GREECE IS | ATHENS WINTER | 2017-2018

experience culture, gastronomy & more

ATHENS

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Welcome

Athens is getting a lot of attention as a city break destination. The crisis itself has added yet more layers to the capital’s fascinating character.

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D isc over

Go beneath the surface of the city’s most emblematic landmark to find hidden messages, architectural innovations and exciting stories.

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Find out why so many foreigners are choosing Athens as their new home, step off the beaten path, and immerse yourself in nature.

Enjoy a mouth-watering presentation of classic Greek dishes and check out helpful mini-guides to the latest food trends sweeping the city.

Ex plore

Tas te

© REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

welcome

A Very Good Year Welcome to Athens, the rising star of European city-break destinations B Y G I OR G O S T S I RO S / e d it o r - I N - C H I E F, G REE C E I S

In early September, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, came to Athens on an official state visit. Upon completing their meetings and functions, they decided to take a stroll down central Ermou Street. They took selfies with stunned passersby, heard the sounds of the hand-cranked street organ and appeared to enjoy every minute. The distinguished guests briefly became tourists in a city that, despite being through a lot in recent years, still has its own particular charm.

Athens is no Disneyland – and that counts as one of its assets.

It has not succumbed (yet) to the affliction of gentrification.

The capital’s beauty is one that is unrefined. The scars left by the crisis are still visible in its historic center, some of its nights are troubled and many of its walls are battlegrounds for ideas expressed in spray paint. When Giorgos Kaminis, Athens’ mayor for the past seven years, said last November that “Athens is not a postcard, uncreased, perfumed and artificial,” his political rivals (as well as many citizens) were incensed, calling it a brazen confession of his own failure to get the city in order. In essence, though, he was not wrong. That, too, is a part of its character.

A destination’s stock on the tourism market rises and falls depending on myriad factors, the foremost being the relative stability and security of competing destinations in the broader region. In this respect, Athens has been fortunate, and indeed this year is expected to break its record for international arrivals,

receiving over five million visitors. In addition, there are indications that the tourist season is getting longer. In November 2015, the average occupancy of the city’s hotels was a little over 60 percent, whereas in 2017 it is estimated to be around 80 percent.

The popularity of the city has sparked intense activity in the hotel industry which has gone through hard times, first following the boom of the 2004 Olympic Games and then throughout the years of the country’s economic crisis. Investments, both big and small, are expected to significantly increase the number of rooms available at the higher end of the market in the coming years. At the same time, areas closely linked to tourism – from restaurants and nightlife to the automobile market – appear to be recovering much quicker than other parts of the economy.

Players in the tourism industry understand that serendipity has played a large part in these successes and so do not take them for granted. Better services, greater diversification and more creative promotion of Athens among global audiences via digital media are all essential. Marketing Greece, the non-profit organization that represents all members of the Greek Tourism Confederation, and its site www.discovergreece.com are at the forefront of these efforts, taking the new face of the capital – and the country in general – around the world, where it is gaining ever more admirers.

In many ways, you are fortunate to be here now.

French President meets barrel-organ player – it can happen in Athens!

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Contents Greece I s - ISS U E # 2 6 AT H E N S 2 0 17 - 2 0 1 8 WI N T E R E D I T IO N

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134 10. THE COOL FACTOR Athens is one of the hottest city-break destinations in Europe now and here’s why.

18. ONE BIG EMBRACE The profile of a city – but not the kind you’ll read in any tourist guide.

26. ASK THE LOCALS Guilty pleasures, hidden gems and tips for a rainy day.

28. 72 HOURS Our guide to a perfect city break.

44. WHAT’S ON

Discover

Experience

Taste

50. THE COLORS OF ANTIQUITY Those magnificent archaic sculptures you’ll see weren’t always off-white, you know.

74. GOING NATIVE Members of the expat community share their stories.

122. FEAST LIKE THE GREEKS An introduction to local cuisine.

58. PARTHENON’S HIDDEN MESSAGES There’s more to this world-famous monument than meets the eye.

66. LANDSCAPE POETRY A tribute to Dimitris Pikionis, the visionary architect who transformed the Acropolis landscape into a unique experience.

ON THE COVER: We colored the Peplos Kore! www.theacropolismuseum.gr/peploforos/

ISSN: 2529-041X published by:

Exerevnitis-Explorer S.A. Ethnarchou Makariou & 2 Falireos, Athens, 18547, Greece Tel. (+30) 210.480.8000 Fax (+30) 210.480.8202

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editor-in-chief: Giorgos Tsiros (editor@greece-is.com) commercial director:

Natassa Bouterakou

86. A TALE OF TWO NEIGHBORHOODS The residential districts of Pangrati and Koukaki have emerged from anonymity to become the best places to see and be seen.

98. PRETTY LITTLE THINGS A quick tour of some of Athens’ best small museums.

108. THE GREAT OUTDOORS Mountain or sea? In Athens you can enjoy the best of both worlds, within an hour’s drive from the city center. commercial inquiries:

Tel. (+30) 210- 480.8227 Fax (+30) 210-480.8228 Ε-mails: sales@greece-is.com emporiko@kathimerini.gr

public relations:

welcome@greece-is.com

130. GOOD TO THE BONE A mini-guide to the best restaurants for meat lovers.

134. THE BRUNCH SPECIALISTS It’s not just about eggs.

138. GO FOR GREEN All the taste, none of the guilt.

Greece is – ATHENS

is a biannual publication, distributed free of charge. It is illegal to reproduce any part of this publication without the written permission of the publisher.

COOL W E L C OM E C I T Y L I F E

New attractions are drawing people to a city already world-famous for its ancient charms: there are great restaurants and bars, new world-class cultural venues, and an art scene brimming with creativity and confidence.

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© GIANNIS STEFANIDIS

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© PERIKLES MERAKOS, CHARIS AKRIVIADIS, DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

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01 Younger visitors appreciate the rough beauty of the city center.

02 Τhe state-of-the-art auditorium of the Greek National Opera, housed in a building designed by Renzo Piano.

03 The Port of Piraeus, the main gateway to the islands.

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thens has traditionally been a rewarding stopover for visitors to the Greek islands – more often seen as an appetizer or dessert than as the main course of their holidays. The majority of travelers would bid farewell to it after a visit to the Acropolis and a stroll through Plaka.

Recently, however, the Greek capital has become a destination in its own right, one that combines ancient heritage with modern urban vibes and appeals to all age groups – from baby boomers to millennials.

The cogs of the tourism industry can be heard turning all the way from Athens International Airport to the city center.

Over a three-year period, international arrivals by air have increased by 73 percent. This year, the city is expecting a record-breaking five million overseas visitors – double the number of five years ago. From January to August 2017, the Acropolis welcomed 1.9 million visitors.

Piraeus retains a steady top-10 ranking among Mediterranean cruise-ship ports, with more than 1.1 million passengers passing through it this year. According to a study conducted by World Travel Market London, Athens is Europe’s second-best “Standout Performer for 2017,” with Irakleio in Crete clinching the top spot.

If you’re reading this article in wintertime Athens, then you’re not the typical kind of tourist the city gets. “The bulk of visitors chooses to visit the capital from May to September. Yet, there are significant signs that the number of off-season tourists to Athens is increasing. We are confident that this trend will continue and that the city will become a popular destination during the winter period,” says Yiannis Retsos, president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

The city’s potential as a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) destination has also come to the fore. According to data collected by the International Congress and Conferences Association, Athens has climbed 23 places in recent years and since 2016 has held a spot among the top 25 international conference destinations.

01 02 03 01 A promotional snapshot for “This is My Athens,” a community of savvy local volunteers who enjoy sharing their insights with passionate travelers.

02 One of the specialties of Los Loros, a Venezuelan and Colombian street-food place near Syntagma.

03 documenta 14 visitors at the brand-new National Museum of Contemporary Art. 04 The Onassis Cultural Center.

THE RECOGNITION It isn’t by chance that 95 percent of visitors say that, after returning home from their holidays, they will recommend a trip to Athens to friends and relatives. Nor is it by accident that dozens of travel writers from international media outlets have been raving about the city. Well-known journalist Pierre Groppo booked a room at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, sipped coffee at Zonar’s, relished the cuisine at Nolan, visited the Onassis Cultural Center, photographed street art, caught a performance by Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou, and then returned to Paris and lauded Athens in an article published in the French edition of Vanity Fair last July. A few months later, in a piece titled “Why Athens is the perfect city for an autumn break,” The Telegraph urged those in search of “one last blast of warmth before winter” to book a ticket to Athens. A Lonely Planet report on the city’s artistic scene, which noted that “Athens is defining a new era for itself as a mecca for contemporary arts,” was just one of dozens of such articles that have recently showcased the capital as an attractive cultural destination.

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THE CULTURE One of the world’s biggest contemporary art exhibitions, documenta 14, was co-hosted this year by Kassel and Athens, drawing some 340,000 visitors to the Greek capital and altering the impression that the art-loving public had previously held about the city. Following the exhibition, Athens was named “Emerging Cultural City of the Year 2017” by the organization Culture Destinations; this honor was a fitting complement to Athens’ designation as the “UNESCO World Book Capital 2018.”

Two new landmark spaces have also contributed to the shaping of the city’s cultural profile: the National Museum of Contemporary Art and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The latter, designed by architect Renzo Piano, also houses the Greek National Opera. “Its high-quality productions are a significant reason for a tourist to visit Athens and view performances of operatic masterpieces, classical and contemporary ballets and all types of musical theater, in two impressive halls with unrivaled acoustics,” says Giorgos Koumendakis, the GNO’s artistic director.

THE CREATIVES The creative forces of the city meet in hubs like Romantso, form digital nomad communities like Impact Hub and respond to calls from the Municipality of Athens, which has been promoting collaborations in the tourism field. One of these joint projects is This Is My Athens (myathens. thisisathens.org), with its “Meet the Locals” program in which volunteers share authentic urban experiences with tourists (to rave reviews on TripAdvisor).

Another dynamic campaign, powered by the Hellenic Initiative and titled One City: Never Ending Stories, has seen the City of Athens, Aegean Airlines and Athens International Airport join forces to promote the city as a center for contemporary culture and as an attractive, year-round destination. “Athens is not just about the Acropolis, good weather and beaches just a stone’s throw from the center,” says Alexis Galinos, CEO of the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency. “The challenge now is for it to be transformed into a ‘smart’ city and for it to acquire a digital character.”

© Vassilis Makris, DANAI ISSARIS, DIMITRIS PARTHIMOS

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01 In recent years, the City of Athens and tourism associations have invested in promoting the Athens Marathon, dubbed “the Authentic,” with impressive results in terms of international arrivals. In 2017, 51,000 runners took part in the event.

02 Smile, you’re in Athens!

THE GASTRONOMY SCENE If the best way to a tourist’s heart is through the stomach, then Athens must be one of the most loved cities in the world. From unassuming tavernas to Michelin-starred restaurants, you’re bound to taste something original, delicious and at great value for money.

Though brunch may be the latest trend, the most noteworthy development in recent years has been the turn towards Greek products and quality street food.

“Little by little, chefs are entering the street-food game, and this is the trend we’ll be seeing for the next couple of years,” says Michelin star chef Nikos Karathanos, co-owner of Cookoovaya Restaurant. “Gone are the days when good restaurants were stilted and served French cuisine. Athens is now aware that visitors are asking for what they’ve never seen before: dishes on the table shared by all, well sought-out Greek raw ingredients, a beautiful ambiance – not degustation.”

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THE COFFEE EXPERTS Athenians love coffee and, in the past five years, drinking it in this city has turned into a unique experience. “There has been a shift towards toward better coffees, which pushes the market to evolve” says George Koustoumpardis, World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion 2015. “Single-origin and single-estate varieties are being served in cafés dedicated to specialty coffees, and there are various festivals and expos promoting excellence in coffee, attracting coffee lovers and professionals from Greece as well as from around the globe. Year after year, our country is ranked among the best in the World Championships held by the Specialty Coffee Association.”

THE NIGHTLIFE Athens by night will leave an indelible impression on you, whatever you choose to do with your evening. A good starting point would be an exploration of the Athenian cocktail scene; head to bars such as The Clumsies, ranked sixth on the list of the World’s 50 Best Bars.

Its mixologists have researched their ingredients and employ techniques such as sous vide and vacuum infusion. “The bars in Athens are on par with the best of Europe,” says Giorgos Kaisaris, co-founder of The Clumsies. “What we’ve been seeing in recent years is that both the training and equipment in cocktail bars are evolving, the menus are becoming more international, and there’s a shift in focus to foreign customers, which is reflected in both the ambiance and the drink selection on offer.”

Another option would be one of the wine bars that have conquered the downtown area, proving themselves to be more than a passing fad. Combining a casual atmosphere with exceptional Greek wines by the glass, they serve as de facto ambassadors for the local wine industry.

After a full day, with a slight numbness in your feet from all the walking, and perhaps even a bit sun-kissed, why not raise your glass and, in accordance with the phrase “in vino veritas,” be honest with yourself: haven’t you already fallen in love with Athens?

© VANGELIS ZAVOS

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

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welcome insight

One Big Embrace

The profile of a city – but not the kind you’ll read in any tourist guide

© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

BY Chr istos Chomen idis

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Monastiraki, a mosaic of eras and cultures, is arguably the most vibrant (crazy even) part of the city.

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welcome insight

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f you look at photographs of Athens from the first half of the 20th century, you’ll realize that of all the capital cities of the Western (at least) world, this is the one that has changed the most dramatically in the course of recent decades. For the worse.

The small town that extended around the rock of the Acropolis (and on top of it too, since during the Byzantine period the Parthenon was transformed into a church – Our Lady of Athens – while in Ottoman times a mosque held services between its columns), this Athens of 5,000 residents was proclaimed the capital of the newly established Greek state in 1833.

Amalia expropriated 25 hectares of land next to the palace, imported trees and bushes from all over the world – even from the Antipodes – and created the Royal Garden so as to amuse herself during her endless hours of childless leisure. Very wealthy ethnic Greeks from Istanbul, Odessa and Alexandria offered hospitals, orphanages and educational institutions to the center of Hellenism.

By the end of the 19th century, Athens was home to 150,000 souls who worked in factories, ran small businesses or comprised the local elite as lawyers, doctors, owners of tanneries or beverage factories, and investors in the local stock exchange, which

Shepherds would bring their flocks from nearby villages to the city center and milk their animals before the eyes of their customers. Photo by Frédéric Boissonnas, 1903-1909 (National Historical Museum, Athens)

The young King Otto and his Bavarian functionaries, as well as those Greeks who embraced European aesthetics and perspectives, envisioned a city with neoclassical mansions and wide boulevards. The Royal Palace – which today houses the Parliament – was erected in the shadow of pointy Lycabettus Hill. Just down the road, Heinrich Schliemann – the excavator of Troy – built his mansion and named it Iliou Melathron (“Palace of Ilium.”) Along the same stretch of road, three emblematic sanctuaries of the spirit were founded: the University of Athens, the National Library and the Academy of Athens. Queen 20

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operated out of a coffee house and experienced its first crash in 1874, when shares in the Lavrio mines came tumbling down.

Today, metropolitan Athens begins at Elefsina and stretches all the way to the vineyards of Mesogeia. It covers the greater part of Attica and has a population of 3.5 million. One-third of the permanent residents of the country are settled here – composing a vast mosaic of city natives and first- and second-generation immigrants, the middle-classes, the newly rich, but also once comfortable but now struggling families as well as people surviving on the fringes of poverty. No, there are no favelas in

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until the 1970s, were integrated into the urban structure. The Ilissos and the Iridanos, two of Athens’ three rivers celebrated in song, were covered over with asphalt, while the city’s dozens of streams – which kept the region cool but also attracted swarms of mosquitoes – were filled in. Even the slopes of the surrounding mountains – Ymittos, Penteli and Parnitha – were dug up and denuded of most of their forests.

A panoramic view of Athens today is an elegy to cement.

From the balcony of my apartment, which is situated on an elevation in the center of town, I could count non-stop, from dawn to sunset, the white and gray matchboxes with television

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

Athens. The despair of social exclusion does not prevail, even in the unplanned settlements around the capital’s enormous landfill; on the contrary, what is “breathing” is the expectation of a better life.

The population explosion in Athens began in 1922, following Kemal Ataturk’s rise to power in Turkey, when almost all of the Greeks in Asia Minor were uprooted. It peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, when the countryside – bloodstained from the Nazi occupation and the subsequent civil war – ousted its offspring en masse.

In order to house the myriads of refugees and economic

The five or six-story polikatikia (appartment building), with its narrow balconies, awnings and TV antennas is the emblem of the city’s explosive post-war growth.

migrants, the face of the capital was literally swept away. The little two-story houses in the center of town and in neighborhoods were demolished. In their place rose five and six-story apartment buildings – the one stuck next to the other. As a rule, these were built using cheap materials and had no surrounding garden or parking space. Apart from the central avenues, the sidewalks and streets grew depressingly narrow. Piraeus came to join with Athens, as the farmland separating them – with its olive groves and fruit and vegetable plots – gave way to construction. Most of the villages in Attica, where sheep grazed

antennas and solar water heaters screwed into their flat rooftops.

Here and there you see some groves, patches of green, or an opening where a square or hospital is located. In the distance, there is the enormous Ferris wheel of the largest amusement park in the city, and the lofty chimney of the Electric Company, which ceased to spew smoke years ago. When the visibility is really good, I can make out cruise ships heading into and out of Porto Leone – as Piraeus was once called – and even further away the mountainous masses of Aegina and the northern Peloponnese.

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Apartments are being renovated and rented through Airbnb.

The metro station that – they promise – will be open sometime in the decade to come will signal a new, blossoming era.

As I walk through the center of Athens, I can say that my fellow citizens have certainly lost the ostentatiousness – the arrogance, almost – that the Greek belle epoque of the years 1995-2010 imparted to them, back when members of the middle class competed to see who among them could buy the most expensive cigars and who would go on vacation in the most exotic locales. But now they seem to be acquiring, slowly but steadily, an incomparably more substantive cosmopolitanism.

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at that, as a law forbids any buildings taller than the Acropolis to be constructed. I cannot see the Parthenon, however; three apartment buildings are enough to block my view.

Strolling through Athens, I remember images from my childhood, 40 years ago. And I am able to confirm the rapid, continuous transformation of the city.

I got to see my neighborhood, Kypseli, when it was still middle-class and bohemian. Over time, I saw its better-off residents steadily abandon it for the suburbs. Immigrants, mostly from Africa, then made it their home, opening Rastafarian hair salons, sitting on stools on the sidewalk in their colorful national dress.

In recent years, graffiti has spread in the city center. At its best, it represents an anonymous, spontaneous and genuine artistic expression.

Then the Polish and Pontic Greeks came, the consumption of vodka soared and bakeries started selling piroshki. When the next wave came, of Arabs, the cafés started offering narghile.

The deep financial crisis that broke out in 2010 cast a pall over the colorful face of this multiculturalism. Almost half the shops closed; people milled about, unemployed, in the squares. During the winters of 2011 and 2012, many apartment buildings could not afford to buy heating oil for their furnaces; people burned whatever they could find in the hope of getting some warmth, and the atmosphere became suffocating.

Recently, Kypseli seems to – timidly – be making a recovery.

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Nowadays, few people’s eyes come to rest on a Chinese family – who you can tell are now permanently settled here by their shopping bags. Practically no one conceives of expressing displeasure at the sight of a homosexual couple – after all, impressive progress has been achieved recently in the recognition of the rights of the LGBT community. The magazine Shedia (Raft), published and distributed by homeless individuals, sells out quickly. The number of cyclists is increasing with impressive speed, as are the ethnic restaurants, alternative cafés and bars, as well as the apps that guide visitors around the sights of the city. A new generation, which swears by innovation, plays with

welcome insight

even humiliating – phases. From 1967 to 1974, the military dictatorship strove to transform it into the capital of Greek Christian tackiness. During the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, pompous contractors and publicists aspired to fill it with malls, pushing it into a frenzied consumerism that made it look like Pompeii just before the catastrophe. In 2008, Athens was set alight by gangs, in a parody of a popular uprising. In 2011, the central squares were occupied by post-Peronists (who presented themselves as radical leftists) and by neo-fascists.

