By a very long way, this is the best Athens apartment, airbnb and others - about a dozen over three years - that I’ve stayed in. It is all beautifully designed and impeccably maintained. Everything was spotless, and everything worked - how often can you say that! It is compact, yet the main room is long and high and spacious. It is exquisitely designed, the fixtures, fittings and furniture of good, smart quality. The other rooms are exceptional - good, modern kitchen appliances, lots of equipment for cooking, eating and drinking, and a bathroom that looked and felt Italian, with even a bidet, and a huge shower with endless hot water. Up a ladder, there’s a cosy den, perfect for reading or a nap. At the other end, up a more conventional staircase, is a perfect little balcony, right below the Acropolis. Breakfast and sundowners al fresco: sublime! The apartment is in an unbelievably quiet courtyard off one of the busiest streets in the Plaka, convenient for everything. You enter, close the courtyard door, and you are in a world apart, still, green, all but silent. You make your way up your own private outer staircase to a balcony the length of the apartment, with five - yes, five! - long, shuttered windows, the entrance door, and a full length double bedroom door, all the windows with fly-screens. There are window-darkening shades on two other windows, and high-efficiency air conditioning, though even in June heat with the shutters closed at night, windows open and an efficient ceiling fan, you barely need it.
Best of all, saved to last, are Eleni and her father Sarantos, the very nicest people you’ll meet in Athens. Quick responses to messages, genuine care and attention, there to meet you when you arrive, and with treats waiting for you. Oh! And the artwork is all by Eleni. What a talent!
A week was not long enough: stay a month!