Because Athens is a crossroad between Europe and the Middle East, you will find an interesting mixture of merchandise and shops. There are items made by craftspeople out of materials such as cloth, leather, gold, silver, ceramic and fur. The large department stores sell ready-made clothing and brand names known in Europe or worldwide. The most popular items purchased by visitors are hand-woven rugs, olive oil, honey, pottery, sponges, ceramics, shoes, embroidery, and gold & silver jewelry. Almost everything you want to buy is available in the center of the city so you don’t have to travel far to go shopping!
Department Stores
Head toward Omonia Square to see the city's best-known department stores: Lambropoulos, Eolou 99 (Phone:01/324-5811); Minion, Veranzerou 17 at Patission (Phone: 01/523-8901); and British Home Stores (BHS) and Klaudatos, Kratinou 3-5 at Odos Athinas (Phone: 01/324-1915). BHS occupies the first two floors including mezzanine, Klaudatos all the upper floors. The building faces north on Kotzia Square 3 blocks south of Omonia on Athinas, and isn't easy to see until you're right at one of the two entrances. The self-service restaurant on the eighth floor is just a bit lower than the Acropolis and treats the startling view casually.
Markets
The Central Market (fish, meat, vegetables, and more) on Odos Athinas is open Monday through Saturday from about 8am to 6pm. You may not want to take advantage of all of the bargain prices (two sheeps' heads for the price of one is our all-time favorite), but this is a great place to buy Greek spices and herbs, cheeses, and sweets--and to see how Athens is fed.
Every Friday from about 8am until 2pm, Odos Xenokratous in Kolonaki turns into a street market selling flowers, fruits, and vegetables. This is a very different scene from the rowdy turmoil of the Central Market, although it's lively enough. Many Kolonaki matrons come here with their Filipino servants, then let the servants lug their purchases home while they head off for some shopping and light lunch (perhaps at the fashionable To Kafenio).
Fashion
If you do any window-shopping in Athens, you'll soon see how expensive most things are, except during the January and August sales. Not surprisingly, Athens's poshest clothing stores are in Kolonaki. Much of what you'll see is American or European and carries a hefty import duty; most of the rest is Greek designer wear. Good streets to browse include Voukourestiou, Kanari, Milioni, Tsakalof, Patriarchou Ioakim, and the most expensive street in town, Anagnostopoulou--where Versace, Ferre, Lagerfeld, and Guy Laroche have boutiques, as do well-known Athenian designers such as Aslanis, Nikos, Filemon, and Sofos. If shoes are your thing, head for Tsakalof, with a heavy concentration of the shoe stores that most Athenians find irresistible.
Here are a few individual shops near Kolonaki Square: Artisti Italiani, Kanari 5 (Phone: 01/363-9085), has Italian-designed clothes for men and women. The well-known French firm Lacoste has men's and women's sportswear at Solonos 5 (Phone: 01/361-8030). Jade, Anagnostopoulou 3 (Phone: 01/364-5922), Ritsi, Tsakalof 13 (Phone: 01/363-8677), and Sofos, Anagnostopoulou 5 (Phone: 01/361-8713), all sell designer women's clothing. Elina Lembessi, Irakleitou 13 (Phone: 01/363-1731), has elegantly casual tops, bottoms, and accessories. Desmina, Koubare 5 (Phone: 01/364-1010), offers sportier women's clothing, with lots of pantsuits and casual wear. New Man, Solonos 25 at Voukourestiou (Phone: 01/360-8876), has casual men's clothes, while nearby Berto Lucci, Solonos 8 (Phone: 01/360-3775), has more trendy attire. See also "Shoes" and "Sweaters."
Shoes
If you walk along Odos Tsakalof or Odos Patriarchou Ioakim in Kolonaki, or almost any street in central Athens, you'll begin to get an idea of how serious Greeks are about their footwear. Sometimes the biggest crowds in town on a Saturday night are the window-shoppers eyeing the shoes on Odos Ermou off Syntagma Square. Some good-quality stores include Kaloyirou, at Pandrossou 12, Plaka (Phone: 01/331-0727), and Patriarchou Ioakim 4, Kolonaki (Phone: 01/722-8804); Mouriadis, Odos Stadiou 4 (Phone: 01/322-1229); and Moschoutis, Voulis 12 at Ermou (Phone: 01/324-6504).