And yet, even at its worst, my city never for an instant lost its sun – that unique light it has that becomes relentless in the

© STEPHIE GRAPE

technology at its fingertips and speaks English incomparably better than our prime minister, is barreling ahead.

Do not take me for someone exaggeratedly optimistic, however. A large percentage of Athenians in their most productive years, between 20 and 40, have emigrated, seeking work and prospects primarily in Western Europe. An even greater number – in the millions – are those who persist in reacting negatively, and even violently at times, to the cataclysmic changes of recent years and the tremors Greece has suffered and continues to endure. These people are nostalgic for a bloated state apparatus maintained by external borrowing and subsidies from the EU,

Some of the city’s most romantic spots are not in its streets but on its rooftops.

for a closed society of civil servants and small landowners. The neo-fascist Golden Dawn party solidly ranks third in the polls.

Yet life gallops on and imposes its own terms. It is a matter of time until those most stubbornly nailed to the past adapt to the present and the future, in order to survive. Our emigrants will repatriate and – thanks to their international experiences – will provide a new vigor. Why? Because Athens is a magnet. No matter how far you travel, you will always be in orbit around it.

In order to evaluate people or places well, you must remember them not at their best, but at their worst. Athens, in the 50 years that I have known it, has gone through plenty of difficult – and 24

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afternoons, consoling and caressive in the evenings, and hopeful in the mornings. It has never been deprived of its breeze, which rustles girls’ skirts, and carries even to its cement houses pollen from Ymittos and a salty tang from the Aegean. Or its sudden downpours, which wash the marble of dust and people of their delusions. Or its language – Homeric words spoken of late with both African and Asian accents. Or, finally, the feeling that it subjects you to: that you are at the same time transient and eternal, unnoticed in the crowd but simultaneously totally unique and impossible to duplicate. Whether with thorns or with flowers, Athens was and will be through the ages one big embrace.

W E L C OM E T I P S

Ask the Locals

Coffee spots, favorite stops and where to go to when it’s wet.

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Drink and Socialize Nicolas Nicolaides

Historian, collaborator with Big Olive, a company that offers URBAN experiences in Athens www.bigolive.org

At Alexandrino in Exarchia for its atmospheric decor that will make you feel like a protagonist in a Lawrence Durrell novel.

69 Emmanouil Benaki

Kostantia Manthou Architect, creative director of the Benaki Museum shops

At the small bicycle lovers’ hangout The Handlebar you’ll mingle with hip Athenians and drinkperfectly balanced cocktails.

8 Melanthiou, Psyrri

Petros Ioannidis

Managing director of “About People,” A public opinion and market research company www.aboutpeople.gr

Vaios Mahmoundes

Journalist, musician and head of communications of the ALTERNATIVE stage of the Greek National Opera

Pavlina Voulgaraki

singer

At 45 Moires for good rock music – especially when DJ Tzimas Tef is on the decks (18 Iakchou & Voutadon, Gazi) and at 7 Jokers in Syntagma for very late drinks (7 Voulis).

at Tiki Bar Athens For Mai Tais, great music and a tropical mood.

15 Falirou, Makryianni

At Zonar’s barrestaurant, a classic watering hole of the Greek intelligentsia in the 1940s, which was recently revamped.

9 Voukourestiou

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BY M A R I A KOR AC H A I

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Guilty Pleasure Makhlouta (a soup made with red lentils, fennel, carrots and chicken stock) at Feyrouz, a small restaurant run by a family that traces its roots to Antioch. 23 Karori, Psyrri

a kebab at Kyr Aristos in Paleo Faliro, not far from the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center.

96 Syntagmatarchou Zisimopoulou

Fresh fish and seafood at Trata in the city center (8 Themistokleous & Nikitara); Cretan food at the taverna Kriti – a standout is the apaki smoked pork (5 Veranzerou, Kanigos Square); tasty Greek cuisine at Ama Lachei in Exarchia (69 Kallidromiou), boasting the prettiest courtyard in Athens.

The best lamb chops in the center of Athens are grilled by Ilias at Steki tou Ilia.

Quality guaranteed.

5 Eptachalkou, Thiseio

Generous servings of g orgeous traditional sweets at Serbetospito in Psyrri (1 Iroon Square). And if you happen to walk past any branch of the Fresh pastry shop, make a quick stop for its chocolate truffles.

On a Rainy Day

Try one of the exceptional combinations of chocolate and spices served at the atmospheric Dark Side of Chocolate.

49 Solonos

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Shopping Tip Buy An “evil eye” charm from Fenalie boutique to ward off bad energy. You’ll find them in various colors and shapes, such as elephants, octopi and hearts.

36 Anagnostopoulou, Kolonaki

Enjoy coffee at Mr Bean Roasters: the best in the city center. 20 Emmanouil Benaki

Go on a safari for vintage as well as folk items at the Greek Caravan of Solidarity.

Visit the Byzantine and Christian Museum to admire the mosaics which date back to the 4th century AD.

Check out The Benaki Museum-Pireos Annex gift shop (138 Pireos) for original souvenirs, Gshop (15 Kolokotroni) for gifts, and Yoleni’s in Kolonaki (9 Solonos) for gourmet Greek products.

22 Vasilissis Sofias

Head to Ohh Boy in Pangrati for cappuccino and cheesecake.

32 Archelaou

Find refuge in the quiet atrium café of the Museum of Cycladic Art in Kolonaki (4 Neofytou Douka); at night, go to Tsin Tsin in Exarchia, for its cocktails and its music selections, ranging from Edith Piaf to Joy Division (6 Kiafas)

18A Feidiou

buy a t-shirt from the latest “the dreamer” collection at Neon Raum.

17 Leocharous, Syntagma

browse for antiques and bric-a-brac AT Avyssinias Square in Monastiraki; you’ll find everything from collectible books to handwritten love letters.

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A Secret The Angeliki Hatzimichali Centre of Folk Art and Tradition houses the collection of a pioneering ethnographer. Architecturally, it is a marriage of modern and traditional elements.

5 Angelikis Hatzimichali, Plaka

Get a glimpse of Greek modernism at the apartment building that was designed by the legendary architect Takis Zenetos (17 Irodou Attikou).

A highlight is the ground level which features innovative water features.

A trip to the Kaisariani Botanic Gardens or an excursion to Katsimidi on the eastern slopes of Mount Parnitha, where you can enjoy a hike through the forest followed by lunch at Lambros (Afidnes), with the best grilled lamb chops you’ll ever eat and fresh vegetables from the taverna’s own garden.

The exquisite galaktoboureko (a syrupy, custard-filled pastry) at Stani, especially if you’re lucky enough to get it still warm from the oven.

10 Marikas Kotopouli, Omonia

Unchanged since 1958, the historic bar Au Revoir has even had Frank Sinatra stop by for a drink.

A classic, with the air of post-WWII Athens.

© ILLUSTRATION: PHILLIPOS AVRAMIDES

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136 Patission

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© EPA/YANNIS KOLESIDIS, VISUALHELLAS.GR, VANGELIS ZAVOS, THALIA GALANOPOULOU, DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

W E L C OM E T H E B A S I C S

STICK TO THE PLAN Our 72-hour itinerary hits all the highlights that make Athens a hot city break destination.

B Y A L E X ki n g

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DAY 01

ANAFIOTIKA

10:00

Acropolis

Start your journey through Athens gazing up at the Acropolis while having a hearty Greek breakfast at the museum café (15 Dionysiou Areopagitou), mustering enough energy to scale the imposing fortifications above. But before you begin your ascent, tour the gorgeous Acropolis Museum to put everything you’re about to see in its proper context. The hill itself has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC. Once through the monumental Propylaea gateway, you can wander between the remarkably well-preserved temples of the Erechtheion, Athena Nike and finally the Parthenon, dedicated to the ancient city’s patron, goddess Athena. Take your time to appreciate the view from a commanding vantage point, to orient yourself with the Aegean and to see how the concrete neighborhoods of Athens slot together.

Takis Bakery

PIT STOP

Pull up an empty craft beer keg and sit in the street with an impressive platter of cheeses and a glass of wine or Aperol Spritz, if you feel you’ve earned it, outside Drupes & Drips (20 Zitrou) in Koukaki. Alternatively, stock up on delicious pies and pastries at the neighboring Takis Bakery (14 Misaraliotou) to fuel your afternoon wanderings.

DAY 01 15:00

an Athenian village

Head back up the hill to the Dionysiou Areopagitou promenade that rings Acropolis Hill and go right.

Walk around the Acropolis anticlockwise, hug the base of the hill and aim for the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (3 Epimenidou) to take you through the picturesque alleys of Anafiotika, a village tucked away beneath the Acropolis. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’re on a Greek island as you take in the colorful houses which were built by people from the island of Anafi who had come to Athens to work on the construction of King Otto’s palace. Maintain your elevation to continue walking through Anafiotika’s winding, timeless streets to reach the Tower of the Winds (1st c. BC), supposedly the oldest weather station in the world, which hosted a combination of sundials, a water clock and a wind vane. In the same fenced enclosure, past the Fethiye Mosque, you’ll find the Roman Agora – a perfect example of the overlapping layers of history to be found around every corner in Athens. Pick up a memento from one of the many shops on Pandrossou Street, or for something unique, drop in to the upmarket souvenir boutiques Forget Me Not (100 Adrianou) and It’s All, Oh So Souvenir To Me (5 Normanou).

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W E L C OM E the basics

DAY 01 20:00

A world of food

Syntagma is home to Athens’ most innovative, modern food options, such as the fun Poke Hawaiian Sushi (7 Petraki) or Los Loros (14 Xenofontos) with its succulent Colombian and Venezuelan street food. If you’re looking for a sit-down dinner, look no further than Nolan (33 Voulis), a Greek-Japanese fusion restaurant which offers some of the city’s most unexpected dishes. We would recommend the melt-in-your-mouth Nolan Fried Chicken or Fish for Babies paired with a spicy gin cocktail. The playfulness of the food and the warmth of the staff always make Nolan an inviting proposition.

NOLAN AL HAMMAM

DAY 01 18:00

DAY 01 22:00

Tales and tipples

Each drink at The Clumsies (30 Praxitelous) comes with a show and a story to tell. Everything on the menu is inspired by an ancient Greek word. Take Nostalgia, a sweet cocktail that contains rum infused with the Papadopoulos Biscuits every Greek remembers and a “Nostalgia elixir” (both created in the bar’s very own lab), designed to elicit “a childhood moment which lies dormant.” Don’t be intimidated by the out-there concepts; the founders have lovingly restored this century-old building, made beautiful lighting from multicolored miniature houses and spend as much effort making their guests feel at home as they do on their fantastic liquid concoctions.

THE CLUMSIES

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© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

You may not have run a marathon, but those tired muscles will appreciate some professional attention all the same at Al Hammam (16 Tripodon). Stepping inside the impeccably restored townhouse is a feast for those who love a good pattern, with technicolor Arabic tiles lining almost every surface. Slip into your bath wear and make your way to the marble-walled Turkish steam bathhouse for a variety of wellness treatments and massages. We would recommend one of the traditional options, like anatripsis, an ancient Greek massage to heal body and spirit.

© christos moukas

PAMPER YOURSELF

DAY 02 10:00

layers of history

Your second day should begin with a coffee in the garden café of the National Archaeological Museum (44 Patission). Over 150 years old, the museum building is a treasure in its own right. It contains an extensive collection of exhibits and will help you get Athens’ complex chronology clear in your mind. Highlights include the Artemision Bronze, depicting Zeus or Poseidon; the Jockey of Artemision, a captivating statue of a horse and its rider found in fragments in an ancient shipwreck; the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old analog computer the ancient Greeks used to predict the positions of the stars and to track the four-year cycle of athletic games; and Varvakeion Athena, a meter-tall Roman copy of the original Greek gold-and-ivory Athena that was 12 times bigger and graced the Parthenon. Outside the museum, turn left onto Patission and head towards Omonia. You’ll pass the partially squatted National Technical University or Polytechnic (42 Patission), where a popular uprising against the Greek military junta began in 1973.

Continue on to the 19th-century Kotzia Square (50 Athinas), which hosts grand neoclassical buildings as well as exposed excavations of tombs, streets and fortifications that once surrounded the ancient city.

National Archaeological Museum

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© VANGELIS ZAVOS

W E L C OM E the basics

DAY 02 15:00

Tailor Made

Culture and caffeine

Karamanlidika tou Fani

To keep the energy levels high, take the pedestrianized Aiolou Street down to Aghias Eirinis Square and drop in for a third-wave caffeine fix at Tailor Made (2 Aghias Eirinis Square). It’s the oldest in an area that boasts a number of hip microroasteries. Enjoy the mellow ambience of the square, which used to be Athens’ flower market, and appreciate the 19th-c. church, rumored to have been built using the ruins of more than 70 older Byzantine churches and fragments of ancient ruins.

After dark, the square buzzes with people chatting and drinking the night away.

DAY 02 13:00

THE FOOD BAZAAR

Enter the cavernous Varvakios Agora (42 Athinas), the central market, and enjoy being swept along in the hustle and bustle as meat and fish vendors shout to advertise their wares. If all the flesh and bone on display is a bit much for you, keep any urges to go vegetarian at bay with a visit to the revered Karamanlidika tou Fani (1 Sokratous & Evripidou) and choose from a huge selection of dried hams and cured meats from across Greece.

Continue walking down Evripidou and savor the rich aromas that float from the rich palette of spices displayed proudly outside each store.

City Link

PIT STOP

Get lunch at one of Athens’ oldest tavernas, Diporto (9 Sokratous), founded in 1875. Down a trapdoor beneath a dilapidated building, you’ll find the whitehaired master of ceremonies holding court from the tiny open kitchen. With no menu, you take whatever workers’ fare has been prepared each day. We ate freshly caught fish, chickpeas, potatoes with zucchini and crusty bread, washed down with white Moschofilero wine.

This is definitely no-frills dining.

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DAY 02 16:00 Splash OUT

You can set aside the best part of the afternoon for shopping, as the huge range of high-street brands along Ermou Street will give you plenty of reasons to pass the time and part with your euros. If high-end boutiques are more your style, make your way up to Voukourestiou Street and the neighboring City Link (5 Voukourestiou) mall for luxury brands, haute-couture, prêt-à-porter and all things that glitter and sparkle. Attica Department Store (9 Panepistimiou) also has an impressive range of fashion and cosmetics, more than 800 international brands and the latest collections of must-have Greek designers.

© OLYMPIA ORNERAKI, SOFIA PAPASTRATI, DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

W E L C OM E the basics

W E L C OM E the basics

DAY 02 17:00

Time to wine down

© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU

If you feel like a fine Martini in opulent surroundings, head to Zonar’s (9 Voukourestiou). The café dates from 1939 and has long been a hangout for politicians, journalists and noble Athenians. If you want something more relaxed, join the drinkers at Heteroclito wine bar (30 Petraki). French-Greek owner Marie-Madeleine is ahead of the curve in celebrating the latest trends in Greek wine. Asking the staff for their favorites and recommendations for wines and tasting platters is always a learning experience. To ensure there’s an offering of good wine for everyone, there’s always one red and one white available for 2.50 euros per glass.

The neighboring Cherchez la Femme (46 Mitropoleos) turns this corner of Athens into a little French quartier.

This might just be the most relaxed place in Athens that boasts a chandelier and such pristine decor, but still has a homely feel, especially if you squeeze into one of the candle-lit corner booths. Despite its French inspirations, it proudly hangs Greek art from its walls, serves modern Greek cuisine and specializes in small batch ingredients from the islands. We would recommend the heavenly twisted filo pastry with anthotyro cheese and caramelized onions, the boiled beef ribs and the refreshing stuffed vine leaves with pine nuts.

Drunk Sinatra

Heteroclito

DAY 02 22:00 Into the night

If you don’t want the night to stop, you have a wide variety of options nearby. Aim for the vintage-themed Drunk Sinatra (16 Thiseos) and you’ll find a young, lively crowd, a great cocktail list and an eclectic music mix that ranges from jazz to swing and bossa nova. From here, you’re primed to explore the bars that lie off Kolokotroni Street, like Booze Cooperativa (57 Kolokotroni), Owl Athens (23-25 Lekka) and Bank Job (13 Kolokotroni). If you hear the call of pumping basslines and international DJs, you can end your night at Six d.o.g.s. (6-8 Avramiotou) in Monastiraki. In need of something to soak up the alcohol before you crash out? Pick up a vromiko (literally “dirty”) – delightfully sinful hotdog sandwiches, burgers or anything greasy – from around the corner at To Karotsi tou Giatrou (5 Miaouli).

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WELCOME 72 HOURS

Museum of Cycladic Art Kallimarmaro

DAY 03 10:00

A bright start

If you kept the self-indulgence to a minimum and can face an early start, a jog through the National Gardens that begin next to Syntagma Square is a great way to feel like you’ve left the city behind. Aim for the Panathenaic Stadium, better known as the Kallimarmaro (Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue), which hosted the inaugural modern Olympic Games in 1896. As you run through the surrounding greenery, you’ll feel cleansed by the fresh pine scent and rewarded with a stunning view.

DAY 03 11:00

Ceremony in the city

Head back to Syntagma Square to watch the changing of the presidential guard at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in front of Parliament. The Evzones, also known as Tsoliades, are a special unit of the Greek Army who go through a rigorous selection and training process. They stand in perfect stillness before the tomb for an hour, switching positions every 15 minutes in a series of synchronized movements. Every Sunday morning at 11:00, large crowds gather to watch the spectacular weekly grand changing of the guard.

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Byzantine and Christian Museum

© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS, KATERINA KAMPITI, PERIKLES MERAKOS, CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU, shutterstock

WELCOME 72 HOURS

Triantafyllo tis Nostimias

DAY 03 15:00 Stoa safari

DAY 03 12:00 Study time

You’re already at the start of Vasilissis Sofias, so your first stop at the Benaki Museum (1 Koumbari) is the perfect way to get up to speed on the immense artistic evolution Greece has witnessed through the course of millennia. The palatial neoclassical building houses prehistoric, ancient Greek and Roman art through to 20th-century cultural treasures. Further up the street, the Museum of Cycladic Art (4 Neofytou Douka) isn’t limited to art from the Cycladic archipelago, but hosts ancient art from across Greece and temporary exhibitions from contemporary art heavyweights. Take a break at the Cycladic Café, a leafy oasis of calm and cutting-edge design. If you can find the energy for one more museum, we would highly recommend the Byzantine and Christian Museum (22 Vasilissis Sofias). It’s not just a place to experience captivating religious art and glittering icons, but authoritatively fills the gap in your knowledge between what happened in the centuries between the decline of the Roman empire and end of late antiquity, through the Byzantine period and up to the pre-modern era.

Stop to digest everything you’ve learned in the serene museum gardens, before heading back into the center of town through the ruins of Aristotle’s Lyceum, where the great philosopher is believed to have taught.

Inside a quirky old Stoa (shopping arcade) near Syntagma, you’ll find Triantafyllo tis Nostimias (22 Lekka), next to the old jewelers’ and goldsmiths’ shops.This taverna is famed for its sardines, but if these aren’t in season, staff will be happy to recommend another great fish of the day. The black-eyed bean and potato salads are specialties, and the waitresses will tell you they have the best saganaki in Athens. The golden-battered, deep-fried cheese is indeed second to none, but make sure you eat quickly before it goes cold and rubbery.

