If Kolonaki is the heart of the city’s café culture, then Platia Mavili (Mavili Square) is the hub of the after-hours bar scene. Named after a minor Greek poet and originally designed as a traffic island, this triangular square has become an unofficial meeting point for barflies. The draw: a perimeter lined with small bars, with tables in the square and a steady clientele almost 24 hours a day. Many of these watering holes have ‘legendary’ status in the annals of Athens nightlife. The all-night food truck that serviced the clientele did so well it is now a fully fledged hole-in-the-wall selling vromiko (literally ‘dirty’) hot dogs and sandwiches until 7 am. The city’s ‘in’ spots may shift, but starting or ending the night at Mavili never goes out of style.

If you look closely at the crumbling yellow housing estate on Alexandras Avenue, you’ll notice a spray of bullet holes in the pocked facades. These date from 1944 and the December Events (Dekemvriana), the bloody armed conflicts that took place in Athens between EAM-ELAS and the British army alongside government forces. A marble plaque installed by the Greek Communist Party honours its members’ heroism. The compound had been built a decade earlier to house Greek refugees from Asia Minor. The 228 apartments, grouped in eight buildings, are an outstanding example of architecture in the Bauhaus style. Despite their extremely dilapidated state, many apartments are occupied and about one-quarter are privately owned. An ambitious restoration plan that includes a museum is in the works, but until then the ‘Prosfygika’ (Refugee Homes) stand, somewhat incongruously, as a monument to the city’s history.