4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In our inaugural episode of Life and Art from FT Weekend, we go to Athens. The FT’s Greece and Cyprus correspondent Eleni Varvitsioti is a lifelong Athenian, and for the past 16 years she has lived in the centre of town, in the shadow of the Acropolis. But as Athens has become more popular with tourists, the centre has become less and less livable. This week, Eleni tells us what exactly is causing the congestion, and what should be done about it. She and Lilah also suggest alternate Greek itineraries, from coastal day trips within an easy drive from Athens, to their favourite islands.
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram and X @lilahrap. You can email her at [email protected].
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Links:
– Eleni’s essay on living in Athens’ city centre: https://on.ft.com/3QJo373
Greece recommendations:
– From Athens, Eleni suggests you drive 15km-20km along the coast to around Cape Sounio, where there are beautiful beaches. Visit the Temple of Poseidon and visit a taverna underneath it.
– Lilah recommends Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, about 500km north of Athens. There are two perfect restaurants for sit-down gyros and soutzoukakia (Greek meatballs): Diagonios and Diavasi.
– Eleni suggests, if you’re visiting Thessaloniki, to also visit Vergina, which is the tomb of Philip II of Macedon (Philip the Great).
– For islands, Eleni recommends Sifnos. Lilah recommends Skopelos, and the much less discovered southern coast of Crete.
– Other recommendations that we didn’t have space for in the episode: Eleni suggests taking a drive from Athens down along the coastlines of the Peloponnese, or to visit the northwest of the country, Ioannina, if you like nature and hiking. Lilah recommends climbing Mount Olympus, which is an actual thing you can do (you can take day hikes or stay overnight at the peak), and visiting Meteora, a complex of 14th century monasteries built precipitously on the tops of immense towering rocks.
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Special FT subscription offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart.
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Clip courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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0:00.0 | This is Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos. |
0:09.8 | Today, we're going to Athens. I've spent a lot of time in Greece, my father's from there. |
0:14.7 | And the last time I was in Athens, it was really clear to me that things had changed. |
0:19.0 | The city had a lot more tourists. My colleague |
0:22.4 | Aleni Varvizziotti lives in Athens. She's lived there for years. And she recently wrote an |
0:27.5 | essay about this tourist influx and how it's especially affecting the city center. She's come on to |
0:33.1 | talk about it. And we'll also chat through other places that you can go if you visit Greece, |
0:37.2 | where you won't be stuck surrounded by a million people. |
0:41.4 | Aleni, welcome to life and art. Callos Irtae. We're so happy to have you here. |
0:46.1 | Hi, Lila. I'm so happy to be with you here today. |
0:50.0 | So you are the FTs, Greece and Cyprus correspondent by profession, but I'm curious first if you could |
0:57.3 | tell me about your personal relationship with Athens. I'm an Athenian. I've been born in Athens, |
1:04.6 | lived in Athens most of my life. I went abroad to study and worked for a few years in Brussels. |
1:12.7 | But I have been living for the past 16 years in its historic center just underneath the |
1:20.3 | Acropolis. |
1:21.7 | And I think like in all long-term relationships, I have been falling in and out of love with Athens for the past years. |
1:29.2 | So now we're in a rough patch in a relationship. |
1:32.5 | So how would you describe the problem in a couple of sentences now? |
1:37.6 | What is the problem that sort of bothers you or worries you? |
1:40.8 | The problem is that there are so many tourists in such a small radius, such a |
1:47.6 | small place. And you feel like the city, the city center, the historic city center has shifted |
1:56.3 | from a partly touristic, partly residential area to a simply touristic area where residents don't have |
... |
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