If you have been enchanted by the fading glories of Athens’ old stoas, take a short walk to Stoa Anatolis (10-12 Aristeidou), pick up a coffee at To Steki on the ground floor and work your way up the tiered levels of this modernist city-within-a-city until you come to an unexpected roof terrace.

TO STEKI

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WELCOME 72 HOURS

DAY 03 17:00

Culture on the coastline

© YIORGIS YEROLYMBOS

Kick off an afternoon of culture with a trip to the remarkably ambitious Renzo Piano-designed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (364 Syngrou) in Kallithea. A palatial arts center housing the Greek National Opera and the National Library, it is the biggest ever donation to the Greek state, and fulfills Piano’s vision to return the sea to local residents, who had been cut off from the water by the huge motorway that runs along the coast. Start in the northeast corner with a coffee from the visitor’s center, take in the enormous boating lake then walk through the sprawling new park to begin climbing up an artificial hill covered with thousands of plants native to the harsh terrain of Mediterranean cliffs. When

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you reach the viewing platform, you’ll be gifted a spectacular view of the Athens Riviera, the port of Piraeus and as far as Aegina island on a clear day. From here you can descend to watch opera, ballet or theater performances in the arts complex below. For an edgier cultural offering head up to the Onassis Cultural Center (107 Syngrou), an enthralling glass menagerie of a building, where the ambience inside changes constantly as the light that shines through shifts throughout the day.

Here you’ll find traveling exhibitions, festivals of screenings, performances, parties, or avant-garde plays and concerts in the state-of-the-art auditorium. Head up to the roof for haute-cuisine and cocktails at the Michelin-starred Hytra.

© vangelis zavos

WELCOME 72 HOURS

DAY 03 21:00 Wise cuisine

If you want a more down-to-earth but arguably even more impressive experience of Greek cuisine, take a seat for dinner across town at Cookoovaya (2A Hadziyianni Mexi). Quirky touches like the wooden bow-ties and chairs with no right armrest (to help you get closer to your companions, apparently) might not win over everyone, but this homely space with a long open kitchen prides itself on creating a relaxed and sociable experience for its guests. The five chefs in charge are constantly pushing and pulling the menu in different directions to offer fresh, new twists on Greek classics. There’s imagination and attention to detail at every stage of the meal, and they make everything from the bread to the olive oil and pasta themselves. The bougatsa desert, which collapses as it’s served, is a sight to behold and a must if you’ve got a sweet tooth or a penchant for Instagram.

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The Historical Archive of National Bank of Greece A longstanding partner of the community

T

he Historical Archive of National Bank of Greece (NBG) is located in a unique historical structure known as the Diomedes Building, at 146 Tritis Septemvriou Street. This area of Athens has been subject to urban decay in recent decades, but the elegantly restored Diomedes Building stands as a proud and optimistic reminder of the neighborhood’s heyday.

Ever since NBG was first established in 1841, it took special pains to preserve and store every kind of bank document, as well as its equipment and other assets, both for practical and historical – and sometimes sentimental – reasons.

The NBG’s first organization chart, prepared in 1842, designates the head of incoming/outgoing documents as

the person responsible for keeping the institution’s records. In 1894, a General Records index was published for the first time.

By order of NBG governor Ioannis Drosopoulos, dated 20 July 1938, an effort was made to distinguish those records, or archival materials, that were of significance for the writing of a history of the first 100 years of the bank. However, the outbreak of the Second World War and foreign occupation meant that this ambitious project had to be shelved.

The Historical Archive was formally established in 1962 under the management of Dimitrios Helmis, under an order issued on 19 October. However, shortly afterwards the military dictatorship of 1967–74 led to the suspension of its operations until further notice.

It was not until 1977 that the then

governor of NBG, Professor Angelos Angelopoulos, reinstated the operations of the Historical Archive, recognizing the significant role that it should play in safekeeping the recording the bank’s history as well as the economic history of the Greek state, with which the bank has been so closely associated since its establishment.

The contribution of the NBG Historical Archive to promoting and fostering scientific research includes the presentation of important and specific perspectives on the social, cultural and political developments and activities of the country by means of its diverse archival, historical, research, publishing and educational activities.

In addition, the application of innovative technologies for the archiving, safekeeping and showcasing of the Historical

adver torial

1. The façade of the Historical Archive Building.

2. Printing machines and security printing processes on display at the exhibition 3. View of the exhibition The history of National Bank of Greece as reflected in its archives and collections.

4. The NBG’s oldest safe box.

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Archive’s documents ensures their proper management.

The Historical Archive not only holds the archival material generated by the NBG itself, but also records and collects items from other companies that, for one reason or another, have come into its possession over the years and are considered to comprise an important part of the country’s cultural heritage.

Despite the adverse circumstances of our time, the NBG Historical Archive is making the most of the limited economic resources at its disposal, working tirelessly and undertaking initiatives such as

the organization of exhibitions and hosting of artistic events run by key social bodies such as the KETHEA rehabilitation center.

It is open not only to scholars of related scientific and academic fields, but also to the wider public. It also organizes educational programs, is engaged in publishing and offers knowhow to visitors and researchers as well as learning and training opportunities to school pupils and university students.

The NBG Historical Archive’s stateof-the-art equipment and cutting-edge infrastructure, coupled with a broad

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spectrum of specialized activities ranging from archiving to conservation, and from microfilming to digitization, all combine to make it an exemplary organization that is in step with current developments and serves the community in which it operates.

WELCOME agenda

A PACKED SEASON

The city’s cultural scene tackles history, religion, money, Chinese inventions and more.

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Money talks

Cultural dialogue

Deities, plants, historical events, but also designs related to concepts such as wealth, victory, fortune, all stamped on the surfaces of ancient coins, allow us to draw conclusions about the role of money in ancient Greece.

The first coins were minted in the Greek cities of Asia Minor in the late 7th century. BC and quickly spread throughout the Greek-speaking world, facilitating trade and improving the reliability of transactions. Presenting 85 coins and 159 artifacts (pottery, figurines, reliefs, jewelry, measuring vessels and statues), this exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Alpha Bank Numismatic Collection, traces the evolution of money from the first blank coins to the wonderful representations common in the Roman period.

Russian icons and liturgical objects from the largest museums and monasteries in Greece serve to confirm Russia’s ties with the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean from the mid-16th to the late 19th c., shedding light on the ways in which Russian religious artworks were received and embraced in the Greek-speaking world.

© Fani Toumpoulidou

“Russian Religious Art in Greece – Testimonies of a long acquaintance: 16th-19th centuries.” Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, 1 Koumbari & Vasilissis Sofias (Evangelismos metro station), www.benaki.gr

© Athens/Alpha Bank Numismatic Collection/Photo by P. Magoulas

“Money: Tangible Symbols in Ancient Greece.” Museum of Cycladic Art, 4 Neofytou Douka (Evangelismos metro station), www.cycladic. gr/en

29042018 Ancient Chinese inventions

Mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geophysics, biology, medicine, pharmacology, mechanical engineering: the ancient Chinese civilization is associated with discoveries and technological achievements across almost the entire scientific spectrum. In its two exhibition spaces, the Herakleidon Museum is displaying 90 artifacts that include exquisite embroidery, compasses, astronomical instruments, forerunners of the odometer, plows and even early seismographs – on loan from the China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing – and which highlight ancient Chinese innovations in the fields of navigation and orientation, astronomy, weaving and papermaking. “Ancient Chinese Science and Technology.” Herakleidon Museum, 37 Apostolou Pavlou, Thiseio (Thiseio metro station), www.herakleidon-art.gr/en-us/ 44

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© Museum Benaki Collection

BY X E N I A GEORGI A DOU

W E L C OM E a g e n d a

14012018 Plans for the future

Travel through time, wander through lost cities and futuristic universes, stand alongside aliens and robots and discover the furthest reaches of the human mind. In its second collaboration with London’s Barbican Center, the Onassis Cultural Center introduces us to unknown worlds with the help of groundbreaking books, comics, movies and music. Featuring more than 800 exhibits, organized into four sections, the exhibition takes us on a journey from the 19th-century “cabinet of curiosities” to the exploration of space and cities of the future.

“Science Fiction: A Journey into the Unknown.” Onassis Cultural Center, 107 Syngrou (Syngrou- Fix metro station), www. sgt.gr/eng

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WELCOME agenda

©Maria Mastori

04032018 The life of Van Gogh

“There are colors which cause each other to shine brilliantly, which form a couple, which complete each other like man and woman,” Van Gogh wrote. The striking combinations of color in his works can be viewed in an exhibition aimed at awakening all the senses. Images of more than 3,000 paintings and sketches beam from HD, multi-channel projectors onto giant screens, walls, columns, the ceiling and even the floor, transporting visitors to the places where the great Dutch artist lived and worked and shedding light on his sources of inspiration, his emotional landscape and his tempestuous life. “Van Gogh Alive: The Experience.” Megaron

Mousikis-Athens Concert Hall, Vasilissis Sofias & Kokkali (Megaro Mousikis metro station), www.megaron.gr

28022018 Glittering appeal

After its inception three decades ago, the Eleni Marneri Galerie quickly gained a reputation as a space for the advancement of young artists and designers with an innovative approach and personal flair in the art of jewelry making. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the gallery is organizing three successive exhibitions which will shed light on various aspects of artistic jewelry creation – from precious stones and metals to new materials – while at the same time paying tribute to the designers with whom Eleni Marneri has worked. “Trinity.” Eleni

© Stefanos

Marneri Galerie, 5-7 Lebessi & 16 Porinou, Makryianni (Acropolis metro station), www.elenimarneri.com

07,08,13,17,20,24,27 30122017 03, 05012018 Scenes from a bohemian life

A small apartment in an old tenement in the Exarchia neighborhood is home to the dreams and fears of four friends. British director Graham Vick has devised a new approach to Puccini’s beloved opera “La Bohème” by moving the setting from 19th-c. Paris to a historic district of 21st-c. Athens. This version was first presented at the Olympia Theater in 2007. A decade on, the celebrated director is now returning, this time to the Greek National Opera, with the aim of repeating the success of that original performance, perhaps also as a salute to the bohemians who live among us.

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“La Bohème.” Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Greek National Opera - Stavros Niarchos Hall, 364 Syngrou Avenue, Kallithea, www.nationalopera.gr/en

16112017 25022018 The unique Mike Kelley

“Mike Kelley: Fortress of Solitude.” Museum of Cycladic Art, 4 Neofytou Douka (Evangelismos metro station), www.cycladic.gr, www.neon.org.gr

© Ian Douglas

The Neon cultural organization presents the first monographic exhibition of Mike Kelley in Athens. A series of key works by the American artist underlines a sense of psychological homelessness in the contemporary world. Using a wide range of media – from painting, sculpture and installations to video and performance – Kelley explores issues of memory, and the nostalgia we feel for what appears to be lost forever.

© Mike Kelley, Ah...Youth!, 1990, Ringier Collection, Switzerland © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

WELCOME agenda

13 17122017 Spectacle of shadow and light

Pilobolus, one of the most critically acclaimed modern dance companies in the world, invites you to join them on an exciting journey. Using multimedia, innovative lighting and moving screens, the New York-based dance company combines shadow puppet theater with modern choreography.

“Shadowland.” Megaron Mousikis-Athens Concert Hall, Vasilissis Sofias & Kokkali (Megaro Mousikis metro station) www.megaron.gr

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discover ATHENS

BENEATH THE SURFACE

The secrets of the Parthenon, the unknown colors of the Archaic statues and the man who shaped the present Acropolis landscape.

“Old Athens” by Charalambos Kaptzis (1923-2008), oil on canvas. Courtesy of Angeliki Hatzimichali Center for Folk Art & Tradition.

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DISCOVER ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

THE COLORS OF ANTIQUITY The Acropolis Museum opens a window for visitors into the unknown, once-vibrant, colorful “life” of its ancient statues.

B y N atas H a B latsiou / P H O T O S ni k os pilos

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trolling among the statues of the Archaic Gallery at the Acropolis Museum, you can’t help but pause and admire how the hall’s bright light almost seems to penetrate the marble of the ancient carved figures and illuminate them from within. If you don’t stop to question this phenomenon, you might harbor the misconception that the statues’ white color is what gives them their grace and beauty. If one casts a sharper eye, however, remnants of color can be detected: red in the hair of the Peplos Kore, deep blue on the beards of the Three-bodied Daemon, green on the robe (chiton) of the Chios Kore and dark brown distinguishing the eyebrows and eyes of Kore 684. Here we have subtle clues to a former world rich in color and elaborate ornamentation, now preserved only as faint traces.

Kore 685: the original statue and a modern, painted replica, reproduced with a high degree of accuracy thanks to the efforts of the Swiss painter Émile Gilliéron a century ago.

The coloring is based on archival watercolors, completed immediately after the statue’s discovery in 1888.

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DISCOVER ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

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Since 2011, the Acropolis Museum has been studying and revealing its statues’ “lost” polychrome appearance. “We began the project having at our disposal an extraordinary body of material – the world’s richest collection of Archaic statues which have retained their colors.

Subsequently, however, the results have proved even more exciting as we have come to the realization that the colors on the statuary was their sine qua non. Their polychromy is not a superficial decoration, but an essential element that adds to their aesthetic quality. It is an integral part of their identity,” contends the museum’s director, archaeologist Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis.

vandalism and wars. When archaeologists finally brought them back to light, they were surprised – not only because they had discovered such important works of Archaic sculpture, but also due to the excellent preservation of their original surface paint. The damage suffered by the statues was relatively small, thus providing archaeological researchers with a promising corpus of evidence from which to draw definitive conclusions on the amazingly polychromatic world of ancient Greece. The watercolor rep-

On the trail of lost colors It was the winter of 1885 when archaeologists unearthed this unique assembly of Archaic figures. Buried on the Acropolis in 480 BC, following the Persians’ disastrous attack on Athens, they have since been spared 2,500 years of further

“THE polychromy OF THE SCULPTURES is not a superficial decoration, but an essential element that adds to their aesthetic quality”.

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resentations of Swiss painter Émile Gilliéron, produced immediately after their discovery, and the detailed early analyses of Wilhelm Lermann (1907), have proved invaluable. Unfortunately, the field of conservation and techniques employed then for recreating ancient paints were not so advanced as to allow the statues’ colors to be reproduced with any precision.

Today, a century later, the investigation of ancient paint has made huge strides, thanks to new, state-of-the-art techniques now available to scientists.

DISCOVER ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

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In the Archaic Gallery, it is not unusual to meet the Acropolis Museum’s team of laboratory specialists – chemists, conservators and archaeologists – as they endeavor to save the precious information preserved on the sculptures. Their only enemy is time, since each passing day is a further detriment to the millennia-old paints and surfaces.

“It all begins with observation – a process not at all simple, since investigators often observe and record what they are already familiar with, or have to synthesize knowledge from various sources to discover something new. The cultivation and continual refinement of one’s ‘ability to see’ is the first and foremost step in detecting colors,” notes Prof. Pandermalis. This daily practice by the specialists, combined with a series of particular, non-destructive techniques, including spectroscopic analyses, leads to a determination of the statues’ true colors. Specialized photographic-imaging techniques reveal further details,

such as the presence of Egyptian blue paint. In addition, efforts to reproduce ancient colors and actually apply them to samples of Parian marble have also shed light on the original techniques of ancient painters. “The aim of all these activities,” Prof. Pandermalis explains, “is to compose a database that will aid us in understanding why the original artist made the choices he did.”

A window on ancient Greek culture So far, scientific research has led to several important conclusions. White, red, black and ochre (pale yellow to brown/red) were the ancients’ four primary colors, which Pythagorean philosophers believed were connected with cosmology and the four primary elements of the cosmos: air, water, fire and earth.

For the ancient Greeks, colors constituted a means of classification: the gods had blond hair that radiated their power; warriors and athletes had brownish skin

01 Kore 682 was one of the few Archaic statues to be found intact and as such is a valuable source of information about how they were crafted and decorated.

02-03 The Antenor Kore (525-500 BC) is the largest kore from the Acropolis, a work of the outstanding sculptor Antenor. Prominent are vertical bands, alternating red and blue, which adorn the sleeves of her robe. The exact color is revealed in the copy being produced in the laboratory of the Acropolis Museum.

04 Conservators Konstantinos Vassiliadis and Ioanna Farmaki apply the XRF method to a sculpture in order to identify original pigments in the Archaic Sculptures Gallery.

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as a sign of virtue and valor; while women (kores) had white skin that signified the grace and glow of youth.

Historical sources tell us that in classical antiquity a sculpture finished without colorful paint would for its creator be unthinkable. The famous sculptor Phidias employed a personal painter for all his works, while Praxiteles was said to have had more appreciation for those of his works that had been painted by the eminent artist Nicias. For the average viewer, however, an unpainted statue would have been something he could not comprehend, and would likely find unattractive. This becomes clear in the tragic play Helen by Euripides*.

In the gallery of “white” statues, the museum director points to several original works that appear side by side with digital representations of their true

*My life and fortunes are a monstrosity, partly because of Hera, partly because of my beauty.

If only I could shed my beauty and assume an uglier aspect, the way you would wipe color off a statue…

The Peplos Kore juxtaposed with her digital copy leads the visitor on a vivid “journey” into the world of ancient colors.

Euripides, Helen, 260-263. Translated by R.Kannicht, Heidelberg 1969

Pigments used for sculptures included various shades of red, dark blue, light blue, black, yellow and green. They were applied in layers of differing thicknesses.

* Source: Transformations, Classical Sculpture in Colour, NY CARLSBERG GLYPTOTEK 54

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colors. “Ancient Greek sculptures today can resemble cemetery statues,” Prof.

Pandermalis comments, “but when their creators crafted them, they wished to give them real life, to make them appear lifelike. Daedalus’ contemporaries used to say that his statues looked as if they could move. Unfortunately, today, the traditional perception of Greek statues as white still prevails from the 19th century, when viewers of ancient Greek art preferred to see these figures not as real people, but as idealized representations.”

“Is there no interest anymore, then, in such white statuary? No, of course there still is. Their misconceived whiteness is a fact that has emerged from the historical circumstances through which these sculptures have come down to us. The best way to overcome this phenomenon of history is to display digital representations that do not affect the original works, do not impact the original material, but

lead to a significant moment of revelation in the viewing experience of our visitors.”

Through this journey into the sculptures’ past and digitally colorful present, one cannot but pause and consider a newfound emotion: the aesthetic pleasure of the statues’ intense original colors that brings to mind ancient sounds and smells and renders these pale figures full of animated expression. “Investigating the original paints, we gain something unique: the ‘look’ of the statues – that is to say, the expression of their soul,” remarks Prof. Pandermalis, revealing his personal passion for the high art of ancient Greek sculptors… and painters.

INFO

Acropolis Museum • Tel. (+30) 210.900.0900 • Open Mon-Thu 9:00-17:00, Fri 9:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 9:00-20:00 (November-March) • Admission €5 • www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en

Kore 682, among the largest in scale and exhibiting a sophisticated hairstyle and attire, was carved ca. 520 BC from Parian marble. Visible are the red color of her hair and rich traces of painted decoration.

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The Chios Kore is arguably the most elegant of the Archaic statues in the Acropolis Museum’s collection.

(Top) The decorative details of the Chios Kore, as recorded by the Émile Gilliéron during the excavation of Archaic statues on the Acropolis approximately a century ago.

(Bottom) Sketches of the color schemes on the Kore as documented by Wilhelm Lehrmann.

Ancient colors and decoration Primary colors commonly used on sculptures of the Archaic period included red in various shades, dark blue or light blue, black, yellow and green. The paint was applied in layers of various thicknesses. Among these colors, red was predominant, perhaps due to its easy accessibility and the symbolic value given to it by Mediterranean people. Blue or black was associated with marine life and Poseidon. On Archaic kore (maiden) sculptures from the Acropolis, green and brown have been detected in association with features of the face and head such as eyes and hair.

