Greece · Self-guided walk
Athens in one walk 8 sights, 55 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Athens Old Town: 8 sights on one 3.7 km loop, about 55 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 3.7 km, a loop
- Time
- about 55 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Plateia Syntagmatos
- Steps
- on Kirykeiou, Plateia Monastirakiou
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Athens walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Athens, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Plateia Syntagmatos
the start
Plateia Syntagmatos on your map. At the top end of the square two men stand very still, dressed like nobody else in Athens, and now and then they move. It is worth waiting for. The square's name is a single word a crowd once demanded. I also stand very still. Nobody gathers to look at me.
Next: Mitropolitikos Naos Athinon, 480 m, about 7 min, along Plateia Syntagmatos, Ermou, Petraki, Mitropoleos.
2. Mitropolitikos Naos Athinon
about 7 minutes of walking from the start
Plateia Mitropoleos on your map: a large church on a large square, and right beside it a very small one. The city has a saying about the pair, and it is not really about buildings. The large one has a past of its own: what went into its walls, and where it was supposed to stand. I eat the square between them and leave both.
Next: Panagia Kapnikarea, 210 m, about 3 min, along Evangelistrias, Ermou.
3. Panagia Kapnikarea
about 10 minutes of walking from the start
A small church sitting in the middle of a street: Kapnikarea on your map. Why it is still there is a story with a royal family in it. Its name is a riddle with money in it, and the art inside is far younger than the walls. Three answers, and I am keeping all of them.
Next: Tzami Tzistaraki, 280 m, about 4 min, along Ermou, Kirykeiou, Pandrosou.
4. Tzami Tzistaraki
about 15 minutes of walking from the start
Tzami Tzistaraki on your map, standing on Monastiraki Square under a dome, with the square's crowd all round it. The man who put it up made one choice of material that cost him dearly. I am not saying which. I take building material seriously too.
Next: Poikili Stoa, 350 m, about 5 min, along Ifaistou, Agiou Filippou.
5. Poikili Stoa
about 20 minutes of walking from the start
Poikili Stoa on your map. From Adrianou you look over a fence into a dig: foundations, a few stone blocks, nothing that shouts. A word you have almost certainly used started in these few stones. Which one, I am not telling. Stones are good at keeping things to themselves. I would know.
Next: Plateia Koumoundourou, 710 m, about 11 min, along Adrianou, Thiseiou, Ermou, Ivis, Lepeniotou, Ogygou, Kriezi, Plateia Eleftherias, Plateia Koumoundourou.
Lunch break
Usurum, Lepeniotou 19, about 10 m off the route, open Mon–Fri 07:30–18:00, Sat–Sun 07:30–19:00.
On Lepeniotou, five minutes from Monastiraki by the house's own count. More on what to eat in Athens.
6. Plateia Koumoundourou
about 30 minutes of walking from the start
Koumoundourou Square looks like an ordinary city square. Ordinary squares are my favourite: a whole plate of stone at once. This one has had more lives than it lets on, and a newspaper once poked fun at what people were calling it. That is all I am saying.
Next: Varvakeios Agora, 580 m, about 9 min, along Plateia Koumoundourou, Plateia Eleftherias, Evripidou, Aristogeitonos.
7. Varvakeios Agora
about 39 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sat 07:00–18:00, Sun closed
The city's central market, Varvakeios Agora on your map. Noise everywhere, and a name for the place that the city borrowed from another one. The market's own name goes back to a man who got rich in a way you would not guess, a long sea journey from here. I eat only the street outside. The rest is yours to look at.
Next: Ethniko Istoriko Mouseio, 710 m, about 11 min, along Aristogeitonos, Evripidou, Praxitelous, Kolokotroni.
8. Ethniko Istoriko Mouseio
about 50 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Tue–Sun 08:30–14:30, Mon closed
Ethniko Istoriko Mouseio on your map: a grand old house on Stadiou with a horseman on a pedestal in front of it. Look at which way he is turned, then at his arm: the city made a joke out of the pair, and I am keeping it for when you get there. The joke stands outside, so it needs no ticket. Neither do I.
Back to the start: Plateia Syntagmatos, 340 m, about 5 min, along Kolokotroni.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Athens.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 122 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Athens Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.