Welcome to Athens, where eating and shopping are part of the magic. By eating, we don’t mean grabbing a sandwich for lunch, but enjoying a two-hour meal, and by shopping, we don’t mean buying groceries, but dropping into countless unusual emporia and haggling, bargaining and negotiating in pursuit of that perfect item.

At first, in Athens you should arm yourselves with courage and a pair of comfortable shoes, and let your mind do the walking first. We’ll provide the shopping guidelines, you fill in the details. Remember, when you feel happily exhausted, pause for a long lunch and exercise your taste buds a while instead of your feet.

The fact is that our daily rituals often become fascinating activities when we are tourists in an exotic country. Eating a meal or shopping for essentials are exciting trips in themselves, enlivened by the freshness of the city and the people around us.