Escape the heat and crowds in the calming oasis of the Goulandris Collection of Cycladic Art. The museum houses a prehistoric collection from the 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age), the most evocative being marble figurines, some of them near lifesize.

4 Neophytou Douka, GR 106 74 Athens; tel: 210 72 28 321; www.cycladic-m.gr
nearest metro: Syntagma or Evangelismos;
Closed Sunday and Tuesday

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See the most densely populated inner-city in Europe. Apartment blocks stand squeezed shoulder to shoulder eight storeys high. Residents from Ethiopia, Nigeria , Bulgaria ,Pakistan , Albania and Poland occupy miserly flats some below ground level. Flora and fauna comprise of pigeons, alley cats, anorexic pergamon trees and plant pots leaning over balcony railings. Take a stroll through the neighbourhood and listen unfettered to every form of industrial noise disallowed by the health and safety act. There is nowhere like it.

Nearest metro: Agios Nicholaos

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Make a late-night call to a Rembetika club to hear the haunting hashish-fuelled blues of the Greek refugees who were forced to leave Turkey in the repatriation that followed the 1922 Asia Minor catastrophe.

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In Athens there are more than one open-air summer cinema. They are a cultural delight.

Aigli – Village Cool Summer Cinema, Zappeion (in the National Gardens), Historic Centre; Tel: 210 336 9369/6970; Nearest metro: Syntagma

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The grassy ruins of the ancient agora, if not the walkway of Dionysiou Areopagitou. Here amongst the butterflies and bees you’ll experience Athens at its most magical and atmospheric.

Entrances on Adrianou and on the descent from the Acropolis, Monastiraki; Tel: 210 321 0185; Nearest metro: Monastiraki or Thisio; Open: 8am-7pm daily May-Oct, 8am-5pm daily Nov-Apr, (museum closes 30mins before site); Admission: €4, €2 concessions, free to holders of €12 Acropolis ticket (no credit cards); www.culture.gr/

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The highpoint of any trip to Greece is a visit to the Acropolis – if only to discover as Freud did, that it exists “just as we learnt at school”. As monuments go it’s breathtaking, no matter how many times you see it up close. But climbing the limestone rock is neither kind nor easy in the torturous Athenian heat. The trip should be made early morning, or (gates permitting) at sunset when the capital is bathed in red, violet and blue.

Dionysiou Areopagitou; Tel: 210 321 0219; Nearest metro: Akropoli; Open: 8am-sunset daily Apr-Dec, 8.30am-2.30pm daily Jan-Mar; Admission: €12, €6 concessions, free to under-18s, free to all Sun Nov-Mar (no credit cards); www.culture.gr/

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Unbeknown to most, Athens boasts an array of exceptional museums, not least the Museum of Islamic Art, which houses the biggest selection of Islamic art outside the Muslim world and is rightly regarded as one of Europe’s must-see cultural institutions. It opened in 2004 as an annexe to the Benaki Museum, which is also worth visiting along with the Cycladic Museums. Technopolis, a foundry converted into an art gallery in the Gazi area, puts on good shows and concerts.

Museum of Islamic Art, Agion Asomaton 22 (cnr Dipylou), Keramikos; Tel: 210 367 3000; Nearest metro: Thisio/ Monastiraki; Open: 9am-5pm Mon & Wed-Sat, 9am-3pm Sun; www.benaki.gr/

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