Sweaters
Several travelers recommend Nick's Corner, Pandrossou 48, Monastiraki (Phone: 01/321-2990), for the heavy-knit sweaters that are usually bargains in Greece. Look downstairs. You'll see many more sweaters along Odos Adrianou in the Plaka and, if you don't mind that many of these "authentic" Greek sweaters are made by machines and imported from third-world countries, you can find decent prices almost everywhere.
Jewelry
All that glitters most definitely is not gold in Athens's myriad jewelry shops. Unless you know your gold very well, you'll want to exercise caution in shopping here, especially in the Plaka and Monastiraki stores that cater to tourists.
We've been pleased with the quality and prices at Emanuel Masmanidis's small Gold Rose Jewelry shop, Odos Pandrossou 85 (Phone: 01/321-5662). Others report satisfaction in dealings with Stathis, Pa. Venizelou 2, Mitropoleos Square (Phone: 01/ 322-4691).
Greece's best-known jewelry stores are Zolotas, Odos Panepistimiou 10 (Phone: 01/361-3782), and Lalaounis, Odos Panepistimiou 6 (Phone: 01/362-1371), both at the foot of pedestrian Odos Voukourestiou. Both shops have gorgeous reproductions of ancient and Byzantine jewelry, as well as their own designs. You can see more of the Lalaounis designs at the Lalaounis museum (see "More Museums.")
Up on Voukourestiou, there are at least five excellent jewelers, of which we prefer Mati, Voukourestiou 20 (see "Antiques.") A bit further along, Ioannidis, Valaoritou 9 (Phone: 01/361-0677), is the place to head if you want a Faberge egg or Piaget watch.
One of the best shops for silver is Nisiotis, Lekka 23, just off Syntagma Square (Phone: 01/324-4183). Off Syntagma, but toward Plaka, Pantelis Mountis, Odos Apollonos 27 (Phone and fax 01/324-4574), has reproductions of Byzantine icons and religious medals.
Sweets
You'll have no problem satisfying your sweet tooth in Athens. If anything, you'll come up gasping for air as you eat the seriously sweet sweets that most Greeks adore.
The long-established Aristokratikon, Karayioryi Servias 9, just off Syntagma Square (Phone: 01/322-0546), has excellent chocolates, glazed pistachio nuts, and loukoumia (Turkish delight). Beware--even chocoholics may find the truffles coated with white chocolate too sweet. Next, head over to Karavan, the hole-in-the-wall at Voukourestiou 11 (no phone), with the best Levantine delights in town. Serving excellent coffee and sweets, K. Kotsolis Pastry Shop, Odos Adrianou 112, is an oasis of old-fashioned charm in the midst of the Plaka souvenir shops.
Loukoumades are the Greek donut with a difference--they are about the size of an American donut hole, served hot, drenched in honey, and covered with cinnamon. Delicious. If you're near Syntagma Square, try Doris, Praxitelous 30 (Phone: 01/323-2671), and if you're nearer Omonia Square, try Aigina, Panepistimiou 46 (Phone: 01/381-4621). Better yet, try both.
Music
You won't have trouble finding Metropolis, Odos Panepistimiou 66 and Odos Tsakalof 15 (Phone: 01/361-1463), Athens's largest music store: Just follow the booming vibrations. At Slammin', Odos Asklepiou 22 (Phone: 01/361-3611), you can buy CDs and clothes. The excellent bookstore Eleftheroudakis has a wide selection of CDs, as does the Virgin Megastore, Stadiou 7 (Phone: 01/361-8080).
Crafts
There are lots of mass-produced "crafts" for sale in Athens, which is why it's good to know about some shops that have quality work. The Center of Hellenic Tradition, Mitropoleos 3 and Pandrossou 36 in the Plaka (Phone: 01/321-3023), is a wonderful place for quality traditional Greek art, including icons, pottery, wood carvings, embroideries, and prints. Best of all, you can take a break from shopping and look at the Acropolis while you have coffee and a snack at the cafe here.
