ATHENS

I was there way back in 1967 during a reward trip that my school had given me because I was a good student and I found myself among other geniuses from all over Italy but strangely enough 50% were Romans as if the skill had been concentrated in capital! The trip was centered on classical Greece where we visited Corinth, Mycenae, Delphi, Epidaurus, Nauplia and then of course Athens where we visited the Acropolis, the national archaeological museum, the Plaka district and then we went to Cape Sounion to see the temple of Poseidon at sunset with an unparalleled view of the Aegean Sea. At the time of my visit, Greece was living in an oppressive dictatorship and there were tanks in the center of the city, furthermore the euzoni, the guards of the tomb of the unknown soldier had changed the traditional kilt made of hundreds of meters of fabric into a short one military skirt. The symbol of Athens is the Parthenon dating back to the time of Pericles, around the 5th century BC, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, protector of the city to whom the Greeks had dedicated a 12 meter high statue sculpted by the famous sculptor Phidias kept in the central part of the temple to which only the cleaners dedicated to its cleaning had access. Over the centuries the Parthenon suffered two serious fires and the statue was lost. Furthermore, the temple was first transformed into a Christian church, then into a mosque and finally into a depot for explosives and at the end of the 1600s the Venetians shot and blew up the temple, then at the beginning of the 1800s the English stole the friezes which are still preserved in the British Museum, London. Despite everything, the Parthenon, which is the maximum expression of Hellenic art, continues to make a good impression on the Acropolis. ​Near the Parthenon there is the Erechtheion, another beautiful temple with four statues, further down there are two theatres, that of Dionysius and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The Agora was the central area where the main events of public, social, economic, mercantile, leisure life, etc. took place... Athens is home to the ruins of the Greek Agora dug with difficulty over many years and events and the Roman Agora built in the following centuries. Ceramico is the neighborhood of Athens where the potter's shops were located. It is currently the largest necropolis in Gracia. Hadrian's Library was an extraordinary building, created to house the book collections of Emperor Hadrian, it occupied a large area and was surrounded by 100 columns. In the center there was an atrium, where in the 5th century AD. an early Christian church was built, it was destroyed and forgotten until the end of the 19th century when excavations began, which revealed blocks of limestone and impressive Corinthian columns more than eight meters high. The Temple of Olympian Zeus, also called Olimpeion, was built between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. in honor of Olympian Zeus. it is located five hundred meters south-east of the Acropolis and it was an impressive construction, made of marble which had over 100 Corinthian columns 15 meters high, of which only 15 are preserved. The construction began in the 6th century BC. it was revived at the time of the emperor Hadrian around 130 AD. He had a large gold and ivory statue and portrait of himself built as well as a high marble door but all were destroyed by an earthquake in the Middle Ages. Today some columns stand above a green lawn. The Panatinaiko stadium was built of wood in 330 BC. to host the Panathenaic, religious and competitive festivals that were held every 4 years. It was later rebuilt in marble to host the first Olympics of the modern era in 1896. Worth seeing is the archaeological museum built a few decades ago at the base of the Acropolis, but even more so the large archaeological museum which displays over 4,000 art objects from Greek antiquity including some gold masks. It is worth visiting the Plaka district, close to the Acropolis, a famous, popular district very popular with tourists visiting Athens due to the presence of typical restaurants and hotels at affordable prices. Syntagma Square is the heart of Athenian life, where rallies, concerts, etc. are held. The parliament building is located in the square and the tomb of the unknown soldier presided over by the euzonians who change the guard every hour. It was first the royal palace of King Otto, the first Greek king around 1840 and then inhabited by his successors, In the same square stands the Grande Bretagne hotel where the most important people visiting Athens are hosted and Ermou street, the commercial street par excellence, starts from the square. Outside Athens it is worth taking a trip to Cape Sunion, a promontory 70 km away to see the sunset over the Aegean sea and the temple of Poseidon. Among the pillars of Greek cuisine we find: the famous pita, the traditional bread, always present on the table and used above all to serve the main dishes based on meat or vegetables feta, the cheese exported all over the world, available in a thousand different versions lamb meat, used for rolls or kebabs octopus, dried in the sun and then grilled moussaka, a pie made with minced meat and aubergines, enriched with bechamel and cheese saganaki, or fried cheese Mediterranean seasonings, such as olive oil, garlic, oregano and lemon Dolmades, vine leaf rolls stuffed with rice souvlaki, the typical spiced meat skewers the Greek salad, made with tomatoes, olives and cucumbers, very popular especially in the summer period the tzatziki sauce, prepared with creamy yogurt, cucumbers and garlic the typical gyros, or spit kebab baklava, a very popular dessert in the world, made up of numerous layers of crunchy phyllo pastry filled with honey and dried fruit the famous Greek yogurt, creamy, served both as a dessert together with dried fruit and honey, and as a base for numerous sauces ouzo, the anise-based liqueur that the Greeks do not give up. If you are in Greece, it will be impossible not to come across some of these dishes or a sirtaki show in the place where you are eating. And drink the Retsina white wine which takes its name from the resin contained in the barrels that preserve it and give it a particular flavor Kalimera and Kalispera ​ ​href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5EzDDiLENT3lqfQ6QV3jFOMmC8B_Ows4feLd3kk2TsMU-DCSsEXorGD2bd29KM4rmTYxF7MjGASiSnCOKzt40jAVFjRvGVZC1IKgDcXfF7eJ-CCUa7yy1v_Ts4A6bLA6r2zjLIO9FGBIffJBISQqjHY4qGmbAkTcsoj9zT-77wxXRWdJhp8w/s275/ate1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; ">