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For the skin of kore figures, ancient painters used light-brown/yellow (ochre). The traces of color found in their eyes show they had a piercing gaze. The iris was decorated with two superimposed layers of red and brown paint that gave depth to their gaze and expressiveness to their faces. The pupil was black/dark. The eyelids were accentuated with black or dark brown border lines.

On the hair of most kore figures, traces of brilliant red color are preserved, while occasionally a second, deep- brown layer is also evident, as in the Chios Kore. Light blonde or blue colors have also been observed.

The robes of kore sculptures are believed to represent actual clothing decorated with patterns, familiar to us from the painted decoration of vases. This was luxurious attire, indicative not only of female vanity, but especially of their social status and perhaps their votive character. The chiton, himation and peplos were adorned with bands of meanders, continuous spirals, palmettes, coiling tendrils, lotus blossoms and even pictorial scenes. Various accessories and types of head ornaments and jewelry – earrings, necklaces, bracelets and pins – as well as buttons and belts complete the kores’ ornamentation.

D I S C O V E R T H E PA R T H E N O N

Hidden Messages There is more to the Parthenon than meets the eye, as architects, archaeologists and art historians have long discovered.

Now we hold up our own magnifying glass to the temple’s subtle secrets.

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

BY JOHN LEONA R D

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The eastern facade of the time-ravaged, forever elegant lady of the Acropolis – the Parthenon.

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The Parthenon’s eastern pediment tells the story of the birth of Athena, framed by the rising and sinking chariots of Helios (Sun) and Selene (Moon) – a special day in the life of the world.

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t is impossible not to be awed when one stands in the shadow of the great Parthenon and looks up at its elegantly carved Doric columns towering overhead. The quality of the craftsmanship, the stunning white Pentelic marble, the sheer size of this 2,500-year-old temple dedicated to Athena Parthenos – the virgin goddess and patron deity of ancient Athens – are all features of a unique, world-class monument that strike us immediately. However, there is much more to the Parthenon than first meets the eye.

As viewers, we welcome and accept the temple’s outward beauty and seeming perfection, but we don’t often stop to ask ourselves why the building so affects us.

The answer is that the Parthenon’s architects, Ictinus and Callicrates, and its chief sculptural artist, Phidias, have incorporated numerous “hidden” devices within its marble construction and carved decorations that were designed to trick the viewers’ eye, to make us believe we are witnessing something perfectly regular, sensible and balanced in all its aspects.

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easily, to appreciate them more fully and to not be disturbed by unpleasant optical illusions that otherwise could have been caused by the building’s massive scale and the basic nature of ancient post-andlintel architecture.

TRICKING THE BRAIN Looks certainly can be deceiving! Who would believe that, in fact, there are virtually no straight lines or right angles in the Parthenon? This enormous temple appears at first glance to be a giant rectilinear construction, all of whose lines are straight! And does it seem sensible to the rational mind that the base of the temple – its stepped pedestal or stylobate – is actually domed, not flat? The four corners of the pedestal droop graceful-

ly downward, such that if one were to stand on the top step and look lengthwise along the building at someone else also standing on the same step at the opposite end, these two observers would only see each other from about the knees up. This doming of the temple base was reputedly done to avoid an optical “sagging” of the building’s middle that would have been perceived along its east and west ends and especially along its long north and south sides, if its lines were actually designed and built to be perfectly straight.

Additional refinements in the Parthenon include the slight inward leaning of all the columns in the Doric colonnade surrounding the building. The corner columns are slightly larger in diameter than the others and lean inward in two directions; that is, diagonally to the corner.

They also are set in such a way that there exists a smaller space, or intercolumniation, between them and the next column.

Meanwhile, the columns themselves are not straight along their vertical axes, but swell in their middles. This phenomenon, called “entasis,” intended to counteract another optical effect in which columns with straight sides appear to the eye to be slenderer in their middles and to have a waist. Furthermore, the whole superstructure of the outer facades of the temple, above the level of the columns (the “entablature”), also curves downward at the corners, to mirror the stylobate and carry upward the temple’s overall domed curvature.

SEEKING PERFECTION Different theories have been advanced as to why the Parthenon, and other earlier Greek temples, include all these optical devices. The first, already men-

As viewers, we welcome and accept the temple’s outward beauty and seeming perfection, but we often do not stop to ask ourselves why the building so affects us.

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

D I S C O V E R T H E PA R T H E N O N

D I S C O V E R T H E PA R T H E N O N

The southern walkway (pteron) of the Parthenon, whose domed curvature pleased the eye and shed rainwater.

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INFO

The Acropolis • Tel. (+30) 210.321.4172 • Open daily 8:00-16:30 (November-March) • Admission €10 (There is also a €30 ticket allowing admission to all main archaeological sites in Athens)

tioned, which suggests that the architects were providing “counter-perspective” in order to reduce or eliminate unpleasant optical phenomena inherent to post-andlintel architecture with its long horizontal and vertical lines, was first proposed by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the 1st c.

BC. Since then, observers and specialists have also suggested that Ictinus and Callicrates may have wanted to animate the building, to breathe a more natural life into it – as truly straight lines are actually quite rare in nature and curves make the structure seem more alive.

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eye and what the designers of ancient Greek temples were ultimately striving to achieve was, more likely, true perfection; a quality of perfection worthy of the gods.

This religious and artistic quest is also seen in the pedimental sculpture of the Parthenon, where the statues were finished completely, not only on their front sides that were clearly visible to viewers, as in later Roman temples.

The outer façades’ metope panels were more deeply cut in their lower portions and almost seem to lean outward and downward slightly to better face the reverent and curious below.

CONSERVATISM IN RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE The optical adjustments made to the Parthenon were not unique, but represented the culmination of many generations of architects’ efforts to establish a standard code or “canon” traditionally required for the design of Greek temples. The narrowing of the corner intercolumniation was done to follow the “rule” that in Doric-style architecture the triglyphs in the entablature had to be arranged with one triglyph centered over each column. Such details of arrangement were references to previous, longstanding, slow-to-change practices in religious architecture. Similar-

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The Parthenon, as it appears, thanks to its optical refinements.

The Parthenon’s optical refinements, exaggerated for clarity.

The Parthenon, as it would appear without its optical refinements.

17 The temple’s stylobate, columns and entablature, with their curvature emphasized.

01. Column | 02. Capital | 03. Abacus | 04. Architrave | 05. Entablature | 06. Metope | 07. Triglyph | 08. Cornice | 09. Pediment | 10. Attic | 11. Pronaos | 12. Frieze | 13. Cella | 14. Opisthodomos | 15. Akroterion | 16. Sima | 17. Peristyle | 18. Pteron

One end of the temple’s E or W facade, showing the narrower intercolumniation beside the corner column.

The plan of the Parthenon, domed in two directions to reflect the true state of the temple’s base.

No straight lines here: the Parthenon’s domed base and inward leaning columns.

The Anatomy of a ‘Living’ Temple Through an unexpected and inspiring design, the Parthenon has been brought to life with a soaring, natural grace.

ly, individual features of the Parthenon’s façade – including the triglyphs, and the mutules and guttae below them – were visual reminders of particular elements of past temples’ original wooden construction. The mutules may have signified the protruding ends of roof beams; the guttae, wooden pegs used to secure these beams; and the triglyphs, the covers that originally capped the beam ends.

Visual “corrections” were already known in many other temples throughout the Greek world. A domed stylobate, for example, existed in the Archaic or early Classical temples of Apollo at Corinth and Athena (Pre-Parthenon) in Athens.

The columns of temples in Aegina, Tegea and Nemea were already leaning inward to some degree in the 6th c. BC, while the swelling of columns was evident at sanctuaries including Olympia and, most noticeably, Paestum in Magna Graecia (southern Italy).

In the Parthenon however, architects and artists combined forces to produce the most refined and perfect example of a Greek temple known to date. Because the Parthenon had few straight lines and right angles, its designers and builders had to hand-craft each individual piece, among a total of over 70,000 architectural members, so as to fit them into their

own specific place within the temple’s structure. Differences amounting to as little as a few millimeters often distinguish these members. As a result, today’s restorers have had their work literally cut out for them in order to find the original positions of all the Parthenon’s surviving blocks. This extraordinary modern effort, not undertaken by previous restorers including Nikolaos Balanos in the 1920s, has led to the Parthenon – one of antiquity’s most painstakingly and precisely constructed buildings – once again becoming about as “perfect” as its ancient human creators and present-day caretakers could make it.

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© NIKOS DANIILIDIS

GODS AND MORTALS, FOR THE GLORY OF ATHENS The Parthenon’s sculptural decoration paid homage to Greek civilization – especially to the progressive, dynamic culture and political system of Periclean Classical Athens.

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BY JOHN LEONA R D

D I S C O V E R the parthenon

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The assembly of gods on the Parthenon’s East Frieze: Artemis faces right while Apollo turns to speak with Poseidon.

he Parthenon, constructed and decorated between 447 and 332 BC, was not only a magnificent, highly perfected votive offering and public monument to the Athenians’ divine patroness Athena. It also served as a gigantic message board laden with various visual narratives or scenes carved in marble that reminded both the local citizenry and the city’s many visitors of Athens’ mythological roots, its glorious past and its progressive, dynamic present. The Parthenon, outside of its religious functions, was essentially a sculpture gallery that presented both full statues in its triangular pediments, as well as individual and conjoined panels carved in relief and mounted outside its colonnade as metopes, and around the exterior walls of its cella as a continuous Ionic frieze.

The eastern pedimental statuary depicted the birth of Athena, while the western pediment was an even more conspicuous showcase for sculptures representing the mythical contest between Athena and the sea god Poseidon.

Athena won the contest by offering the Athenians the precious olive tree, which ensured their basic survival and became a pillar of their economy. Poseidon tried to provide water, but only succeeded in

releasing a salt-water spring when he struck the Acropolis with his trident.

The metope panels on the Parthenon’s exterior façades depict the Greeks defeating the Trojans (north side); the legendary Lapith people fighting with unruly wedding guests, the centaurs (south); the Greeks battling the Amazons (west); and, in another battle, the Greeks resisting the Giants (east). These age-old myths had previously appeared on many other Greek temples and were well-known stories intended to send a message that the Greeks had created order out of chaos, defeated the wildness of nature and were militarily victorious over their enemies. In the particular case of the Parthenon, these scenes glorified especially the Athenians, who are heralded as the greatest among equals and who had recently led their allies in defeating the Persians.

The Parthenon frieze has traditionally been interpreted as depicting the Panathenaic Procession, an annual festival held in honor of Athena, during which the wooden cult statue of Athena, kept in the adjacent Erechtheion, was refreshed with a new woolen cloak (peplos). An alternative interpretation suggests that the eastern panels of the frieze depict the mythical Athenian king Erechtheus offering his daughter as a sacrifice to ensure Athens’ success in its war against the Eleusinians. The first view emphasizes the Athenians’ reverence for Athena, while the second appears to promote the idea of total sacrifice by the city-state’s citizens for the sake of Athens’ survival and continued good fortune.

Democratic reforms by Classical Athens’ progressive leader Pericles have also been suggested as possible sub-themes in the Ionic frieze. Thus, horsemen allude to the newly democratized knighthood – in which Pericles’ government subsidized less fortunate, want-to-be knights who needed financial assistance in acquiring the necessary equipment to become knights. Female figures in the frieze remind viewers of Pericles’ recent elevation of women’s status as members of Athenian society – since now both an Athenian father and mother would be required to claim Athenian citizenship.

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Dimitris Pikionis Archive – Benaki Museum Neohellenic Architecture Archives

D IS C O V E R A R C H I T E C T U R E

Landscape Poetry

The interventions made by the Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis (1887-1968) during the 1950s altered the experience of visiting the Acropolis and Filopappou Hill once and for all.

By Di m itr is R igopoulos

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© GIANNIS GIANNELOS

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imitris Pikionis first saw the light of day in Piraeus, towards the end of the 19th century. Just a few kilometers north of the port city, what has become known as the “Acropolis landscape” was unrecognizable. It was a practically barren, almost bucolic area on the fringes of Athens, largely devoid of structures but with an abundance of open ground. The first attempts at reforestation were confined to the western foot of the hill of the Acropolis, mainly on the pass linking the Makryianni area with Filopappou Hill – the latter having been completely stripped of any vegetation (that pass is the now popular pedestrianized Dionysiou Areopagitou Street).

In contrast, the Acropolis monuments themselves, together with the impressive

arches of the Roman Odeon of Herodes Atticus – which had been excavated three decades previously (1857) – did not differ much from what we see today (with the exception of the scaffolding). This is because the geographically limited and penniless Greek kingdom of the 19th century had placed the showcasing and protection of its ancient heritage at the top of its list of priorities, immediately establishing the Archaeological Service in an exemplary fashion. Thus, by the mid-19th century, Greek archaeologists had already conducted significant and tangible excavations. In doing so, they had also succeeded in gaining the admiration of foreign visitors arriving in the then tiny and dusty Athens with the aim of discovering the celebrated antiquities of the city, free of the corrupting and pro-

(Left) Dimitris Pikionis in a photograph taken

by Professor Pavlos Mylonas around 1956.

(Top) The stone-paved pathways, treeplanting scheme and other interventions in the area surrounding the Acropolis – all works by Dimitris Pikionis – had a major impact. Now aside from being a famous archaeological site, the area also offers pleasant walks in a green environment.

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Dimitris Pikionis Archive – Benaki Museum Neohellenic Architecture Archives

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fane additions of the Ottoman period.

This picture was not at all unfamiliar to Pikionis himself, who wrote in his Autobiographical Notes: “Even when I was a secondary school student, I would often go on treks exploring the Attica landscape. From Moschato, passing through the olive grove, I would reach as far as the rocks of Filopappou and the Acropolis.”

The sirens of tourism However, the Greece of 1887 bore no relation to that of the early 1950s, when the Minister for Public Works, Konstantinos Karamanlis, entrusted Pikionis – by that time a renowned architect and professor – with the remodeling of the Acropolis area. The country – now much larger geographically, but also wounded 68

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in a myriad of ways by the German occupation and an exceptionally painful civil war – was attempting to get back on its feet. At the same time, it was the period when the sirens of a very early version of what we would now call the “tourism industry” were beginning to sing their song in Greece. The combination of unique antiquities, the recreational opportunities offered by the Greek sun and the endless, unpolluted coastline was an advantage that could not be easily ignored.

The choice was clear, and the foundations were laid during those years. It was back then that the Athens Festival was founded, the Odeon at the foot of the Acropolis put to good use, and the “Sound and Light” tourist multi-spectacle established. Within this framework,

01 The propylon and the church of Aghios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris in the mid-1950s.

02 Aghios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris. A sketch

by D. Pikionis of the church’s doors.

03 A detail from the stone-paved road on Filopappou Hill. Photo by Helen Binet.

04 Aghios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris: southfacing side. A sketch by D. Pikionis.

© HELEN BINET

Dimitris Pikionis Archive – Benaki Museum Neohellenic Architecture Archives

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it was not possible for the primitive system of visitor access to and through the Acropolis to remain. The assignment of the project to Pikionis is credited as one of the most brilliant initiatives taken by Karamanlis, who would later serve as prime minister and president.

PIKIONIS’ INTERVENTIONS IMPOSED A NEW, ALMOST TIMELESS, READING OF THE ACROPOLIS LANDSCAPE AND THIS REMAINS THEIR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT, SIX DECADES LATER.

A renaissance figure Pikionis’ interventions were much more than a technical arrangement of access routes to the Acropolis monuments and linking them structurally to Filopappou Hill. They imposed a new, almost timeless, reading of the landscape on the area, and this remains their greatest achievement, six decades later (the project wrapped up in February 1957).

Traversing the famous flagstone-paved

road that branches into two basic directions (the one leading to the Acropolis, the other to Filopappou), with the somewhat forgotten “Pikionis junction” serving as the meeting point, the visitor is unable to pinpoint where the ancient trail begins and ends, as Pikionis’ team ingeniously conceived and created (almost with their bare hands) an extended zone covering

some 80,000 square meters.

However, this was not in the least what Pikionis himself had intended. An architect with a modernist background (the famous school he designed on the slopes of Lycabettus Hill in the 1930s is held to be one of the best examples of Greek modernism), other influences gradually flowed into his work from his wider HelAT H E N S WI N T E R 2 017- 2 018

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Dimitris Pikionis Archive – Benaki Museum Neohellenic Architecture Archives, YORGOS PRINOS

D IS C O V E R A R C H I T E C T U R E

Pikionis attained a completely personal idiom in which the modern was necessarily filtered through the values and traditions of the Greek landscape and Greek life.

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lenocentric reading of things. He quickly attained a completely personal idiom in which the modern was necessarily filtered through the values and traditions of the Greek landscape and Greek life.

Long before Pikionis began to tackle the Acropolis projects, this Renaissance figure (who was also a gifted painter) had had the opportunity to deepen his reappraisal of Byzantine tradition, travel to Chios to appreciate the master craftsmen in the land of his grandfathers, re-examine his stance concerning the superficial modernization of his age and value the simplicity of Japanese architecture.

In short, he was able to change within himself, to become what we have the fortune of having inherited through his extremely personal view, a view which he transfused unaltered into the most sensitive landscape in the whole of the Greek world.

Topocentric modernism However, it was not just that. Might it have been, then, the asymmetrical stone clusters of the flagstone pavement at the

01. The road towards the Acropolis, 19541957. Photo by Helen Binet.

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02. The cafĂŠ north of the church of Aghios Dimitrios. Originally it was designed as a space for the faithful to gather after mass, rest and enjoy refreshments.

Dimitris Pikionis Archive – Benaki Museum Neohellenic Architecture Archives, YORGOS PRINOS

D IS C O V E R A R C H I T E C T U R E

Dimitris Pikionis with his children Ino, Iona, Tasos and Petros on Aegina, around 1937.

The asymmetrical stone clusters of the flagstone pavement, a trademark of Pikionis’ work.

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Acropolis and Filopappou? The way he conceived the pavilion/rest area next to the single-nave basilica of Aghios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris? The completely manual method (rock by rock) he used during the four years he worked there, assisted by specialized craftsmen from every corner of Greece? His persistence in the strict selection of plants so that they would fulfil the prerequisites and demands of timeless Attic flora? The methodical recycling of older materials (which he himself collected by scouting around Athenian neighborhoods during the time of the mass demolition of neoclassical houses)? Indeed, it was all of the above – and even more – that contributed to the rise to prominence of Pikionis’ architectural ethic, principles which at the same time also served as his passport for recognition abroad. He was both modern and popular, both a person of the world and a localist, both universal and a Greek.

Thus, Pikionis’ topocentric modernism became a point of reference for postwar Greece, as to what “Greek landscape”

meant and how it could be managed with respect and inspiration. From a certain point on, Pikionis’ work on the Acropolis represented Greece as the philhellenes of the fragile postwar world chose to see it.

As Kenneth Frampton, one of the most acclaimed architecture critics worldwide, so aptly put it in his prologue to the monumental anthology of Pikionis’ work, published by Basta-Plessa Editions in 1994: “Somewhere in the sweep of this breaking wave came a point that lay beyond history, wherein the architect arrived at a dematerialized mode of expression that was at once Greek and anti-Greek; Greek in the sense that it was of the place, integrated into the mythos, the landscape, the climate and the way of life; anti-Greek in that much of its inspiration lay elsewhere, remote in space and time, in other far-flung islands, in Honshu and in the archaic pre-Hellenic Aegean under a timeless sun.”

Pikionis himself summed it all up in a single phrase: “It would suffice here for me to say that I am an oriental.”

experience ATHENS

GLIMPSES OF REAL LIFE

Small museums, long walks, day-trips to nature and true stories of people from around the world who decided to live in Athens.

