Once our Swiss Air flight from Zurich landed at the Athens International Airport and I’d collected my luggage from the baggage carousel, we took an airport taxi for the half hour ride to the Hotel Divani Caravel. Cabs are expensive in the capital city and it cost us about $75 (including tip). But, as this was our first time in Athens and we’d been traveling for just about 24 hours, there was no way we were going to fiddle with any buses, let alone the metro! A member of the Leading Hotels of the World, the Divani enjoys a prime location in the heart of this city, making it the ideal place to headquarter while visiting its major attractions.
This 5-star property exemplifies refined luxury and is well known for its personalized service. It’s a large hotel featuring 471 rooms, including 42 suites and 2 Presidential Suites. It also boasts a health club and spa as well as a rooftop pool with a million-dollar view. We were booked into a Divine Suite for our 3-night stay. The 550 square-foot space featured a nicely decorated bedroom with king bed and a marble bathroom with double sinks and a separate tub and shower. The spacious parlor was equipped with a good-sized desk, an in-room safe as well as a comfortable sofa and 2 wing chairs. Complimentary Wi-fi was also included.
Hotel Divani offers a number of choices when it comes to dining. The Amalia Restaurant is open for breakfast daily from 6:30A to 10:30A. The restaurant features a traditional setting with warm colors. Offerings here are varied, ranging from traditional egg dishes to a variety of Greek delicacies and low-calorie options for health conscious guests. The Fyllopolis All-Day Restaurant is one of the most popular and busy meetings places in the City of Athens. Fyllopolis is a compound word. “Fyllo” means leaf in Greek and “polis” means city. I guess you could call this place an urban jungle! At any rate, aside from a rich choice of refreshments, visitors will find an impressive menu with breakfast items on the menu and sandwiches, gyros, pizzas, burgers and pasta dishes served throughout the day. Opening hours are from 7:00 in the morning until 1:00A. The Juju Bar and Restaurant is the hotel’s signature establishment featuring white table linens set against black-marble floors and mahogany walls. There are 2 separate areas at Juju; the Bar serving custom cocktails in an inside lounge with art-deco sofas, tables and soft lighting and the restaurant itself with an expansive menu featuring any number of starters and Greek salads as well as meat, seafood and pasta dishes. Twenty-four hour room service is also available but the Pool Bar and Thea Restaurant are only open on a seasonal basis.
The day after our arrival we set off on a guided sightseeing tour of the city. The first morning stop was the Herodes Atticus Theatre. This open-air theatre is one of the legendary sites that sits beneath the slopes of the Acropolis on the southwest side. Widely known by the locals as simply “Herodeon,” it was built nearly 2,000 years ago (between 160 and 174 AD) by Athen’s then-wealthy benefactor Herodeos Atticus as an ode to his late wife. It was the third Odeon to be built in the city and was distinctly Roman in style. Although it was neardestroyed some 100 years after its construction, it became just another ruin for over 15 hundred years until some sporadic rebuilding began in the 20th Century. During the German Occupation (1941-1944), the theatre hosted concerts by the Athens State Orchestra as well as performances by the newly-formed Greek National Opera and its young star Maria Callas. It was in the 1950s that Athens decided to fully reconstruct the theatre. Today, the Herodeon remains one of the city’s most-coveted venues hosting ballets and arias to ancient Greek tragedies. It’s also hosted many world-famous artists, including Placid Domingo, the Bolshoi Ballet, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minelli and Diana Ross.
Athens has a dynamic food scene with restaurants serving up everything from traditional fare and street food to Michelin-star cuisine and experimental Greek dishes. Recommended by our guide, we stopped for lunch at Ama Laches Stis Nefelis, located on a quiet street in the vibrant artistic neighborhood of Exarchia. This restaurant is set in one of the most beautiful gardens in the city. We were given the choice of dining outside or inside the high-ceilinged historic house. It was a beautiful June day and so we sat outside to enjoy the friendly service and the diverse menu. It was filled with items sourced from all over Greece along with an extensive wine and spirits list. Ama Laches specializes in modern Greek cuisine. We loved the Greek cheeses, lightly fried meatballs with ouzo and mint along with a Greek take on risotto.
The afternoon found us visiting the Plaka neighborhood between the northern slopes of the Acropolis and Ermou Street. This picturesque neighborhood is a tourist hotspot but we couldn’t help but appreciate the charming village atmosphere giving it its wide appeal. The narrow pedestrian streets and the cheerful little squares of the quarter are lined with lovely bougainvillea-trimmed, pastel-painted houses, restaurants and shops selling jewelry, clothing. and local ceramics. Tucked away in quiet corners of the neighborhood are several historic churches worth visiting. The first is the Church of Metamorfosis with brickwork patterns on its walls and domes that have remained intact since its construction in the 11th Century. The other is the Church of the Kapnikarea, also dating from the 11th Century and built over an ancient Greek temple dedicated to the worship of a goddess. Houses of worship like these gave us a real appreciation for the long and storied history of this vibrant city.
We saved the best for last as our guide took us up to the Acropolis on our final day in Athens. It’s one of the world’s most breathtaking ancient ruins. The Acropolis is the most striking and complete ancient Greek monumental complex still in existence today. It’s situated on a hill rising more than 500 feet from the basin of Athens. This hill is rocky and steep on 3 sides and has an extensive, nearly flat top. Strong fortifications have surrounded the Acropolis for over 3,300 years! It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and under the jurisdiction of the Greek Culture, Education and Religious Affairs Ministry. The site contains several temples dedicated to various Greek Gods as well as the remains of the Theatre of Dionysus. At one time, this theatre could accommodate 17,000 people and was in continuous use down to the Roman period. At the center of the Acropolis lies its “crown jewel,“ the Parthenon. It’s one of the world’s most famous buildings and a former temple dedicated to the goddess Athena whom the people of the city consider their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was a at the peak of its power. The Parthenon is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and is a monument to the nation’s glorious past and the achievements of the ancient Athenians.
Prior to leaving the area, we visited the Acropolis Museum, focused on the archaeological findings on the site of the Acropolis. It was built to house every artifact found on the rock and its surrounding slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. The museum was founded in 2003 and opened to the public in 2009. More than 4,250 objects are on exhibit over an area greater than 150,000 square feet! It's home to masterpieces of Archaic and Classical art that once belonged on the sacred rock. The museum’s collections are on display on 3 levels while the 4th level houses the Museum Shop, Cafe and any number of offices. I must mention to you the museum was built over an extensive archaeological site. One fascinating museum feature were the transparent glass floors found inside and out which allowed us to see the excavations below.
With so much history under our belts, we needed a pleasant diversion for the afternoon and our guide drove us one hour south to the small-town beach resort of Palaia Fokaia on the country’s southwest coast. Lovely beaches offering a variety of water-sport activities are the area’s top attraction. Hotel and villa rentals are plentiful here for those seeking a respite from the city and the resort also boasts good shopping and good restaurants. We can testify to that as we stopped for lunch at Taverna Ta Pefka, considered by many to be the best Greek restaurant in town. Our guide knew the owner quite well and we were treated like royalty, enjoying an abundant, traditional Greek salad and a local whitefish cooked to perfection. The ride back to the Divani Hotel was a relaxing one. Strolling to a nearby cafe for a quiet dinner much later that evening, we talked about all we had seen those past few days. We said goodbye to Athens the following morning to begin a long-awaited cruise of the Adriatic. I’ll tell you all about that in a future post.
Until next time..stay safe.
We have visited Greece but not Athens - sounds like we missed a lot!
Sounds like a visit that was chock full of fun and very good dining. You would need a cruise after that to chill out and relax!!