Antiquity above, a modern city below

Athens is built around a rock. The Acropolis rises some 150 metres above sea level in the middle of the city, and the Parthenon on top of it has been the fixed point of every view for nearly 2,500 years. Around its foot, a pedestrian promenade links the main ancient sites, so you can walk from the Theatre of Dionysus to the Agora and on towards the Kerameikos almost without meeting traffic.

The modern city presses in on all sides, and that contrast is the point. Plaka and the whitewashed lanes of Anafiotika give way to the flea market at Monastiraki, the meat and fish halls on Athinas Street and the bars of Psyrri. Athenians eat late and outdoors; in the warm months the evening begins on a rooftop with the floodlit temple in view and ends well after midnight.

It is also a seaside capital. Trams link Syntagma with the coast and run along it to Glyfada and Voula, and beyond them the shore road passes the thermal lake at Vouliagmeni on its way to Cape Sounion, where the Temple of Poseidon stands above the Aegean. Come in spring or autumn if you can: midsummer afternoons are very hot, and the ancient sites offer little shade.