The largely pedestrianized area of Pláka , with its alleys and stairs built on the Turkish plan, is the most rewarding part of the city for daytime wanderings. In addition to a scattering of Roman sites and various offbeat and enjoyable museums, it offers glimpses of an exotic past, refreshingly at odds with the concrete blocks of the metropolis. If you can, time your visit to coincide with the Sunday morning flea market around Monastiráki square and along that side of the Agora.

 

Roughly delineated by Syndagma, Odhós Ermoú and the Acropolis, the district was basically the extent of nineteenth-century, pre-independence Athens, and provided the core of the city for the next few decades. Once away from Syndagma, you'll find narrow winding streets lined with nineteenth-century Neoclassical houses, some grand, some humble, with gateways opening onto verdant courtyards overlooked by wooden verandas. Tiled roofs are edged with terracotta medusa-heads, goddesses and foliage designs, ornaments known collectively as akrokerámata ; the grander facades are decorated with pilasters and capitals and wrought-iron balconies. Poor and working class for most of this century, the district has lately been extensively gentrified and renovated.