Plaka and Anafiotika

Plaka is the Athens everyone hopes for: neoclassical facades in ochre and rose, bougainvillea over doorways, café tables on stepped lanes. Climb its upper edge and it turns into something stranger — Anafiotika, a handful of whitewashed cube houses built by island masons in the 1800s, blue shutters, cats, lanes barely a shoulder wide. It is the Cyclades without the ferry, with the Acropolis wall rising directly behind the rooftops.

Shoot it as a walk, not a destination. Start on Mnisikleous street's stepped cafés, work up through Stratonos, and let the photographer lead through Anafiotika's two or three genuinely photogenic passages. The white walls act as reflectors, so even midday is workable here when the rest of Athens is too harsh — but mornings are calmer, before the café tables fill and the tour groups arrive.

Remember these are inhabited houses, not a set: keep voices down, keep doorways clear, and the residents will keep tolerating photoshoots. Wear a strong solid colour — the white swallows pastels.