Beneath each of these it is still possible to make out the markings of eight sundials.
The semicircular tower attached to the south face was the reservoir from which water was channelled into a cylinder in the main tower; the time was read by the water level viewed through the open northwest door. On the top of the building was a bronze weather vane in the form of the sea god, Triton. In Ottoman times, dervishes used the tower as a tekke or ceremonial hall, terrifying their superstitious Orthodox neighbours with their chanting, music and whirling meditation.
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Roman Athens
In 146 BC the Romans ousted Athens’ Macedonian rulers and incorporated the city into their vast new province of Achaia. The city’s status as a renowned seat of learning and great artistic centre ensured that it was treated with respect, and Athenian artists and architects were much in demand in Rome. Not much changed, in fact: there were few major construction projects, and what building there was tended to follow classical Greek patterns.
The history of this period was shaped for the most part by the city’s alliances, which often proved unfortunate. In 86 BC, for example, Sulla punished Athens for its allegiance to his rival Mithridates by burning its fortifications and looting its treasures. His successors were more lenient; Julius Caesar offered a free pardon after Athens had sided with Pompey, and Octavian (Augustus) showed similar clemency when Athens harboured Brutus following Caesar’s assassination.
The one Roman emperor who did spend a significant amount of time in Athens, and left his mark here, was Hadrian (reigned 117–138 AD). Among his grandiose monuments are Hadrian’s Arch, a magnificent and immense library and (though it had been begun centuries before) the Temple of Olympian Zeus. A generation later, Herodes Atticus, a Roman senator who owned extensive lands in Marathon, became the city’s last major benefactor of ancient times.
* * *
Fethiye Tzami and the medresse
In the area around the Roman Forum can be seen some of the few visible reminders of the Ottoman city. The oldest mosque in Athens, the Fethiye Tzami, built in 1458, actually occupies a corner of the Forum site. It was dedicated by Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 (fethiye means “conquest” in Turkish). There’s a fine, porticoed entrance, but sadly, you can’t see inside, as it’s now used as an archeological warehouse.
Across Eólou from here, more or less opposite the Forum entrance, the gateway and single dome of a medresse, an Islamic school, survive. During the last years of Ottoman rule and the early years of Greek independence, this was used as a prison and was notorious for its bad conditions; a plane tree in the courtyard was used for hangings. The prison was closed in the 1900s and most of the building torn down. Also nearby are the Turkish Baths.
Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments
Dhioyénous 1–3. Tues & Thurs–Sun 10am–2pm, Wed noon–6pm. Free.
Superbly displayed in the rooms of a Neoclassical building, the Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments traces the history of virtually everything that has ever been played in Greece, including (in the basement) some more unusual festival and liturgical instruments such as triangles, livestock bells and coin garlands worn by carnival masquers. Reproductions of frescoes show the Byzantine antecedents of many instruments, and headphone sets are provided so you can hear the music made by the various exhibits.
The museum shop has an excellent selection of CDs for sale, concentrating, not surprisingly, on traditional Greek music.
Hadrian’s Library
Áreos cnr Dhexíppou.
Bordering the north end of the Forum site, and stretching right through from Áreos to Eólou, stand the surviving walls and columns of Hadrian’s Library, an enormous building that once enclosed a cloistered court of a hundred columns. Though closed to the public, you get a good view from outside of the many surviving columns, as well as an idea of the sheer scale of the place.
Museum of Greek Folk Art: Ceramics Collection
Áreos 1. April–Sept Tues–Sun 8am–7pm; Oct–March Tues–Sun 8.30am–3pm. €2.
Squeezed between the walls of Hadrian’s library and the shacks of Pandhróssou stands the Mosque of Tzisdarákis. Built in 1759, it has had a chequered life – converted to a barracks and then a jail after Greek independence, before becoming the original home of the Greek Folk Art Museum in 1918. Today, as a branch of that museum, it houses the Kyriazópoulos collection of ceramics – the legacy of a Thessaloníki professor. Good as it is, the collection is in all honesty likely to excite you only if you have a particular interest in pottery; most people will probably find the building itself, the only one of Athens’ old mosques whose interior can be seen, at least as big an attraction.
Though missing its minaret, and with a balcony added inside for the museum, plenty of original features remain. In the airy, domed space, look out for the striped mihrab (the niche indicating the direction of Mecca), a calligraphic inscription above the entrance recording the mosque’s founder and date, and a series of niches used as extra mihrabs for occasions when worshippers could not fit into the main hall.
Monastiráki Flea Market
Platía Monastirakíou gets its name from the little monastery church (monastiráki) at its centre. Full of vendors selling nuts and lottery tickets, fruit stalls and kiosks, this area has been a marketplace since Turkish times and is still the heart of a bustling commercial neighbourhood.
In each direction you’ll see signs proclaiming that you are entering the famous Monastiráki Flea Market. These days this is a bit of a misnomer – there’s plenty of shopping, but mostly of a very conventional nature. To the east, Odhós Pandhróssou is almost entirely geared to tourists. One of the most famous and quirkiest of the shops here is that of Stavros Melissinos, the “poet-sandalmaker of Athens”.
West of Platía Monastiráki, the flea market has more of its old character, and among the tourist tat you’ll find shops full of handmade musical instruments, or chess and tavlí boards, as well as places geared to locals selling bikes, skateboards or campin
g gear. An alley off Iféstou is jammed with record and CD shops, with a huge basement secondhand bookshop. Around Platía Avyssinías shops specialize in furniture and junky antiques: from here to Adhrianoú, the relics of the real flea market survive in hopeless jumble-sale rejects, touted by a cast of eccentrics (especially on Sundays). Odhós Adhrianoú is at its most appealing at this end, with a couple of interesting antique shops, and some shady cafés overlooking the metro lines, Agora and Acropolis.
The Kapnikaréa
Mon, Wed & Sat 8am–1pm; Tues, Thurs & Fri 8am–12.30pm & 5–7.30pm; Sun 8–11.30am. Free.
The pretty Byzantine church of Kapnikaréa marks more or less the beginning of the upmarket shopping on Ermoú, looking tiny in these high-rise urban surroundings. Originally eleventh century, but with later additions, it has a lovely little dome and a gloomy interior in which you can just about make out the modern frescoes. The church is allegedly named after its founder, a tax collector (kapnós means smoke – in the Byzantine era a tax on houses was known as the smoke tax).
Platía Mitropóleos
A welcome spot of calm among the busy shopping streets surrounding it, Platía Mitropóleos – Cathedral Square – is home to two cathedrals. The modern Mitrópolis is a large, clumsy nineteenth-century edifice; the old cathedral alongside it is dwarfed by comparison, but infinitely more attractive. There is said to have been a church on this site since the very earliest days of Christianity in Athens. What you see now dates from the twelfth century, a beautiful little structure cobbled together from plain and carved blocks from earlier incarnations – some almost certainly from that original church.
Shops
2morrow
Kynnétou 3.
Vintage women’s clothing store in the flea market that also sells its own designs.
7+7
Iféstou 7.
A choice selection of old and new rock and Greek music on vinyl and CD. There are several other music places nearby in the flea market.