Also in the Plaka, Anoyi, Sotiros 1 (Phone: 01/322-6487), is an absolute delight, with old prints, furniture, reproduced icons, and fabrics. On the fringes of the Plaka, the National Welfare Organization (Ethnikos Organismos Pronias), Ypatias 6 and Apollonos, just east of the Cathedral (Phone: 01/325-0524), has gorgeous embroideries, rugs, pottery, icons, and, usually, very bored and unhelpful salespeople. The Greek Women's Institution, Kolokotroni 3 (Phone: 01/325-0524), specializes in embroidery from the islands and copies of embroideries from the Benaki Museum.
Books
Eleftheroudakis, with its old quarters still open at Odos Nikis 4 (Phone: 01/322-2255), has a new eight-story headquarters at Leoforos Panepistimiou 17 (Phone: 01/331-4480), with Athens's widest selection of English-language books and a good range of CDs, including much Greek music. There's also a cafe (with some free newspapers and journals to read) and clean rest rooms. The staff seems amazingly tolerant of tourists who stop by to read, but not buy, the wide selection of books on Greece. Check the bulletin board by the cafe to see if there are any readings by local authors (sometimes in English) or upcoming concerts.
Compendium, Odos Nikis 28 (Phone: 01/322-1248), on the edge of the Plaka near Syntagma Square, is a small but fine English-language bookstore, selling both new and used fiction and nonfiction, plus magazines and maps. Local writers sometimes hold readings here. Just off Panepistimiou and steps from Syntagma Square, Reymondos, Voukourestiou 18 (Phone: 01/364-8189), has a good selection in English (including some dazzling photography books on Greece), stocks English-language magazines and newspapers, and is often open after usual shop hours. In the stoa, one floor up, Folia tou Bibliou (The Book Nest), Panepistimiou 25-29 (Phone: 01/323-1703), has lots of English fiction and a wide selection of maps and books on Greece, as does Pantelis, Amerikis 11, up from Panepistimiou (Phone: 01/362-3673).
In Kolonaki, try Rombos, Kapsali 6, off Kolonaki Square (Phone: 01/724-2082), for English-language books, including books on Greece.
Antiques
Warning: If you're hoping to take home an antique--perhaps an icon or a wood carving--keep in mind that not everything sold as an antique is genuine, and that it's illegal to take antiquities and icons more than 100 years old out of Greece without a hard-to-obtain export license.
If you're looking for first editions, prints showing 19th-century Athens, a silver sword, or amber worry beads, try Antiqua, Leoforos Vas. Sofias 2-4, off Syntagma Square (Phone: 01/323-2220). This is one of Athens's oldest antiques stores, and perhaps the best, with handsome ancient coins and old icons--but take heed of the warning above.
Also near Syntagma Square, Giannoukos, Vas. Amalias 4 (Phone: 01/324-1700), has a sound reputation, and the small but tempting Mati, Odos Voukourestiou 20 (Phone: 01/362-6238), has some antiques as well as icons, plus a range of items in blue glass to ward off the evil eye. If you're near Syntagma and looking for antiquarian books, maps, and prints, try Salaminia, with branches at Panepistimiou 47 (Phone: 01/321-8155), and Odos Stadiou 22 (Phone: 01/ 331-3944).
Over in Monastiraki on Odos Pandrossou, there are any number of pseudo-antiques shops, and one or two good ones. Martinos, Odos Pandrossou 50 (Phone: 01/ 321-3110), has Venetian and ancient glass, embroidery and kilims, swords and side tables. Anita Patrikiadon, Odos Pandrossou 58 (Phone: 01/324-6325), also has a good selection of weavings and wood carvings. If you're more interested in reproductions than the real thing, Orpheus, Odos Pandrossou 28B (Phone: 01/324-5034), has museum copies of classical and Byzantine art.
Up in Kolonaki, the eponymous proprietor of Argyriadis, Patriarchou Ioakim 42 (Phone: 01/725-1727), specializes in 18th-century furniture and also has a variety of more transportable bibelots. Mihalarias Art, Odos Alopekis 1-3 (Phone: 01/721-3079), in a gorgeous neoclassical Kolonaki mansion, has museum-quality furniture, paintings, and just about anything else you can imagine.
