When people ask me what’s my favorite time of the year here in Athens, I always say it’s spring and particularly April. That is when all the Seville orange trees lining the streets of Athens – both downtown and in the suburbs – blossom and perfume the whole city. I can spend hours walking around and inhaling the wonderful scent. The common orange is believed to be a naturally occurring hybrid between the pomelo and the mandarin. There are many different varieties and other hybrids that have evolved, but they generally fall into one of two categories: sweet (citrus x sinesis), which includes varieties such as the navel orange, the Valencia orange, the blood orange and the Jaffa orange, or bitter (citrus x aurantium), which includes the Seville orange, the trifoliate orange and the bergamot orange.

The origins of pasteli, a honey and sesame bar sold everywhere in Greece from supermarkets to delis to bakeries, can be traced back to Greek and Roman antiquity. Athenaeus of Naucratis, in his Deipnosophistae (“The Dinner Experts”), written in the 3rd century A.D., mentions it many times, and references to pasteli can be found all over ancient Greek and Byzantine texts.

Whether you are arriving in Athens by ship or airplane, both the port and the airport are near enough to be able to venture out and enjoy a little bit of the city if you have at least a few hours. The airport is 35 to 40 minutes by metro from downtown Athens (but be sure to take into account a 10- to 15-minute wait). Coming from the port is more complicated, as Piraeus is enormous. Opposite gates E5 and E6 you can find the electric railway, which connects to the metro and can take you straight to the heart of the city.