Athens pushes its suburbs higher and wider with each year and the monasteries of Dhafní and Kessarianí , once well outside the city limits, are now approached through more or less continuous cityscape. However, each retains a definite countryside setting and makes for a good respite from the central sights.

 

The monasteries are easily reached by taxi or by local city transport . For Dhafní (9km west of the centre), take bus #A16, #B16 or #A16 from Platía Elefthérias, 300m down Pireós from Omónia; the monastery is to the left of the road, about twenty-minutes' ride (Platía Elefthérias is popularly known as Platía Koumoundoúrou and the return buses are so marked). For Kessarianí, take blue bus #224 from Akadhimías to the last stop, from where the church is a thirty- to forty-minute climb further up the lower slopes of Mount Imittós.

The northern suburb of Kifissiá is included in this section as an insight into wealthy Athenian life - it has long been where the rich have their villas - and for natural history students, who may want to check out the Goulandhrís Museum. Kifissiá is the northernmost stop on the metro. Classical enthusiasts may want to continue from Dhafní to the site of Eleusis , a further twenty-minute ride on the #A16 bus route.