“Syntagma Square” by Sophie Kefala (1912-2001), watercolor on paper (detail). Courtesy of Angeliki Hatzimichali Center for Folk Art & Tradition.

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EXPERIENCE REAL LIFE

GOING NATIVE

The Greek capital is one of the most exciting cities in the world to live in right now, as any member of its growing expat community can confirm.

B Y A l e x K i n g / p h o t o s T h a l i a Ga l a n o p o u l o u

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isbelief, bemusement and outright perplexity are typical Athenian responses to learning that a foreigner has chosen to live in Greece. “You mean you left a good job in your country to move to Athens? Don’t you know we’re in crisis?”

Indeed, since the onset of the economic downturn, thousands of Greeks have left for better career opportunities elsewhere and the country was recently ranked the worst place to live by the InterNations Expat Insider survey – in large part because of the tough financial conditions.

Yet speak with anyone in the city’s lively expat community and you’ll hear not only a hundred reasons why the survey’s gloomy assessment is totally wrong but a hundred more on why Athens is one of the most exciting cities in the world right now.

Athens is increasingly seen as a city of possibilities, and foreigners, particularly young creatives, are moving here to enjoy

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the remarkable quality of life.

“Athens is the new Berlin” has become a tired phrase, but it does celebrate real parallels between the cultural renaissance we’re witnessing today and the creative boom that transformed the German capital’s identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, catalyzed by a wealth of affordable space.

But Athens blazes its own path, and cheap rent is a relatively minor factor in its powerful resurgence. While the low cost of living provides financial breathing space for start-ups and passion projects (now next to impossible in cities like Paris, London and New York), it is the vibrant multicultural climate and globally connected buzz that keep the fires of inspiration lit.

Each of our interviewees found something in Athens they couldn’t find anywhere else, but the ultimate endorsement for the Greek capital comes from their proud assertions that they have no plans to leave; their futures are firmly invested in Athens.

RUBY MATEJA

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MICHAEL DOOLAN

dancer from Birmingham, UK If you’ve had the privilege of watching the spectacular Greek National Opera Ballet perform, you’ve probably seen its former demi-soloist, who hails from Birmingham, Britain’s second city.

When dancer Michael Doolan graduated as a classically trained dancer from Ballet West in Scotland, he had no desire to follow his classmates to London. “That kind of terrified me, because London is really big,” Michael says. “Instead, I was looking for cities in eastern Europe when Athens came up on my radar.”

Michael was intrigued by Athens’ technicolor mix of East and West. So he auditioned for the National Opera, was hired as a member of the corps de ballet in September 2012, and promoted to demi-soloist in 2014. Over the last five years, Michael has toured Greece with the company in acclaimed productions such as “Topia” and “Zorba the Greek” and has evolved immensely as a dancer. But the experience of living and working in such a cultural melting pot inspired him to take the next step: in July 2017, he quit to go freelance, setting out in a new direction that integrates his classical schooling and contemporary inspirations.

“Living in Greece, I have to accept that I’m always going to be a foreigner and I’m always going to be different, as much as I try to blend in,” he reflects. “If I had stayed in the UK, I would have been much more pressured to fit into a group; the people I spent time with, the clothes I wore and even my dancing would have all been subject to certain limitations. Athens has taught me to be very versatile, both personally and professionally. I don’t think I could have done that in many other European cities, because I feel like there are so many different influences here.”

The best place to watch dance is… the

breakdance crew in the square opposite Thiseio metro station. I always watch them and I have a lot of respect for what they do.

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The best place to eat…

Avli, which has great food and is super cheap. I love places in Athens that don’t feel like Athens and at Avli you feel like you could be on one of the islands.

My hidden gem… I love climbing to the top of the Panathenaic Stadium from the park behind it, so I can sit and admire the spectacular view of the Kallimarmaro and the city.

Before I moved here I wish I’D KNOWN... that

the Greeks are not European, they’re closer to the eastern folk. It took me a while to work out that they’re not like us Northern Europeans.

You’re an Athenian when you… understand

the appropriate amount of time your body needs to digest a frappé, so you drink it slowly and not like a complete amateur.

INFO •

Avli, 12 Aghiou Dimitriou, Psyrri

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My favorite place to see art is… on the streets,

where the pure freedom is.

You know you’re AN Athenian when you…

fit 10,000 things into one day: coffee with friends, walking the dog and making some art, too, and still wonder how you manage to do it.

Take a client to… Little Tree Books and Coffee. It’s a beautiful bookshop near the Acropolis Museum and a great place to just sit and talk over a cup of fine coffee.

Take a date to… Drupes

& Drips, which is cozy inside and has lovely wines. It’s in a great area to go for a walk after your cheese and drinks.

My best-kept secret is…

the restaurant Saligaros in Exarchia, where locals with really intense lives gather to have fun and share really, really good food.

To get inspired... go up

ILSE MEULENDIJKS

designer from Tilburg, the Netherlands “Athens was this huge surprise of colors,” says Dutch designer Ilse Meulendijks. “It reminded me of the little alleyway behind my house as a child, where I used to play and everything felt possible.”

Ilse is lounging on the balcony of her palatial studio space in Exarchia, which overlooks the Athens Polytechnic and Strefi Hill. She explains how, when she first came to Athens in 2015 for a class project on Greek tourism while studying at Design Academy Eindhoven, she was fascinated by the city’s old bookshops and printworks. In one of these she met the bookbinder Yiannis Evangelidis, who inspired her to create a bridge between Greek craftspeople and the Dutch design community.

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completely shut to outsiders – the process is hidden and blocked off,” Ilse says. “Here, I’m able to work on really nice, creative books with incredibly skilled craftspeople, who are totally open and let me be part of everything. That’s heaven for me.”

It’s been a busy year for Ilse. Two weeks after her graduation, she moved to Athens, and co-founded Publikators publishing agency with Dutch writer Anna van den Berg. She also designed the graphic identity for Syntagma’s new restaurant 3.33 and is creating an atelier space with French designer Roxanne Brennen, due to open shortly. But Ilse is most proud of Book for Sale, a print publication and online platform that connects Athens-based artisans to the global marketplace.

Strefi Hill with a book or some drawing materials. As you climb, the street noise slowly disappears and you literally gain a new perspective on the city. When your world feels small, here is a place you can go to make it big again.

INFO

ilsemeulendijks.com Little Tree Books and Coffee, 2 Kavalloti, Koukaki, tel (+30) 210.924.3762 • Drupes & Drips, 20 Zitrou, Koukaki, tel (+30) 210.923.0052 • Saligaros, 37 Solomou, Exarchia, tel (+30) 213.022.6262 • •

EXPERIENCE REAL LIFE

MATTHIEU PRAT

designer from Paris, France Matthieu Prat doesn’t feel like an expat. To be an expat, he argues, you have to have powerful bonds tying you to your mother culture and a strong sense of where “home” is. But Matthieu has no simple answer to the question, “Where are you from?”

He was born in Paris and has barely stopped moving ever since.

Growing up, he lived first in a number of French cities before going on to stay in Monaco, London, Geneva and Casablanca; he spent most of his formative teenage years in Morocco.

So after working in Istanbul and Paris, why here? It’s simple: “You can do better work from Athens.” Matthieu relocated his experimental art/architecture studio Diplomates to Athens in 2015 after feeling stifled in France. Today, he works from an unfinished concrete shell of a building in Votanikos, where he launched Kassandras, an “urban and social laboratory” that explores the intersection between architecture and activism.

Unlike other cities that have exported all of their heavy industries and transformed their production spaces into art galleries and coffee shops, Athens still has workshops, factories and artisans, many in the vicinity of Matthieu’s studio. “The easy access to local craftspeople, spaces and skills, combined with Athenian generosity and hospitality, make the city a unique place to live and produce work,” he explains. “Athens is a place that is still massively transforming itself, with an ever-burning energy to move forward.”

MY favorite place to discover art is…

Locus Athens, which curates exhibitions without running a gallery, yet each of their projects reveals a new space and great art.

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Back in France I would never be able to…

experiment and innovate within cultural, social and urban fields.

I go to unwind in…

Tritsis Park. It’s a little-known paradise, full of a variety of landscapes and where Organization Earth runs an experimental farm.

What frustrates me most about Athens is…

the excessive bureaucracy and its resistance to facilitating development initiatives.

What inspires me most about Athens is…

its abnormality. It’s still a territory for individual and collective possibilities, where questions about the cities of tomorrow can be investigated.

INFO

Kassandras, kassandras.org Locus Athens, locusathens. com/lcu • Organization Earth, organizationearth.org/en/ • •

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ANASTASIA ANAGNOSTAKOS

financial analyst from Melbourne, Australia Some of Anastasia Anagnostakos’ friends back in Melbourne will tell you she had everything and then threw it all away. After studying for her master’s degree in finance, she climbed the ladder to become a highly paid and prestigious investment analyst for a large hedge fund on the Australian Stock Exchange. Her career was soaring, but she began to ask herself questions. “Is this it? In Melbourne, you’re expected to work, buy a car, get married and buy a house in the suburbs,” Anastasia explains.

“It’s a politically correct, cookie-cutter life: the more money I made, the less happy I became.”

With Greek-Australian parents, Anastasia had been visiting Athens since her childhood, and the contrast with life in Melbourne grew more apparent each time. “What struck me was how people in Athens live life to the fullest, despite being broke,” she says. “As long as people have enough money to meet their friends and have a coffee, life is sweet.”

Things had to change, so Anastasia moved to Athens in December 2016. She now works in the non-performing loans team at a corporate advisory services company – and yes, she’s drowning in work. Her Athens salary doesn’t compare to what she was earning in Melbourne, but no amount of zeros could lure her back to that superficial life. “Melbourne is all about what you’re wearing, which restaurant you’re eating at and who you’re seen with,” she explains. “People here don’t care about that; what matters about you in Greece is how you stack up as a person. If I have children of my own, I’d like them to be brought up here, surrounded by those values.”

The best WAY to discover music is…

My favorite place for a drink is… The

Take a client… for a drink

For a feast… head to

On a rainy day… drive up

The first Greek food I cooked was… kou-

My favorite Greek word is… ennoeite, which

Go for a run… from Paleo Faliro towards Elliniko along the Athens Riviera. It’s a real experience of Greek life and great for your lateral skills as you weave between the families and street vendors.

browsing for vinyl at the weekend flea market and in the thrift shops near Thiseio metro station. You can find funk, house and lots of old disco tunes so cheap that it’s almost theft.

means “of course.”

INFO

Clumsies, which is a world-renowned and really original cocktail bar near Klafthmonos Square.

at the Galaxy Bar on top of the Hilton. It has amazing views of Athens and of Lycabettus Hill.

to the car park on Lycabettus Hill and you can admire the view while staying dry.

The Clumsies, 30 Praxitelous, tel (+30) 210.323.2682 • Galaxy Restaurant & Bar at the Hilton, 46 Vasilissis Sofias, tel (+30) 210.728.1000 • Moorings, Vouliagmeni Marina, Vouliagmeni, tel (+30) 210.967.0659

•

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Moorings in Vouliagmeni.

It’s a lovely, peaceful setting there, and you can look out over the water.

lourakia, with my grandma.

They’re simple, orange-rind biscuits that are an Easter specialty, but my grandfather loved them, so we ate them all year round.

meet stephanie and hibai She’s a teacher from Santiago, Chile, and he’s a journalist from Barcelona, Spain.

They both became Athenians and have their own stories to share.

Best spot for a bite is… the falafel man who sets

up most nights in Exarchia Square. He blasts galactic techno music while making his delicious falafel wraps.

What more could you want?

My most “Greek” habit is… drinking freddo espressos

all day long and being late for everything.

RUBY MATEJA

skateboarder and NGO founder from Brighton, UK A perfect day for Ruby Mateja starts with a coffee on her balcony in Exarchia and a walk around the local area to check out its many eclectic bookstores and record shops. On Wednesday afternoons, you’ll find her in the nearby Aghiou Nikolaou Park teaching skateboarding against a typically Athenian backdrop of crumbling concrete and graffiti.

Ruby’s students are young refugees from the nearby Khora community center, and this is one of the daily skate lessons her Free Movement Skateboarding project offers to 150 marginalized young people – about half of whom are girls – around Athens each week.

“Skateboarding opened up a whole world to me,” Ruby explains. “Traveling to Palestine in October 2016 to volunteer with the skate-for-development charity SkatePal was just everything I wanted to be doing. Free Move84

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My favorite Greek word is… not fit to print,

ment Skateboarding co-founder Will Ascott and I saw the massive positive impact of the skatepark they had built, not just on the kids but on the whole community.” Will suggested Athens would be the perfect place to launch a project of their own so, in March 2017, they began work on a mobile skatepark that fits into the back of a van, and the rest is history.

When Ruby isn’t teaching, she explores Athens’ plentiful skate spots, cruises the streets or hangs out at Latraac, a skate bowl, bar and experimental arts space in Kerameikos. According to Ruby, it’s not about where you skate, but when: “I will never get tired of the light and colors in Athens; the golden hour before the sun sets is something I have never experienced anywhere else. Back home, I would never be able to enjoy such a beautiful mixture of cultures on a day-to-day basis. Or skate on all the roads and not get shouted at.”

but I love shouting opa! when someone falls off their board.

The best skate spot is…

Galatsi Park. But I would recommend ripping around the roads late at night, stopping at different spots and meeting the locals.

Catch the sunset…

on Strefi Hill. Lycabettus gets all the tourists, but at Strefi you’ll just be hanging out with locals.

INFO

Latraac, 63-65 Leonidou, Kerameikos, tel (+30) 213.045.3377

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© NIKOS KOKKAS

PANGRATI

© PERIKLES MERAKOS

KOUKAKI georgaki olympiou street

Pangrati and Koukaki step out from the shadows to shine in a new era of places to see and be seen.

TIME FOR MORE? Our guide to one of Athens’ quirkiest neighbourhoods.

Where to eat, drink, shop and what to do in Petralona.

B Y V ELO C IT Y AIRE Y P HOTOS THALIA GALANO P O U LO U

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PANGRATI

© VANGELIS ZAVOS, ANGELOS GIOTOPOULOS, ANTONIS YIAMOURIS, NIKOS KOKKAS

Gentle by day, spirited by night and full of character all the time.

Perched above the imposing Panathenaic Stadium, better known as the Kallimarmaro, Pangrati is a cosy yet quirky neighborhood with steep streets that give impressive glimpses of Lycabettus Hill and Mt Parnitha in one direction and dramatic views of Mt Ymittos in the other. Far removed in character but not in distance from the tourist areas of Plaka and Psyrri, Pangrati holds a certain charm which leaves you feeling as if you’ve stumbled across a secret. Its backstreets are an intriguing mix of neoclassical and modern architecture, and they often lead to quaint squares full of life.

Like many other parts of Athens, Pangrati is a mix of the new and the old, but in the charming Oliver, a recently opened artisanal shop displaying an impressive array of nuts, dried fruits, fine wines and exquisite chocolate bars, you get a sense of what’s in store in this unpretentious and welcoming neighborhood.

However, if there is one area in which Pangrati holds the most promise, it is its restaurants. Taking advantage of the lower rents, much of the creative culinary talent of Athens has gathered here over the past few years, seeking to provide diners with quality, comfort and affordability. Mavro Provato, which opened in 2012, is one result of this trend. The brainchild of Evdoxia Pantou, it offers dishes made with the very best produce that Greece has to offer in a simple, friendly setting. From Cretan xynomyzithra, a sour whey cheese, to crisp, warm Kaisareia Pie stuffed with pastourmas (seasoned and air-dried cured beef), the menu is sophisticated yet with prices that would match a village mezedopoleio (a taverna serving small meze dishes). For the health-conscious, vegetarians and vegans, there is Mystic.

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CHELSEA

ACROPOLIS AS SEEN FROM ARISTOXENOU STREET

mavro provato

CAFE VARNAVA

ARCHIMIDOUS STREET

NEAR ALSOS PANGRATIOU PARK

Pangrati’s Mystic (it has a sister restaurant in Exarchia) is housed in a picturesque, terracotta-roofed, old-style townhouse with green shutters, enormous wine barrels at its entrance and a charming terrace complete with the obligatory bougainvillea. Its menu includes vegan pizzas and pasta dishes with optional spelt-flour versions for those following a low-gluten diet. Yet with all the substitutions, there is certainly no loss of flavor and the atmosphere is one of genuine foodie passion and a healthy portion of hospitality. Meat lovers needn’t despair, however. Nearby Colibri, in spite of its exceedingly odd collection of furnishings, churns out succulent burgers and has become a well-established favorite with the locals. Truth be told, however, it is their pizzas that really steal the show.

Pangrati’s eateries and café-bars are many and varied. You’ll find most of them on Empedokleous – which essentially cuts through the heart of the neighborhood – and Archelaou streets or in one of its many verdant squares, redolent of the halcyon, pre-crisis days.

In Varnava Square, for example, the traditional taverna Mouries invites you to choose your meal in the kitchen and has an ever-changing menu of whatever was best that day at the market. Across the way lie enterprising cafés aiming to please the coffee lover. These include the popular T & Toggs, with its signature stacked pancakes and enticing choice of gelati. For a taste of the Middle East, pop next door to Baba Ghanoush and try their crispy, filling falafels.

The next stop after Varnava is Plastira Square, home to Arbaroriza, serving amazing brunch fare on simple wooden boards, and the slightly chaotic yet trendy

The backstreets of Pangrati are an intriguing mix of neoclassical and modern architecture, and they often lead to quaint squares full of life.

Oliver

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© ANGELOS GIOTOPOULOS, IZABELLA FRANGOULI

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Artzone42 Gallery

PRECIOUS

Athens CENTER

CHALK OF THE TOWN

Chelsea Bar. Ambitiously named after the notorious New York hotel, the bar, with its bohemian style and developing hipster crowd, is making its own waves in Pangrati.

No neighborhood in Athens, or, in fact, in Greece in general would be complete without a star bakery. In Pangrati, this is Pnyka. Featuring its own stone mill for grinding flour, it produces fresh artisanal bread such as buckwheat loaf and is equally famed for its irresistible cheese pies and tsoureki, a sweet brioche-type bread.

Yet Pangrati is not only for the foodies.

For art lovers, Art Zone 42 and Titanium 90

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Yiayiannos Gallery present a continuous line of contemporary art exhibitions while the Athens Center offers modern Greek language courses, theater workshops and cultural events.

There are also plenty of opportunities for browsing, with innumerable niche stores. In close proximity to Pangrati’s main park, the Alsos Pangratiou on Spirou Merkouri Street, lies Precious.

A chocolate-box jewelry store, Precious showcases handmade silver design pieces as well as items featuring precious and semi-precious gems. The style is eclectic, offering everything from classic pieces to nautical-style bracelets and statement

rings. For the creative home improvers among you, there is Chalk of the Town, which sells a rich array of Greek-made chalk paints (popularly used for furniture) as well as paint brushes and waxes. They also offer workshops teaching techniques for transforming surfaces and pieces of furniture with a palette of colors best suited to Mediterranean aesthetics and light.

There is no denying that Pangrati is already very alluring, but if its trajectory thus far is indicative of the future in any way, it will surely be one of Athens’ most desirable neighborhoods for years to come.

