Athens

On Christmas Day 1944, resistance fighters packed the sewers under the Grande Bretagne with dynamite, then called the attack off when they learned Winston Churchill had arrived. The hotel is still there on Syntagma, and most of what follows is within walking distance of it. Athens keeps its oldest things on a hill and several of its best tables below ground, and some of these places have served the same dishes, from the same barrels, for decades.

Stay

Institutions

Hotel Grande Bretagne (Syntagma) — Built in 1842 as a house for Antonis Dimitriou, a merchant from Lemnos, and a hotel since 1874. The Axis made it their headquarters during the occupation; the British moved in after them.