Signs of the times: Why Athens is not all about the ancients

At night the roller doors are raised, and shuttered shopfronts turn into bars and clubs. Outside one dingy door, a line of people stretches around the block, waiting for entry to the cheap and popular taverna, which is very touristy, according to my hotel concierge. The local dress style seems to be “sunny goth”. A street art mural looms over Iroon Square in the Psyrri district.Credit: Alamy I’m staying at Monument, a hotel which exemplifies this contradiction. Built in 1881 as a private home by prominent architect Ernst Ziller, its recent restoration to a nine-room boutique hotel was overseen by the Ministry of Culture. All the neoclassical elements were preserved, including a grand, curvaceous staircase that winds between floors. As elegant as the mansion is, it occupies a corner of a street that bears the plaque, “a sunny street for shady people”, hinting at the area’s history as a hotbed of criminal activity in the 19th century when the house was built. My terrace, which has uninterrupted views of the Acropolis, looks down on the old church of Agios Dimitrios. Like almost everything else in Athens, the church’s walls are covered in spray-painted tags. I wonder why they aren’t removed,...