Our guide, Marianna, escorts us to a festival at the Church of the Archangels, honouring the patron saints of the butchers. After the fraternal order of butchers poses with the memorial cake, women break it open. A granola-like mixture of walnuts, raisins, sugar and cinnamon spills out, which they offer to the crowd. Mid-afternoon, we're back in a neighbourhood tavern. Families pack tightly around long tables for a Sunday feast of tantalizing mezes.
Conversations dance above brimming platters.
Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, is about an hour's flight north of Athens. Olympic Airways and other major carriers serve Athens. The Great came here to make sacrifices to Zeus prior to military campaigns. In later years, the Romans built a city here. Site hours are Mon.