When in Athens, do as millions of other tourists do: begin your tour at the Acropolis. In fact, go one better than thousands of them by being there by
8am: you’ll beat the coach loads of cruise-ship tourists who begin arriving by 10 and swarm up the ‘hill’ like culturally dedicated ants. (Open Tues-Sun 8am -6.30pm; Mon opens 11am. Entry?). Valid 48 hours.)
The Acropolis is at the heart of the city, in more ways than one. Your tour on the ‘sacred rock’ will take you to the Theatre of Dionysos, the Erechtheion, the Parthenon and several other ancient monuments.
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PICK OF PLAKA
You’ll be warned off Plaka, but you’ll probably go there your first evening in Athens. Yes, yes, it’s touristy; it’s filled with souvenir vendors, cheesy guitar-strumming middle-aged men, cheeky restaurant boys who solicit custom flirtatiously. It’s also a very pretty, well-preserved and polished tourist must-do. Walk up and down the narrow stone-paved streets, and work up an appetite for a bottle of wine and to get ripped off at a taverna. Janpath is a lot worse.
On your first evening, I’ll also bet you won’t return to your hotel unburdened with purchases.
Must Not Miss
A visit to the Greek Orthodox churches with their beautiful Byzantine art illuminated with the light of a dozen slender candles. Athens’ important Byzantine churches, most built between the 11th and 12th centuries, are easy to find and easy to visit-several are located in the central Plaka and Anafiotika areas,
Greek churches- gentle and welcoming-are more atmospheric, but for a quiet study of Byzantine art head for the Byzantine Museum (V. Sophias Ave; open Tue-Sun 8.30 am-3.00pm).
If you have the time, make the trip to the Daphni Monastery outside Athens-its 11th century mosaics depicting the Virgin Mary, Christ and the saints are unique.
GOOD SPIRITS & WINES
• Wine –lovers love to hate Retsina, the 100% Greek wine, which they say, tastes like turpentine. The country wine is flavored with pine resin, a tradition that goes back to Homeric times when clay amphorae used to transport wine were sealed with resin. The Greeks still like it that way.
• Many more non-Greeks like Ouzo, and that’s not a lot. It occupies about the same mind-space with the uninitiated as our own feni. This clear brandy-made from pressed grapes, herbs and berries-is brilliant. If you like to mix you drinks with saunf.
• Metaxa- a sweet, heavy, dark, grape brandy, also slightly resin-flavoured-completes the trio of demanding Greek wines.
Unadventurous? Try a Santorini white wine (Gaia Notios’ Thalassitis is recommended) of Boutari’s ‘paraga’ red.
