ATHENS

We’ll begin with a fresh-baked koulouri at the bakery that supplies most of the city’s street vendors with this iconic street food, before exploring the nearby weekly flea market. There will be a good Greek coffee and breakfast’s second course: thick strained yogurt with honey and nuts alongside hosaf, a dried fruit and spice compote that’s a specialty of the Pontic Greeks exiled in the 1920’s from Turkey’s Black Sea region.

As our Sunday stroll continues through the cobblestoned streets of the Plaka, the historic neighborhood under the shadow of the Acropolis, we’ll walk past buildings and monuments representing the depth of Athenian history, from the ancient Agora and the Stoa of Attalos, a 2nd century B.C. shopping arcade, to one of Athens’ oldest functioning churches, where students still go to get a blessing before final exams.

From here, we’ll wend our way through Thissio and Petralona, two lively neighborhoods filled with cafes and classic tavernas, which still maintain an air of “old Athens” about them. Here we will make our first lunch stop, sitting down for a meal of unforgettable grilled lamb chops and hand-cut fries in a family-run local institution.

Our final stop will be in nearby Psyri – a working-class neighborhood that’s still home to many old-school small businesses – to eat at another family-run spot, a traditional taverna located on a tranquil pedestrianized street, where we’ll join the locals who are eating out with their extended families. There we’ll enjoy Greek comfort food like dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), soutzoukakia (Smyrna-style meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce) and the season’s best horta (salads made of wild greens) among Athenian families and friends – a fitting end to our moveable feast.