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1. Panathenaic Stadium, Vasileos Konstantinou Tel. (+30) 210.752.2984-6 2. Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous, tel. (+30) 210.701.2268 Va ZAPPEION HALL 3. Mystic, Ferekydou 2, sil eo tel. (+30) 210.959.2092 sK on 4. Colibri, 15 Empedokleous, st an tel. (+30) 210.701.1011 tin ou 5. Oliver, 20 Empedokleous, tel. (+30) 210.752.5543 6. Baba Ghanoush, 12. Pnyka, 13 Pratinou, 25 Empedokleous, tel. 212.105.0351 tel. (+30) 210.725.1941 7. T & Toggs, 9 Varnava Square, 13. Precious, 42 Spirou Merkouri, tel. (+30) 210.756.4967 tel. (+30) 210.724.8813 8. Mouries, 8 Varnava Square, 14. Mavro Provato, 31 Arrianou, tel. (+30) 210.701.6100 tel. (+30) 210.722.3466 9. Chelsea, Archimidous & Proklou, 15. Chalk of the Town, 13 Aminta, tel. (+30) 210.756.3374 tel. (+30) 210.729.5541 10. Arbaroriza, 33 Eratosthenous, 16. Art Zone 42, 42 Vasileos Konstantinou, tel. (+30) 210.701.9530 tel. (+30) 210.725.9549 11. Alsos PanGratiou Park, 17. Titanium Yiayiannos Gallery, Spirou Merkouri & Eftychidou 44 Vasileos Konstantinou, tel. (+30) 210.729.7644

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KOUKAKI A most creative corner of the city, sure to win the hearts of Athenians and visitors alike.

In the shadow of the Acropolis, the neighborhood of Koukaki, with its unevenly paved sidewalks lined with citrus trees, has an undeniably urban village feel. It is the lesser-known sister of Makriyianni, which, boasting the elegant Acropolis Museum on the sweeping cobbled esplanade of Dionysiou Areopagitou, has relegated Koukaki to the status of just another residential district. Yet this unassuming neighborhood has begun to capture the attention of Athenians and visitors alike; for the latter, it is perhaps best known for its staggering popularity as an Airbnb destination, ranking in the top five most interesting neighborhoods in the world to stay in. It isn’t difficult to understand why. By night, the warmly lit Filopappou monument, the colorful lights of small bars and the chatter of locals unwinding after a day’s work will leave you feeling positively charmed. A sleepy haunt by day, Koukaki exudes a laidback air, in sharp contrast to Plaka just MEERKAT

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JUMP & JIVE ATHENS SWING TEAM

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© THALIA GALANOPOULOU

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DRUPES & DRIPS

© THALIA GALANOPOULOU

up the road, which is busy all the time.

Nonetheless, Koukaki has much to offer to those who would venture a little further from the historic center. The likes of Trii Art Hub, housing works of local artists and nestled alongside establishments inspired by cultures from around the world, present a taste of Greece blended with international styles.

Koukaki is also home to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST).

Once the Fix Brewery, the building that houses the museum has undergone a major transformation. Not yet fully operational, the EMST is destined to become a beacon of creative talent that will showcase the work of both Greek and foreign contemporary artists. For jewelry aficionados, the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum is a must-see. Housing over 4,000 pieces of Lalaounis’ work, it pays homage to the ancient art of goldsmithing. Within a very short distance of the city’s most treasured accomplishments of antiquity, Koukaki provides the visitor to Athens with a window on modern life, a display of the promise that the present era holds for the city.

Perhaps the most charming area in the neighborhood is the pedestrian zone running from Koukaki Square along Georgaki Olympiou Street, which ARCHONTIKON

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MATROZOU STREET

TAKIS BAKERY

has a city-meets-jungle feel to it. At eye level with overhanging trees, including palms, the concrete facades of cafés and restaurants are entirely hidden. Instead, fairy lights and glowing lanterns create an atmosphere akin to a Cuban Midsummer Night’s Dream, if that’s a vision you can imagine. Brightly painted wood-andwicker chairs adorn the pavements where Athenians young and old come to socialize. An eclectic mix of cafés spattered with quirky bars inspired by everything from Louisiana to Noah’s Ark, this street caters for every mood and style. At the bottom of Olympiou sits a veritable institution, Bel Ray, a one-time car wash turned retro café-bar, serving perfect croque-madames and tropical concoctions like the Calypso, a rum-based cocktail complete with dates, choco bitters and lime. With a minimalist yet cozy atmosphere and with thought-provoking street art as a backdrop, it is clear why this place has become so popular with the local young trendsetters.

Yet in a fashion that Athens knows best, the new never quite supplants the old. Just around the corner, on a street lined with a mix of pre-war housing and modern apartments, lies the traditional Archontiko Café, brightly lit and simply furnished, where elderly gentlemen play

DAMIGOS TOYS

A sleepy local haunt by morning, Koukaki exudes a laidback air, quite removed from the busy Plaka to which visitors flock at all hours of the day.

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EMST

KOUKAKI HAS GAINED A staggering popularity as an Airbnb destination, ranking in the top five most interesting neighborhoods in the world to stay in.

backgammon, read the daily paper and play with their worry beads so loudly the noise echoes lightly across the square.

Opposite, the sounds of 1940s jazz can be heard as couples learn their dance steps at the Jump & Jive Athens Swing Team Dance Studio. The whole scene is almost like a time capsule, transporting the wanderer back to a bygone Athens, quite removed from those establishments close by that are striving to push the capital into a new age.

Koukaki is certainly not without promise when it comes to shopping, although what it has to offer is more in the realm of small, sometimes a little surreal, boutique shops that specialize in trinkets and unusual designs. Take Tintinnabulum (named after the Aesop fable) for example, with the endearingly brilliant creations of Athena Drakopoulou. With 96

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a cottage-style interior more evocative of a Brothers Grimm fairytale than of Aesop’s works, the boutique shop offers handmade jewelry, candles, ornaments and furniture, almost all of which are made by Drakopoulou herself. Nearby is the weirdly wonderful Aromatopoleion, a perfumery redolent of the Belle Époque, with aromas kept in vintage apothecary bottles as well as a range of organic-based creams and oils. The Greek-French collaboration continues in the form of Black Rose Boutique, offering chic Parisian pieces, some of which are silk or cashmere, at a fraction of the price you would pay in Paris. The very young (and those young at heart) will be equally delighted with Damigos Toy Store. From vintage doll houses and wooden toy soldiers to music boxes and modern toys, it is a toy store that induces

TRII ART HUB

a feeling of nostalgia and modernity all at once.

If the jungle feeling permeates Olympiou Street, the sanguine lion of this jungle sits close by in the form of a rather more cheeky and charismatic animal.

Meerkat Cocktail Safari, the inspired creation of Romain Krot and Christina Mavridis, is a rising star, inspired by the beauty and wildlife of the Serengeti. Krot, having brought his training and expertise from some of the most prestigious cocktail bars in Paris (Experimental Cocktail Club and Little Red Door), together with Mavridis, who exudes style and creativity, have designed an avant-garde menu of cocktails featuring creations like saffron-infused gin and maple-laced whiskey. When asked what he wants his clientele to feel when they visit, Krot says “I want them to travel.” This sentiment quite possibly also sums up the entire feeling of Koukaki, which hosts the likes of Italianate Drupes & Drips with its “pedigree coffees” and Verona wines as well as Takis Bakery, whose owner has been baking the Thessaloniki-style koulouri (sesame-seed bread ring) for Athenians since 1961.

Though you might set out to visit Koukaki as simply one step in exploring today’s Athens, you’ll undoubtedly travel further than that in your mind once you get here, inspired by both those establishments embodying deeply traditional “old Greece” and those that celebrate tastes and cultures from all over the world.

© THALIA GALANOPOULOU

EXPERIENCE OFF- CENTER

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1. Filopappou monument Filopappos Hill 2. Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, 12 Kallisperi & Karyatidon, tel. (+30) 210.922.1044 3. Takis Bakery, 14 Misaraliotou, tel. (+30) 210.923.0052 4. Drupes & Drips, 20 Zitrou, tel. (+30) 697.030.0404 5. Black Rose Boutique, 13 Veikou, tel. (+30) 210.924.1101 6. Jump & Jive Athens Swing Team, 1 Zan Moreas, tel. (+30) 215.550.9747

7. Archontiko, 2 Zan Moreas, tel. (+30) 210.924.1437 8. Tintinnabulum, 80 Veikou, tel. (+30) 210.920.0230 9. Aromatopoleion, 91 Veikou, tel. (+30) 213.036.4256 10. Bel Rey, 88 Falirou & Georgaki Olympiou, tel. (+30) 213.032.6450 11. Meerkat Cocktail Safari, 7 Vyzantiou, tel. (+30) 213.045.3390 12. Trii Art Hub, 9 Drakou, tel. (+30) 210.921.0333 13. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kallirrois & Amvrosiou Frantzi, tel. (+30) 211.101.9000-99 14. DAMIGOS TOY STORE 40 Dimitrakopoulou, tel. (+30) 210.922.5729 AT H E N S WI N T E R 2 017- 2 018

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D IS C O V E R M U S E U M S

Pretty Little Things The Athenian museum scene may have its undisputed stars but it also has several low-key institutions that offer very rewarding visits.

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NUMISMATIC MUSEUM It’s not all about money

What did people use for transactions before coins were invented? What did a 6thcentury wallet look like? How much did the extremely rare ancient Athenian decadrachm weigh? The Numismatic Museum has the answers.

Founded in 1834, it is one of the oldest museums in Greece and boasts a collection of more than 500,000 exhibits related to the history of money since the 14th c. BC. It also exhibits medals as well as a significant number of Byzantine and medieval coins. Before you jump in though, you may want to take a moment to look at the bigger picture: the beautiful, 19th-c. mansion designed by Ernst Ziller as a residence for his friend Heinrich Schliemann, the man often heralded as the “father of archaeology” for his discoveries at Mycenae and Troy. The building is fascinating from an architectural standpoint for the Italian Renaissance influences infused into its neoclassical lines, as well as for its impressive mosaics and ceiling and wall paintings, which give each room its own distinct character. It also has a lovely courtyard with a café that often hosts live music nights.

- MARIA KORACHAI

INFO

12 Panepistimiou (El. Venizelou) • Syntagma or Panepistimio metro stations • Open Tue-Sun 8:30-15:15 • Admission €3 •

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MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF ATHENS The royal treatment

The time when royals ruled the modern Greek state seems far away to most today, but evidence of their reign can be found in the neoclassical building on Klafthmonos Square, where King Otto and Queen Amalia lived for the seven years it took to build their palace (the present-day Hellenic Parliament). The museum extends to the adjacent edifice, also from the 19th century, to present a collection of artifacts that range from fine works of art to everyday items. Visitors can wander around the throne room and the living room, where the aristocracy took afternoon tea using monogrammed tea sets, as well as peruse hundreds of historical documents including a copy of the 1844 Greek Constitution. The undisputed star of the show is the biggest painting ever made of the Greek capital, an emblematic 260x520cm oil by French artist Jacques Carrey (1674), where the Parthenon can be seen before it was blown up in 1687 during the siege by the Venetian Francesco Morosini. The museum also has an excellent bistro, the Black Duck, which moves outdoors into its lovely garden in the warm months. - MARIA KORACHAI 100

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INFO

5-7 Paparrigopoulou, Klafthmonos Square • Panepistimio metro station • Open Mon-Wed-Thu-Fri 9:00- 16:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-15:00 • Admission €5 • www.athenscitymuseum.gr/en •

CENTER OF FOLK ART AND TRADITION

THE WAY LIFE USED TO BE

The center is dedicated to Angeliki Hatzimichali (1895-1965), an important Greek folklorist who has bequeathed us a wealth of information and documentation from her painstaking research all over the country. Hailing from a well-to-do Athenian family, she helped bridge the gap between the elite and the toiling masses by smashing the stereotype that good manners and education are exclusive to the upper classes. She also dedicated a significant part of her research to the Sarakatsani people – transhumant shepherds of northern Greece – spending long periods of time among them as they traveled across mountains and valleys. The center, housed in what was her home, is a wonderful example of eclectic architecture with Byzantine brushstrokes. The interior boasts some lovely pieces of wood sculpture, vernacular pottery, embroidery and loom weaving from different parts of Greece that were collected by Hatzimichali or donated to the City of Athens, which operates the museum. A guided tour is really the best way to appreciate the exhibits.

- MARIA KORACHAI

INFO •

6 Angelikis Hatzimichali, Plaka

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Acropolis or Syntagma metro stations

Tel. (+30) 210.324.3987 Open Tue-Fri 9:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 9:00-14:00 • Admission free • •

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MUSEUM OF GREEK FOLK MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS THE SOUND OF MUSIC

INFO

1-3 Diogenous, Plaka Monastiraki or Syntagma metro stations • Open Tue-Sun 8:00-15:00 • Admission free • •

© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

The visit starts with an introduction to the diverse musical traditions across Greece via an interactive map at the entrance of the 1842 mansion that once belonged to a government official under King Otto. Touch Crete and you’ll hear the lyra, Macedonia and Thrace for the gaida bagpipe, the islands of Cyclades for the fiddle, Piraeus for the bouzouki and so on. The museum was founded in 1991 and its exhibits mainly comprise pieces from the collection of music historian and scholar Foivos Anogeianakis (1915-2003) dating from antiquity to modern times. They also include more than 1,200 instruments of all types, from the 18th to the 20th century. Extending across three floors, the museum showcases the ingenuity involved in the construction of many musical instruments – such as a baglama made of a turtle shell or a gourd. During your visit, you will also learn about the significance of the sounds made by objects such as coins attached to traditional costumes, worry beads, small drinking glasses and the metal triangles used for keeping the tempo in Greek Christmas carols. The gift shop has an amazing collection of Greek music CDs both traditional and modern. - MARIA KORACHAI

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ILIAS LALAOUNIS JEWELRY MUSEUM All that glitters

This is the only museum in Greece dedicated to modern jewelry. It was founded in 1993

by Ilias Lalaounis (1920-2013), a pioneer jewelry maker with endless imagination when it came to design and a great head for business (he opened a large network of stores stretching from New York to Hong Kong). The museum is housed in a refurbished building from the interwar years that once served as Lalaounis’ residence and workshop, on the southern slope of the Acropolis hill; the Parthenon is so close, you feel that you can almost reach out and touch it from the third-floor balcony. This floor hosts a workshop where you can watch jewelry being made, as well as a small exhibition of sculptures by Salvador Dali. The second floor is all about Lalaounis in the international press, while the main exhibition is on the first floor. A handwoven chain adorned with animal heads (Classical & Hellenistic Collection), a tiara inspired by the Ravenna mosaics in Italy (Byzantine), brooches with wild-rose motifs (Pastoral) and earrings depicting Scandinavian animals (Viking) are among the 4,000-odd pieces on display. - ELEFTHERIA ALAVANOU

INFO

12 Kallisperi & Karyatidon, Acropolis • Acropolis metro station • Open Tue & Thu-Sat 9:00-15:00, Wed 9:00-21:00, Sun 11:00-16:00 • Admission €5 (free on Wednesdays after 15:00 and all day Saturday) • www.lalaounis-jewelrymuseum.gr/en •

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Benaki Toy Museum THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

Tin trucks, colorful striped tops, skates, tiny dolls in matchbox beds, cloth toys adorned in intricate traditional embroidery, wind-up clowns, model warships, engraved wooden pencil boxes, rattles and soccer tables have all found their place in a lovely belle époque mansion in Paleo Faliro, a southern coastal suburb of Athens. The impressive collection of toys, donated by Maria Argyriadi to the Benaki Museum in 1991 and ranked among the top 10 in Europe, was recently put on display in the institution’s new museum, located in what was once the residence of a ship’s captain from Hydra. With neogothic architectural references and striking, historically significant displays at the entrance – a doll designed by internationally acclaimed Greek set designer Dionysis Fotopoulos, as well as a wooden rocking horse gifted by Eleftherios Venizelos, one of Greece’s most respected statesmen, to his grandson – the museum is an enticing invitation back to the innocence of childhood. Arranged in sections, the main exhibition starts with toys from antiquity, covers several forms of puppet theater in Greece and abroad, and showcases the construction of mechanical toys as well as the fashion dolls that were once all the rage in Paris. A special area is dedicated to school supplies and old toy stores. The complete collection comprises more than 20,000 items. Around 3,000 of them are currently on display. - XENIA GEORGIADOU 104

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INFO

14 Poseidonos & 1 Tritonos, Paleo Faliro • Open Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00 • Admission €9 •

© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

D IS C O V E R M U S E U M S

BENAKI MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART

THE JEWISH MUSEUM OF GREECE

In the Islamic world, it didn’t matter whether an object was intended for day-to-day use, for decorative purposes or for war. Whatever its use, it had to be beautiful: from 7th-c. bottle caps to tableware that was iridescent with bright colors and floral motifs, from stunning ceramics from the Turkish city of Iznik and wooden doors carved in such detail they resemble lacework, to 19th-c. weapons adorned to signify the strength and wealth of the empire. The Museum of Islamic Art – which belongs to the Benaki family of museums – also features an entire hall put together piece by piece to resemble the reception room of a 17th-c. Cairo mansion. This would be where the Ottoman kethuda (a deputy) would invite his guests for a coffee or a pipe around a fountain, while listening to a tale from a storyteller. At the end of your journey in this fascinating world from a bygone era, enjoy a hot beverage at one of the prettiest cafés in the city, looking out at the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora and the Athens Observatory.

Nothing about the exterior of the neoclassical building that houses the Jewish Museum of Greece in downtown Athens prepares you for what lies within, not just in terms of its exhibits but also in terms of its contemporary architecture. First established in 1977 to display artifacts and documents from World War II, the museum had to wait some 20 years and relocate twice before finding a permanent home for its ever-expanding collection. Today, it plays host to more than 10,000 artifacts, among them textiles, jewelry and photographs, as well as invaluable personal and ritual objects that are organized in thematic categories and help narrate 2,300 years of Jewish history and culture in Greece. What makes this narrative particularly engaging for the visitor is the way it unfolds vertically; instead of rooms, different levels are arranged around a spiraling staircase. The natural light entering from the glass dome of the staircase’s central shaft lends the museum an almost church-like atmosphere, adding even more drama to the story and leaving you in a contemplative mood. - MARIA COVEOU

ORIENTAL elegance

- MARIA KORACHAI

A Haunting experience

INFO

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22 Aghion Asomaton & 12 Dipylou, Thiseio • Thiseio or Monastiraki metro stations • Open Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00 • Admission €9

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39 Nikis, Syntagma • Syntagma metro station Open Mon-Fri 9:00-14:30, Sun 10:00-14:00 • Admission €6 • www.jewishmuseum.gr •

TATOI ESTATE SCHINIAS NATIONAL PARK

E XPERIENCE E XCURSIONS

Few visitors realize the geographical advantages of a European capital where a short drive from the center can have you ascending a mountainside or swimming in the sea.

BY OL GA C H A R A M I & M A R I A KOR AC H A I / P HOTOS PE R I k L E S M E R A KOS

VOULIAGMENI LAKE

© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU

UP, DOWN, ALL AROUND

TEMPLE OF ATHENA, SOUNIO

KAISARIANI MONASTERY

RHAMNOUS

E XPERIENCE E XCURSIONS

Vouliagmeni Lake Ideal for a winter swim, this is one of the jewels of the Athens Riviera – the stretch of coastline that begins at Flisvos Marina, about a half-hour’s drive from the city center, and extends all the way to Cape Sounion.

“I have been coming to the lake every day for about 40 years,” says Nikos, a fit-looking, grey-haired man, before stripping down to his swimming suit and diving in. It’s already November, but that doesn’t seem to bother him – nor any of the other swimmers who are enjoying the deep blue-green waters, mirroring the sheer cliffs and pine trees surrounding the lake. Here, the water temperature ranges between 22 and 29˚C all year round.

