Venice house numbers seem to have been designed for the convenience of bureaucrats, rather than for ordinary people trying to find a particular address. Venice is divided into six districts (sestrieres) and in each district they started numbering at one and went on until every house had a number. It's better instead to carry a map and put big crosses on places you want to find again.

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Open air cinemas are a nice experience, if you want to sit back under the stars with a drink in your hand and enjoy a much loved classic film (which is, to be fair, the majority of their repertoire).

If however you are a serious film buff and want to capture every second from the latest releases then this won't be the place for you. They are often located in residential areas, which means that the sound has to be kept low to avoid disturbing the neighbours, and at times can drowned out by heavy traffic. Most are no longer a serious commercial proposition and rely on subsidy from the council to continue. The projection equipment is often outdated too and the first show of the evening often begins before sunlight has faded enough to see the picture.

I would still recommend a visit or two.

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A plate of small, freshly cooked doughnuts, smothered in honey syrup and cinammon and eaten warm.

Most tourists never try these as they are more of a winter treat than a summer one.

Sold everywhere once you know what you are looking for

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The official Italian tourist board, a government body, runs a hotel booking service and has an office at the railway station of all Italy's major cities (the one in Rome, however, does not act for the cheapest hotels). If you tell them exactly what you are looking for they will try to best match your needs, then ring the hotel to book a room for you. Best of all it costs nothing; You pay a small fee which is set against your hotel bill. And you get a free map to help you find your way there, usually marked with the nearest vaporetto stop.

Watch out for the touts who accost you as you queue. They are not official.

Inside Venice railway station

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You don't need a car to visit Hymettos. In fact it is probably easier without one. Simply take the bus from the central terminus on Panepistimiou to Kaisariani. Stay on all the way to the other end, then get off at the Kaisariani cemetery, about 20 minutes away, and follow the main road up to get across the ring road. The mountain is the big rock ahead of you. Can't miss it, guv.

Kaisariani

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If you want to know what Greeks choose to eat when they go out then the answer is meat, meat, and more meat washed down with the odd chip or bit of salad. And there is no better place to enjoy this than in the hills of Fyli, a few miles north of Athens.

To get there you drive out of town through the massive gypsy slum of Ano Liossia (a sight that many Greeks would prefer you didn't see) before climbing up the slopes of Mt Parnitha to Fyli itself.

You will know you have reached Phyli by the sight of dead sheep and goats hanging outside doors. These aren't butcher's shops as many think at first, but the restaurants themselves, and the bodies are lunch. Not one for the vegetarians, or the sensitive since there are dozens of these tavernas within a couple of miles of each other, Greeks aren't squeamish about where meat comes from.

In winter you eat inside, warmed by vast, open wood fires; in summer everything moves out into the garden. Meat is sold by weight, and the prices are very reasonable. Someone I knew boasted of once having eaten a whole lamb by himself. Compare that to the price of two weedy little chops in Britain. Wash it down with a few jugs of home made wine, pulled from a massive barrel then wander out into the hills and find a tree to sleep it off under.

On the slopes of Parnitha on the old road to Thiva

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Athenians like to eat out and not just on grand occasions. So if you want to avoid the overpriced tourist traps in the centre then just jump on a bus heading out from the centre then get off twenty minutes or so later and look around you.

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