Athens, white against the blue

A good flight deal is what I had been patiently waiting for some time, to be able to return to Athens and basically see the Archaeological Museum. The deal was provided, as almost always, by Ryanair, and for 150 euros for 4 people we spent a December weekend there. From the airport we took the Airport Express X95 bus as far as Syntagma Square. This fast bus runs 24 hours a day, during the day it comes every 20 minutes and after midnight it leaves every 40; the ticket can be bought on board and costs 5 euros. Alternatively you can take the metro at 8 euros per person, but with the possibility of paying less if there are more than 3 people or if there are minors; we didn't have to make this journey at rush hour, but since city traffic is proverbially disastrous, in such cases the metro is certainly preferable.

On average, if there are no hitches, you have to allow at least 35 to 40 minutes. In the city we chose the Hotel Nafsika, 20 minutes on foot from the centre but right next to a metro stop. We chose it for these 2 features and because it cost very little. Indeed, the rooms were tiny and overlooked a street always busy with cars. All the same, the location was convenient and the breakfast, offered in a bar across the road, was plentiful and good. The fantastic and ever-dominant Acropolis set up there against the blue, the great number of families, young people and people of every age who lively crowd the centre, perhaps also together with the fantastic weather we found, made me fall in love with the much-maligned Athens. I had always heard bad things about the dirt, about things not working and about it being just a metropolis of big apartment blocks.

The blocks are there, but they are predominantly white; we found it clean, efficient, full of the kindest and friendliest people and cheap, but that is no surprise! The only 'disservice' was not being able to visit the famous Byzantine Museum, closed that day for lack of staff... but why: doesn't that happen in Italy? The last time we went to Naples, specifically to visit the Archaeological Museum, not all the rooms could be visited for the same reason.

Some visitors were getting angry with the ticket-office staff, but do you really think these are choices made by them?? Anyway, returning to the cradle of democracy, in the 2 days spent there, moving about partly on foot and sometimes by metro, we visited the Archaeological Museum, where above all the Mask of Agamemnon had drawn me magnetically; we did the Acropolis again with a guide with whom we haggled over the price, and the Acropolis Museum; the Agora and the changing of the guard, which remains the most fascinating ever seen; we walked a great deal and with pleasure through the Plaka and Monastiraki, with its Byzantine churches scattered here and there among the buildings.

For both the metro and museum entry there are numerous possibilities to pay less; in particular, it is advisable for young people to carry student cards or at any rate personal ID, because it is precisely at them that many discounts or free admissions are aimed. In short, besides the very deep emotion felt before this wonderful object that looks at me knocking from the past, which is the Mask of Agamemnon, the reason I wanted to return to this city, in reality here everything seems to call to me from within and move me, because it is part of me, of us, of our being children of the Mediterranean and of classical culture. This city, cradle of democracy, where the beautiful part of humanity was born, which over the centuries has lost the best of its content, sometimes keeping only an empty shell, rouses in me very strong emotions, of regret, but also of hope. And goodbye.