With its therapeutic properties, Vouliagmeni Lake – a Natura 2000-protected site – is a revelation. Nestled in an idyllic setting surrounded by dramatic cliffs, the lake is fed by underwater natural springs that flow through a subterranean system

of tunnels and caverns. It also communicates with the sea, meaning that its waters are continually refreshed and slightly salty. For decades the lake has mainly attracted older swimmers and individuals with rheumatic, musculoskeletal or other ailments, but in recent years that has begun to change. “The younger generation prefers a healthier way of life and is attracted to what is offered by nature. We now have visitors of all ages, both locals and tourists,” notes Marianthi Vavoulaki, head of PR. Indeed, during our visit we see a diverse crowd from yoga practitioners to visitors just enjoying the autumn sunshine or exploring the lakebed with the aid of masks and snorkels.

Even if you end up here without a swimsuit, try ditching your shoes, rolling up your trousers and wading into the shallows. The lake’s “fish spa” is one of its most popular features. Stand still and let the small, black Garra rufa fish nibble your feet, giving you a massage and a natural exfoliation treatment.

INFO

Vouliagmeni Lake is located 25k southeast of Athens and can be reached by buses No. 115, 116, 117 and 122 (download the OASA Telematics app for public transportation info) or the KTEL Intercity bus for Sounio (Limni stop). Open daily 8:00-17:00, admission Mon-Fri €12, weekends €13 • www.limnivouliagmenis.gr/en

MOUND OF THE ATHENIANS

E XPERIENCE E XCURSIONS

Marathon An artificial lake of great ecological importance, a rare forest of stone pine, a popular sandy beach and a host of impressive archaeological sites make this area ideal for a nearby excursion.

Marathon has long been known for the Greeks’ victorious battle against the Persians in 490 BC. Thus, an ideal starting point for one’s tour of the area is the mound of the Athenians, a 10m-high tumulus erected after the battle. This hill and the adjacent bronze statue of the Greek commander Miltiades mark the spot of a large funeral pyre where 192 dead Athenian warriors were ceremonially cremated and interred. About 5k from the tumulus, one finds the Marathon Museum, near which lies the smaller burial mound of the Plataeans. On the right, as you approach, a modern exhibition building preserves the archaeological site of the prehistoric, Early Helladic cemetery at Tsepi (2.5k from the museum).

Visitors can continue to follow the historical thread at the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods; a Roman-era installation erected ca. AD 160 by the well-known sophist, philanthropist and native of Marathon Herodes Atticus. It can be found near the seafront church of Aghia Kyriaki, in the Brexiza area. Also worth seeing are the marble ruins of Herodes Atticus’ unique nymphaeum (water display), at the start of the Oinoi Gorge near Marathon village, flanked by a three-storied medieval watchtower (12th c.) and a Frankish chapel (Holy Apostles, 13th c.).

Nature walkers will appreciate a well-signposted trail network that also begins here, with one of the paths following an ancient road, and another

leading through the gorge to the foot of the Marathon Dam. The lake formed by this impressive marble structure, built in 1926-29, was Athens’ main source of water for decades; today, the area is ideal for walks. After enjoying the view, head downhill to Schinias National Park (a Natura 2000 site), covering an area of 1,400 hectares beside the sea. Stroll through the pine forest and along the beach – or admire the wetlands, thick with reeds and other vegetation, from the elevated observatory at Megalo Elos. Afterwards you can either head north to the picturesque archaeological site of Rhamnous, or south to Nea Makri where the pedestrian promenade, a favorite among locals, is lined with cafés and ouzeries.

INFO Marathon is located 47k northeast of Athens and can be reached via the Athens-Lamia National Road (exit Aghios Stefanos) • Archaeological Museum of Marathon, tel (+30) 2294.055.155, open Tue-Sun 8:00-15:00 • Ticket for the museum and site €3 (November-March).

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THE MARATHON DAM

E XPERIENCE E XCURSIONS

Mt Parnitha

Canyoning, rock climbing and skiing less than an hour’s drive from Athens? Even for locals, any visit to this national park is a revelation.

If the weather is good and you just want to enjoy a picnic in nature, designated areas can be found on the mountain, within clearings or beside springs and small chapels. If it’s action you crave, there is a world of choices: hiking or cycling on marked paths, canyoning, winter downhill skiing and, of course, rock-climbing – Mikri Varasova, Korakofolia and Petra are the most popular climbing spots, while more experienced climbers can attempt to conquer the 100-150m-tall rocks of Arma and Flambouri. The Bafi and Flambouri refuges will provide all you need for rock climbing – they also rent bicycles and serve coffee and food.

To get to the top of Mt Parnitha, you can either take the scenic road from the Thrakomakedones suburb or ride the cable car up to the Regency Casino Mont Parnes. If you choose to hike any of the trails (the 2-hour Aghia Triada-Skipiza-Mola and the Bafi-Houni Gorge-Thrakomakedones paths are outstanding), you are likely to encounter the red deer that inhabit the mountain, which is also home to over 40 other species of mammals, 132 species of birds and around 1,100 species of plants.

Along Parnitha’s eastern foothills, dense woodlands can be seen in and around the former royal retreat at Tatoi. Scattered across this private estate turned parkland covered mostly with Aleppo pine, are dozens of listed buildings dating from the 1870s, an extensive network of paths and numerous areas for leisure. The Greek royal family spent their summers here until 1948, later making it their permanent home. In 1973, the Greek state seized the property following a constitutional referendum that abolished the monarchy.

In its heyday, the Tatoi Estate hosted many great figures of the 19th and 20th centuries – including Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, Tsar Nicholas II, Emperor Haile Selassie, Jackie Kennedy and Richard Nixon – and often lay at the epicenter of historic events. Today, Tatoi stands as a monument to Greece’s history, architecture and natural beauty. You can pick your way through dilapidated buildings, visit the royal cemetery, enjoy a picnic or a bike ride – this is perhaps the most popular cycling destination in Attica.

INFO Tatoi is 15k from downtown and can be reached by the Athens-Thessaloniki National Road (Varybobi exit). Open daily until sunset, admission free. The Tatoi Friends Association offers tours for groups upon request, tel (+30) 6975.947.248 • Mt Parnitha is 43k from downtown. Flambouri refuge: Yiannis Lykidis, tel (+30) 697.225.6215; • Bafi refuge: Stephanos Sidiropoulos, tel (+30) 210.240.3556 114

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Cape Sounio The elegant Temple of Poseidon (450 BC), overlooking the sea, is the undisputed star of one of the most magical locations in Attica. Its famous sunset is in itself a reason to visit.

The southernmost tip of Attica, Cape Sounio, was where mythical King Aegeus of Athens, from whom the Aegean Sea got its name, jumped to his death after seeing his son Theseus’ ship returning from Crete with black sails, believing that he had been killed trying to slay the Minotaur. The cape was particularly strategic in antiquity: the Athenians used it as a coast guard station to control sea lanes to their port, Piraeus, and to Lavrio with its silver mines which were essential to Athenian strength in the 5th c. BC. At the Sanctuary of Poseidon, you can stroll around the archaeological site, the associated settlement and its stout defensive walls. Sounio National Park covers 3,500 hectares, with the best walks

starting from Aghios Konstantinos and taking you through the pine forest where you can visit a ravine called Chaos and numerous ancient mining installations.

Lavrio, a great mining center both in antiquity and in the 19th and 20th centuries, is essentially an open-air museum of industrial archaeology. There, you’ll also see the Technological and Cultural Park with over 40 buildings of unique architectural style, where the processing and sorting of ore was handled; today they operate as cultural centers hosting a variety of events. There is also the Handicraft and Industrial Educational Museum, which can be visited on request. You can enjoy coffee in the main square with its clock and neoclassical buildings or stroll

through the fish market and the picturesque Kyprianou district. Be sure stop at nearby Thorikos to admire one of the oldest theaters in Greece.

INFO Sounio is about 77k southeast of Athens and accessible via the Attiki Odos and Lavrio Highway or Poseidonos-Souniou coastal road. It can be reached by KTEL Intercity Bus (ktelattikis.gr/en/ensounio) • Sounio Archaeological Site, open daily 9:30-sunset, admission €4 (November-March) • Lavrio Museum, open Tue-Sun 10:00-15:00, admission €1• Archaeological site of Thorikos, admission free • Handicraft and Industrial Educational Museum, open Mon-Fri 8:3013:30 (weekends by appointment), tel (+30) 2292.025.575

E X P E R I E N C E N AT U R E

Mt Ymittos Biking through a richly diverse forest, exploring distinctive Byzantine monuments, pausing to enjoy a panoramic view... Ymittos, just a 20-minute trip from Athens, is the easiest of natural escapes for city-dwellers.

A mountain that many Athenians underappreciate, Mt Ymittos is a timeworn ridge whose lower slopes now are lapped by the rising tide of Athens’ urban development. Starting at the sea (near Glyfada and Voula), the mountain extends to Athens’ northern and eastern suburbs and constitutes, in the words of historian and writer Dimitrios Kambouroglou, “the screen separating the valley of spirit from the plain of spirits” – that is, an age-old division between Athens and the wine-growing districts of Attica.

Ymittos’ highest peak (1,026m), today topped with communications antennas, offers a superb view. Its atmospheric conditions were once an indicator for ancient Athenians seeking to predict the weather. On its slopes stood many rural sanctuaries; nowadays these are histor-

ic monasteries or publicly inaccessible caves – Koutouki in Peania is the only one set up for visitors.

The easiest Ymittos excursion is one that begins from Ano Kaisariani-Zografou and ascends to the top of the mountain, passing through Calabrian pine, cypress and carob. Either by car, bicycle, or on foot, you can enjoy a beautiful natural setting, visit the Kalopoula spring and most notably two fine historical monuments: the Byzantine Kaisariani and post-Byzantine Asteriou monasteries. From the former, you can follow the path up to the intriguing Church of the Ascension (Analipsi). In about 15 minutes, you will arrive at the ruined Fragkomonastiro Church and the restored chapel of Taxiarches, where the view is breathtaking.

INFO Kaisariani Monastery is about 8k from Athens. Open Tue-Sun 8:00-14:30, admission €1 • •

Asteriou Monastery is about 11k from Athens. Open Tue-Sun 6:00-13:00 & 17:30-21:00 Koutouki Cave is 26k from Athens. Open daily 8:30-14:30, admission €1

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WHAT’S COOKing?

From classic Greek recipes to elaborate brunch menus, from sophisticated meat dishes to guilt-free vegan choices.

“The Salep Vendor,” by Ersi Hatzimichali (1921-2001). Courtesy of Angeliki Hatzimichali Center for Folk Art & Tradition.

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TA S T E T H E C L A S S I C S

Feast Like the Greeks A six-course introduction to the traditional local cuisine.

BY N i kol eta M a k r ion i tou F OO D S T Y LI N G TI N A W E B B / P H OTO S G EOR G E D RAKO P OULO S

Spit-roasted lamb

Lamb and goat are both flavorsome meats and particular favorites with Greeks, who usually serve them on special occasions, either baked in the oven with potatoes, in a fricassĂŠe with wild greens, or as grilled ribs. But the most popular preparation, reserved for festive feasts and particularly Easter, is on the spit. Generously salted and rubbed with garlic, oregano and lemon, the entire animal is attached to a long metal spit and slow-roasted over a charcoal fire to acquire a crispy skin and juicy, richly flavored meat.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: Xinomavro is a classic choice, as its acidity and fruity notes counterbalance the richness of the meat.

An alternative would be a Limniona.

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The recipe for these spicy meatballs cooked in tomato sauce was brought by Greek refugees from Asia Minor back in the late 19th and early 20th century. Defined by its Eastern flavors, it has become a favorite staple in most Greek households. The actual meatballs are made of minced beef, kneaded with lots of moist bread to make them fluffy, and plenty of crushed garlic, cumin, chili pepper, allspice and cinnamon to give them that punch. A glug of sweet red wine is also more than welcome. Balls of this mix are then shaped into oblongs, cooked in a rich tomato sauce, and served with rice or smooth mashed potatoes.

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WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: Robust, ruby reds with a rich body and balanced acidity are the ideal partner, particularly single-variety wines or blends of Agiorgitiko, Xinomavro, Mavrotragano and dry Mavrodafni.

MousSaka

A majestic comfort food and firm favorite for a family Sunday lunch, moussaka is “built” with layers of fried or roasted sliced eggplant or zucchini and potato, covered in minced beef sauce and then topped with a thick blanket of béchamel sauce. It is richer and heavier than pastitsio, in which the vegetables are replaced with bucatini pasta.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: A fresh Agiorgitiko with very mild tannins and pleasant fruits, a young Xinomavro with a charming flavor imprint and a dynamic character, or even a mature Limnio with round, soft tannins, will all complement this complex dish.

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FASOLADA (bean stew)

Having fed generations of Greeks – for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health – fasolada bean stew may well be termed the national dish. Despite its humble ingredients (white beans, carrots, celery, tomato puree and extra virgin olive oil) and simple preparation, this staple of Greek cucina povera has a flavor that is all comfort. It is eaten hot as soon as the beans have cooked to soft perfection and ideally accompanied with a sprinkling of chili pepper and a few slices of raw onion, and a side of olives, feta and sardines or anchovies.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: Fasolada is not particularly wine-friendly, and pairing is a tough job. Your best bet would be a red or rosé of Agiorgitiko or Xinomavro, or perhaps an orange wine that could hold its own against this voluptuous dish.

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Greek Horiatiki Salad

One of the most popular salads in the world, the horiatiki is made with sweet summer tomatoes, olives, sliced onion and cucumber, and may be enriched with other delights like capers, arugula (rocket), oregano or purslane – always with extra virgin olive oil and a generous slab of feta cheese.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: Assyrtiko or Malagousia, in a single-variety or blended wine, will both work because the herbal aromas of these varieties create a dance of flavors with the components of the salad. But it would be equally interesting to try a fresh rosĂŠ with accentuated acidity from any native variety.

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ADVERTORIAL

Welcome to the marvelous world of Cellier!

Spinach pie

This all-rounder, is served at formal dinners, regular family meals, for breakfast or as a snack on the go. In spinach pie, crispy filo pastry, lightly greased with olive oil and sometimes topped with a sprinkling of sesame seeds, embraces a rich filling of spinach, dill, beaten eggs, spring onion and – usually – feta cheese.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT: Aromatic and oily whites bring out the filling’s creamy texture and elevate the flavors. Wines with refreshing acidity and a bold aromatic character with notes of flowers and spices, like Moschofilero or a Roditis blend, are just the thing.

DIY Want to impress your friends back home with some serious Greek cooking?

Scan the QR code and see the recipes.

With almost 80 years of experience, Cellier is one of the most important suppliers of wines, spirits and liqueurs in Greece and the official importer of the most famous and admired wine brands from around the world. At its four retail stores – in downtown Athens, Kifissia, Syngrou Ave and Mykonos – one can find all the Cellier products, including cigars, accessories and delicatessen.

Cellier’s flagship store is located at 1d Kriezotou, on one of the most historic streets of Athens, near Syntagma Square.

Since 1938, the Cellier brand has been associated with quality, excellent service and competitive prices.

The company stocks a large variety of more than 1,000 wine and spirit labels, from both Greek and international vineyards.

Staff are at your disposal to help you choose the best possible wines and spirits to meet your unique needs.

Visit any one of the stores or browse Cellier bilingual e-shop (www.cellier.gr) to learn everything about the magical world of wines and spirits from the most renowned Greek and international producers.

1d Kriezotou, Syntagma Tel. +30.210.361.0040 • Email: syntagma@cellier.gr •

•

www.cellier.gr

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Good to the Bone

From lamb chops and pork souvlaki to prime cuts, aged meats and innovative combinations, meat-eating in Athens has come a long way.

BY NENA DI M ITR IOU

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hen eating out, most Greeks put meat above all else. They usually prefer a traditional taverna/grill house, specialized in sizzling lamb chops and skewered meats. In recent years, a new wave of bistros and restaurants specializing in meat have raised the culinary bar significantly higher.

What we are seeing for the first time is imported meats being put on the same level as domestic offerings. Greeks are justifiably proud of the latter, as intensive animal farming is still quite limited in this country. But now, meats from select breeds are being flown in from some of the best farms in the world; French and American cuts are applied to meats

aged for months, and meats certified as coming from pedigree animals that are raised on top quality feed, whether grass or grain, yield cuts that are rich in intramuscular fat – meaning rich in flavor.

In the downtown area, Telemachos resembles a classic Parisian brasserie, with a lofty ceiling, grandiose chandelier, huge mirror and tasteful art de la table.

The menu offers a broad range of dishes: classic international and Greek recipes, from carpaccio (very thin slices of raw beef served with dressing or sauce) and Brazilian picanha (sirloin cap), to Thracian kavourmas (a slow-roasted, sausage-like cold cut) and pork fillets. The high quality of the ingredients is more than evident in both the raw and the grilled offerings.

Try the tartare (minced raw steak often mixed with seasonings, onion and raw egg) of Piedmontese beef fillet and the Greek heifer rib eye steak. There is also a good variety of aged Greek cold meats, while the wine list features more than 200 labels – mainly strong reds from Greece, France, Argentina and South Africa.

Behind the Hilton Hotel, in the area of Ilisia, Vezene is a stylish bistro that makes up in reputation what it lacks in size. The well-traveled chef and owner, Ari Vezene, was one of the first in Greece to introduce special cuts and lengthy (aka dry) aging.

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your entrée, choose the excellent loin chop from a 12-year-old retired dairy cow. Aged for 200 days, it has that perfect, rich and heavy unadulterated flavor that comes from the process. Also take advantage of the unusual combinations, such as the Japanese Miyazaki beef sashimi, served with a mushroom broth and smoked sea urchin. The goat’s neck, aged for two weeks and served with wild fricassée greens, is also a rare treat.

The wine list is a work of art, with some excellent international selections, and the famous Ari’s Deal Closer dessert (basically a tower made of dark chocolate browine, vanilla ice-cream and fudge) is a must.

Near the Museum of Contemporary Art in Koukaki, you’ll find Fabrica tou Efrosynou, a restaurant that doesn’t specialize in meat but has a few very in-

DRY & RAW

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teresting meat dishes. Best described as a new- age taverna with a varied decor of iron constructions and bronze chandeliers, it serves a plethora of Greek starters made with PDO products from around the country. The highlights are the pies, the handmade kavourmas and the delicious fries made with potatoes from Kilkis. The beef patty, made with young Greek beef, is beautifully cooked, juicy and delicious, as are the liver and rib eye steak. The wine list is sophisticated, with several lesser-known wines from native varieties and great value for money.

For a high-caliber extravaganza take a cab to Bournazi, a neighborhood some 15 minutes from the city center, to Base Grill. The owners, two brothers, have shaken up the Athens restaurant scene by opening this meat-only restaurant,

throwing down the glove in terms of quality as well as know-how. The cook on the meat is magnificent, but before you dig in, start with an original dish that other restaurants have tried – but failed – to replicate: fried eggs in a nest of finely-sliced fried potatoes. Another bestseller is the liver, which comes medium rare and dressed in nothing but a sprinkling of rock salt and a dash of olive oil – just right to bring out its deep metallic flavor. In order to ensure that customers are getting exactly what they want, the meat is cut at the table and includes such delectable choices as the Hereford rib eye on the bone, aged for 75 days.

Leave some room for a selection of fine cheeses, Greek and foreign, at the end.

The wine list is decent and well-priced, but you can also choose from dozens of

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(cherry blossom) mix, and wasabi mayonnaise on the side. You really should try the chorizo sausage made with pata negra (black Iberian pork). The meat is served together with classics with a twist, such as mashed potatoes with truffle and smoked parmesan, or a cream of spinach, mushrooms and onions. The wine list comprises some 75 labels imported from small wineries in Australia, New Zealand, California, South Africa, Italy, France and Spain.

If you’re up to traveling a few more kilometers outside of Athens, Kritikos in Pallini, near the capital’s airport, is one of the country’s most famous meat tavernas, around for 50 years and renowned for its good Greek meats. Try any of the steaks and the scrumptious bits like the kidneys and chops. This is solid no-frills food at a reasonable price.

TILEMACHOS ATHENS

INFO: • Base Grill, 64 Konstantinoupoleos, Peristeri, tel (+30) 210.575.7455 • Dry and Raw by Drakoulis, 103 Vas. Pavlou, Voula, tel (+30) 210.895.5655 • Fabrica tou Efrosynou, 34 Anastasiou Zinni, Koukaki, tel (+30) 210.924.6354 • Kritikos, 49 Aiolou, Pallini, tel (+30) 210.665.9061 • Telemachos Athens, 10 Panepistimou, Syntagma, tel (+30) 210.361.3300 • Vezene, 11 Vrasida, Ilisia, tel (+30) 210.723.2002

© DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

interesting beers by small Greek brewers.

Over in the southern suburbs, Drakoulis is a butcher’s shop famous for its special cuts and takes pride in the amazing dry-aged meats it brings in from selected farms around the world. Now, it also has an in-house restaurant, Dry and Raw. In this rather surprising space, soft lighting, leather, wood and rock complement the modern menu with dishes like bread with butter and marrow – although the music is quite loud. You can choose your cut of meat from the display cases and we recommend trusting the chef on how it shoukd be cooked. The Wagyu (Japanese Cattle) beef tartare is prepared on the spot and is nothing short of excellent: perfect fattiness offset by the acidic and hot elements of the recipe such as chives, finger lime with maple syrup, chili, sakura

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The Brunch Specialists Weekends in the city are made that much tastier with Hollandaise sauce, creamy eggs and maple syrup.

B Y N E N A D I M I T R I O U / P H O T O S tha l ia g a l anopou l ou

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tarring eggs cooked in all sorts of ways and fluffy pancakes, brunch has become the toast of the town in Athens. Even though the country does not have a brunch tradition, the past few years have seen cafés, restaurants and even concept stores embracing the trend and menus becoming enriched with dishes that bridge the sweet-savory divide and keep friends at the table for hours on end. Some places insist on the classics, successfully serving tried-and-true dishes, while others like to get creative, offering original recipes.

When it comes to classic brunch, we recommend the new, all-day bar Fill the Bracket in Kerameikos. From 11:00 to 17:00 every Saturday and Sunday, it serves great eggs Benedict made with choice smoked ham from France, artisanal bread and sweet potato chips, as well as authentic American pancakes with a fried egg and maple syrup – a titillating use of sweet and savory.

Among its top dishes are the avocado and smoked salmon sandwich with bread made of high-quality dinkel flour, served with a poached egg, as well as the fresh Greek pies made with handmade pastry stuffed with cheese, spinach or mushrooms.

If pancakes are not enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, fresh cinnamon rolls with a buttery glaze are baked every day and are the perfect treat to go with a smoothie of yoghurt, coconut cream, pineapple and cinnamon.

Classic recipes, artfully executed with excellent ingredients by a chef who’s a deft hand at European cuisines and techniques, await brunchers at the recently revamped 42 Barstronomy.

The weekend brunch menu includes eggs Florentine, scrambled eggs with truffles, authentic Viennese Hoffman schnitzel as well as dishes meant to be shared, like in a traditional Sunday lunch. The steak sandwich and beef Wellington are meant to be divided by a party of four, and are best accompanied by classic drinks and cocktails such as Bellinis, Bloody Marys and Spritzes.

The Greek answer to eggs Benedict is kagianas, a traditional dish comprising scrambled eggs, feta cheese and fresh tomatoes. At the new cocktail bar and micro-roastery Peek A Bloom, 134

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the clumsies

they serve a version of kagianas from the island of Zakynthos, using fresh anthotyro (goat’s milk cheese) instead of feta. Its brunch, served Monday through Wednesday until 17:00 and Thursday through Sunday until 21:00, includes classic dishes as well as more unusual ones like the pastrami sandwich with jalapeno peppers, lemon mayonnaise and spinach. Notable are the eggs with Hollandaise sauce and turkey ham, as well as the two soups of the day. We tried the sweet corn soup with smoked pork, which paired perfectly with a glass of absinthe from the big selection at the bar. Coffee is an equally good way to go, as it is roasted in-house.

Great coffee and a “Greekified” brunch menu is served at Warehouse in Exarchia, Monday through Saturday 10:0013:00 and Sunday until late in the afternoon. Try the strapatsada (scrambled eggs with pork pancetta, volaki cow’s milk cheese from Andros Island and tomato marmalade) or the very popular open sandwich with aged gouda, mustard seed mayonnaise and marinated picanha. There’s a regular menu of soups and hot dishes served every day after 13:00.

The Clumsies offers a fusion brunch menu that successfully blends French, American, British, Latin American and Asian flavors. Served every Sunday, strictly from 11:00 to 18:00, it comprises 16 choices, the most impressive of which is the Cuban Benedict. This dish is made up of a brioche-like bread with 136

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slow-roasted pork and a sweet, refreshing BBQ sauce made in-house (using Coca-Cola), two breaded poached eggs and a Hollandaise sauce with pickled gherkin and crisp onion. Our other two favorites are also egg-centered; one is made with a traditional Thessaloniki koulouri (sesame seed bread ring) and pastrami, and the other with mushrooms and brown butter. The menu also boasts bowls of noodles or poke (with rice and a Japanese omelet), as well as tuna burgers. On the sweet front, you’ll find fried bao buns made like Spanish churros and served with caramel and chocolate sauce, as well as pancakes with savory praline from cashews, also made in-house. The food must be accompanied by one of the famous cocktails created by the bar’s award-winning bartenders. Try the Verde Mary with vodka, spinach and avocado, or the Athenian Spritz with Otto’s Athens Vermouth and premium Greek Three Cents tonic.

The Trap serves what can be described as the most Greek and most creative version of brunch in the city. The owners of this cocktail bar have a passion for domestic spirits and seafood meze and take pride in their collaboration with the team behind Mezen, one of the best eateries in Volos, a city where tsipouro and meze are like religion. The customary starter is a cup of trachanas (frumenty) soup, but if you’re not a fan we recommend a bowl of thick and creamy Greek yogurt with blueberries and a homemade pasteli sesame, honey and lemon snap. If you have

A D V ERT O R I A L

ATHIRI

a hankering for eggs, order the strapatsada scramble with soft goat’s cheese and grated tomato, or the fried egg served with artisanal bacon. Rustic staples have been cleverly adapted into fillings for the sandwiches including spetzofai (a mixture of sausage, peppers and kasseri cheese) and beef cooked in a tomato sauce with eggplants and creamy cheese. The vegan dish of grilled mushrooms served with a fava split-pea puree and onion in a rye bun will please vegetarians as much as meat-eaters.

The sweets include American pancakes topped with bougatsa custard, icing sugar and cinnamon, or tahini and honey. You can also accompany your meal with a punch-packing cocktail like an Old Fashioned or a Negroni with tsipouro made exclusively for Trap be the Mezen team.

Chef Alexandros Kardasis opened Athiri in 2004 to showcase traditional Greek ingredients in unexpected ways.

Since 2007 the restaurant has been based in a charming neoclassical house with a green backyard on Plataion Street in Kerameikos.

Athiri has garnered many Greek Cuisine Awards since it first opened. From 2015 onwards, it has received a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin guide three times in as many years. It has also picked up a few Greek Cuisine Awards.

Creativity is key to Kardasis’ philosophy and he highlights the potential of classic, sometimes overlooked recipes

as well as new Greek and Mediterranean products.

An example is the popular kritharoto, a risotto-like dish he invented by using traditional orzo pasta instead of rice. Other popular favorites include sous-vide leg of lamb with trachanas (frumenty) from Arcadia, fava from the Cycladic island of Schinoussa served with caramelized onions and sweet tomatoes and octopus with sundried tomato and capers.

The restaurant continues to create new recipes as well as source products from all over Greece. Its short but flexible wine list follows the same seasonal changes as the menu.

INFO

42 Barstronomy, 3 Kolokotroni, tel (+30) 6987.509.709 The Clumsies, 30 Praxitelous, tel (+30) 210.323.2682 • Fill the bracket, 41 Thermopilon, Keramikos, tel (+30) 210.520.5324 • Peek a bloom, 14 Lekka, tel (+30) 210.321.9000 • Trap, 10 Othonos, Syntagma, tel (+30) 210.321.5561 • Warehouse, 21 Valtetsiou, Exarchia, tel (+30) 215.540.8002 • •

•

Open Tue-Sun 19:00-23:30, Mon closed Reservations (+30) 210.346.2983 • Email athirirestaurant@gmail.com • 15 Plataion, Kerameikos

TA S T E V E G A N

Go For Green

With a little help from international cuisines and trends, Athenians are discovering the benefits (and flavors) of healthy eating.

By Paulina B jörk K apsalis

Greek food is the healthiest in the world,” my Greek friends would tell me, again and again.

I knew there was something to it, having read about the Greek philosophers in school and the healthy diet they promoted. Pythagoras was vegetarian, and the Spartan diet is what made their warriors strong. Today, the longevity of people in Ikaria is assumed to be at least partly thanks to their diet.

The fresh vegetables, the olive oil, the winter fare of hearty lentil or bean soups and stews, and the summer food with its vitamin-packed fresh vegetables to give you quick energy in the heat were all examples of why Greek cuisine should make me feel healthy and fit. But it didn’t. For a long time, eating out in Greece was synonymous with decadence; fried things topped with creamy things, and desserts so massive they have to be served on dinner plates. The traditional dishes, while still enjoyed, were relegated to the family dining table.

Thankfully, healthy food is making a comeback. Following worldwide trends, Greeks are looking for ways to get back to healthy diets. In fast-paced Athens, cutting out convenience food and takeout would be impossible for most. In fact, after mothers and grandmothers, souvlaki joints probably feed the most mouths in Athens. But aside from the trusty kebab, burger, pizza and sandwich shops, you can always find fast-food options with a healthy twist.

As a response to Athenians’ interest in health food, some takeout places offer more nutritional versions of classic fast food, and others serve up healthy international cuisine. For example, Mystic Pizza in Exarchia and Mets make their pizza crust with hemp flour and offer toppings such as avocado, spinach and broccoli, whereas at Poké (near Syntagma Square) Hawaiian cuisine is making mouths water.

While juice cleansing (consuming only fruit and vegetable juices for a certain period of time in order to detoxifu your body) might sound extreme, but it’s actually neither hard nor just a fad.

Leda Chatzi, co-owner of Froots juice bar below the Acropolis, swears by the health benefits of juicing. “About two years ago, when we were just opening the restaurant, I had some serious health issues. Thanks to juicing, I got through my treatment,” she explains. She is not, however, promoting a juice-only diet.

A juice cleanse about twice a year, and including a juice or two to your daily diet is good enough. The takeout juice bars in Athens make it easy, as you can grab one on the go.

Not all healthy diets can win Greeks over so easily. Many Greeks’ impulsive response to the mention of vegetarian or vegan food might be to turn up their noses, but most eat vegan meals without even realizing it. The ladera (oil-rich vegetable stews), for example, are Greek comfort foods enjoyed in every household, and they’re usually vegan. Vine-leaf rolls, fava dip and horta (greens) are a few more examples.

Athenians are slowly learning that you don’t have to change your lifestyle completely to enjoy vegan cuisine. Xenofontas Pelekis, co-owner of vegan downtown restaurant Mama Tierra, laughs at the notion. “We’re not even consistently vegan ourselves; we’re vegan-friendly people who run a restaurant. We get some vegan tourists, but most of our regular customers are people working in the area popping out for lunch; they don’t come here because they’re vegan, but because they’re hungry!”

Alkistis Alexandratou and Demmy Georgiou, who run Lime Bistro in Gazi, agree that the vegans in town can’t fill the restaurant every day, but that’s ok. “We make food with natural ingredients, and that’s appreciated by meat eaters as well as vegans and vegetarians.”

Last July, Athens hosted its second annual Vegan Life Festival, with 12,500 guests – almost double the number of the previous year. Though it’s taken a while to get there, vegan food is definitely taking off, resulting in some excellent newly -opened restaurants. What do all of these restaurants have in common? Whether their food is vegan, raw, ethnic or in liquid form, it’s prepared with mostly seasonal and local ingredients.

At least six different vegetables and fruits are blended into Froots’ “Mr Green” juice.

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ON THE GO

HOLY GREENS Who says takeout food has to be greasy?

Holy Greens, located in an office building in the northeastern suburb of Maroussi, follows a Swedish concept of healthy but filling salads to give you energy throughout the day; perfect for a quick bite in between meetings.

Try: The Eat Your Greens, with red quinoa,

FONTANA LIVING WELL Jars filled with spices, herbs, superfruits, oats and seeds line the walls in this health store, which doubles as a juice bar.

Try: Your own choice of ingredients in a juice or smoothie before deciding which to purchase

for home, or go with something from the menu, like the Popeye, with spinach, chia seeds, banana, green apple, mint and lemon.

INFO: Ermou & 17 Aiolou • Open Mon-Sat 8:00-23:00, Sun 9:30-23:00

avocado, pickled ginger, broccoli, beetroot hummus and lemon basil vinaigrette, or the Beef Vietnam, with glass noodles, red cabbage, pulled beef, cucumber, pomegranate, roasted peanuts and cilantrohabanero dressing.

INFO: 3A Fragokklisias, Maroussi •

Open Mon-Fri 8:00-19.00, Sat 10:00-16:00

FROOTS Juices you could live on as well as raw soups and smoothies made with homemade almond milk.

FALAFELLAS Falafel is the souvlaki lover’s healthy option, and at Falafellas, you won’t feel like anything’s missing. This place is hip, and has been so for a couple of years already.

Try: Whatever is in season. The seasonal menu changes with the quality of the fruit and

Try: Everything. The falafel in pita bread,

vegetables. From the regular menu, try the Mr Green juice, with spinach, celery, lime, green apple, cucumber and parsley.

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the hummus and the tabbouleh.

INFO: 51 Aiolou • Open Mon-Thu 11:00-23:00, Fri-Sat 11:00-00:00

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VEGAN NATION A wild mix of different takeout foods, all coming from the same busy kitchen, is what brings people here. Vegan Nation makes everything from sushi to moussaka, to Brazilian feijoada to gazpacho, and from healthy breakfasts to decadent desserts.

NOVAGEA The beverages at this juice bar are good for whatever ails you. They’re not medicine, but if you’re suffering from a hangover, or are a smoker or a diabetic, the staff will find something special to recommend to you.

Try: Juice No. 13, with kiwi, pear,

blackberry, lemon balm, cherry tomato, grapes, carrot and spearmint.

INFO: 86 Ermou • Open Mon-Sat 10:00-22:00

INFO: 4 Amalias, Syntagma • Open Mon-Fri 6:00-22:30, Sat 7:30-22:30, Sun 8:30-22:30; 6 Vyronos & Vakchou, Plaka • Open daily 9:3019:00

POKÉ HAWAIIAN SUSHI Chef Giannis Kantilidis, who used to work at the renowned seafood restaurant Varoulko, makes poké (bowls of Hawaiian sushi) for the masses in the center of Athens. You can design your own bowl with fresh, raw Greek seafood, rice, veggies and fruit, or you can choose a bowl from the menu.

PURE This is the place for juices, smoothies, and healthy snacks that are products of organic farming.

Try: The O’Ahu, with salmon, bean sprouts, avocado, nori, crispy onions and soy-sesame

Try: The X-Factor juice, with kiwi,

Try: The sandwiches, the spaghetti bolognese with soy mince, any of the salads and the

brownie tiramisu.

sauce; the Wai Mea, with fresh white fish, avocado, mango, red chili, coriander and the same sauce; and the Ai Ai, with boiled octopus, green beans, and aioli (a garlic and olive oil sauce).

Order the small bowls so you can try them all.

INFO: 7 Petraki, Syntagma • Open Mon-Sat 13:00-23:00

pineapple, spinach, wheatgrass, and honey, and the coconut chia pudding.

INFO: 21 Sina, Kolonaki • Open Mon-Fri 9:00-20:00, Sat 9:30-19:30

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EAT IN

LIME BISTRO With a focus on vegetables and unprocessed ingredients, this unpretentious bistro makes scrumptious healthy food that you’ll want to copy at home.

Try: The dakos with homemade carob

rusks, topped with grated tomato and cream cheese made from almonds, or the mushroom gyros (which tastes remarkably similar to pork gyros) with homemade pita bread and vegan tzatziki.

INFO: 23 Dekeleon, Gazi • Open Wed-Sun 14:00-23:00

MAMA TIERRA Books on veganism for kids and adults line the wall at Michelin Guide-recommended Mama Tierra. Chef and co-owner Polash Alam prepares international cuisine with added Indian spices and natural ingredients.

YI Head to the southern suburb of Glyfada for some of the healthiest dishes in Athens. Aside from a few dishes with honey, Yi’s menu is all vegan raw food. The kitchens here look like a chain of laboratories, which is what’s needed to make all their homemade flours, butters, breads and more.

Try: The desserts. Particularly the banoffee, and the unbelievable chocolate pastry with

hazelnut cream filling. The wraps made from dried apple and banana are sweet, but strangely a perfect match for the savory stuffings. The “fricassée” truly does taste just like a tangy fricassée stew, but is raw and made with mushrooms and avocado.

INFO: 69 Grigoriou Lambraki • Mon-Fri 8:00-24:00, Sat 9:00-00:45, Sun 9:00-24:00

Try: The comforting vegetable korma, the

MYSTIC PIZZA Known for using hemp flour in their pizza crusts, Mystic Pizza always works with healthy, organic ingredients. All food preparation is done after you order, to keep the food as flavorful and nutritious as possible.

INFO: 84 Academias • Open Mon-Fri 12:00-

spirulina, veggies and cream, and the Mystic tahini salad with greens, orange slices, crushed cannabis seeds and cranberries.

excellent mushroom burger and the green salad with strawberry vinaigrette.

22:00, Sat 13:00-22:00

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Try: The avocado and mushroom pizza with chili and lemon, the hemp-flour tagliatelle with

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ADVERTORIAL

On the seventh floor of King George, A Luxury Collection Hotel, at Syntagma Square, you’ll enjoy modern Greek cuisine and signature cocktails while taking in unrivaled views of the Acropolis. Tudor Hall Restaurant features unique neoclassical décor and food with a famously authentic scent and flavor.

Executive chef Asterios Koustoudis and chef de cuisine Alexandros Koskinas put emphasis on quality ingredients, changing the menu with the seasons so as to highlight the best produce available. The everyday challenge for the chef and the kitchen staff is to add modern twists to traditional recipes from all over Greece, like the classic Corfu sofrito served with parsnip purée, combining the freshness and elegance of modern dishes with the nostalgia and comfort of homemade cuisine.

Corfu Sofrito INGREDIENTS (for 4 servings)

6 medium size parsnips, cut into large pieces • 500 g veal fillet, cut into slices • 4 cloves of garlic, sliced • 1 bunch of parsley, chopped • 160 ml wine vinegar • 60 ml olive oil • 120 g butter • 80 g white wine • 200 ml beef broth • 80 g cream • 60 g flour •

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METHOD

Boil the parsnips in lightly salted water for 30-35 minutes. Strain, and place in a blender along with 100 g of butter, pepper, olive oil and cream. Puree until smooth. Season the meat and dredge it in flour.

Sauté in olive oil, over high heat. Add garlic and parsley. Stir for a while. Add vinegar and white wine, and let the alcohol evaporate. Once all the liquid has evaporated, add the beef broth and the remaining butter, and cook until the sauce thickens.Serve the meat with the hot parsnip purée. Garnish with parsley leaves.

• Dress code: Elegant smart casual • Opening hours: 18:00-00:15 (last orders) For reservations, please contact 210.333.0265 or 210.322.2210 • King George, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens 3 Vasileos Georgiou A’ 105 64 Athens Greece