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Shopping in Athens Greece |
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Athens is a shopper's delight
 A wide variety of
items, from throughout Greece, can be purchased in the center of Athens to
take back home
as souvenir. Specialties include handicrafts, gold and silver
jewelry, flokati rugs of fluffy sheep wool, pottery, onyx, marble,
alabaster, leather goods, furs, art items, and local culinary
delights.
These items are available in the main shopping area downtown
around Syntagma, Plaka and Monastiraki, the flea market.
Your best bet to find souvenirs and jewelry is at Pandrossou
pedestrian walkway. A myriad of small stalls carry everything from
first-class junk to quality cooper, brass, antique jewelry, icons,
paintings, rare books, coins and leather-goods. Monastiraki comes
alive on Sundays from 08.00 to 13.00.
Other interesting gift idea is museum copies of ancient Greek art,
sold in many shops and at the National Archeological Museum. Greek food
specialties found at mini markets near Syntagma square.
Jewelry always seems to be a hot item for tourists visiting
Greece. The country may not be known for its gold producing, but
it has a history of at least 3.000 years of manufacturing unique
and skillful hand-crafted gold jewelry. Eighty percent of the
jewelry sold in the 4.000 jewelry shops throughout Greece is
handicraft and every piece of jewelry passes through four to five
technicians. Greek jewelry offers a lot of creativity in design,
low labor costs and very good technicians. It all adds up to a
smart investment and a very nice gift to take back home.
 Most of these shops in Athens are located on Voukourestiou and
Mitropoleos streets and Syntagma square in the center of the city
and in the Plaka area as well. Especially on Valaoritou St., you
will find representatives of the most well-known watch makers such as Piaget
(Ioannidis Jewelry) and Rolex. In nearby Voukourestiou St., you will find
the renowned Chopard collections. Besides jewelry shops, the pedestrian
walkway offers men's and women's top fashion clothes stores as well as cafes
and restaurants.
One of the main
thoroughfares of Syntagma Sq., the Ermou walkway, is the most popular
shopping area for both visitors and residents. The stores line on both sides
of the walkway, reaching from Syntagma Sq. to Monastiraki, specializing in
women's wear
particularly as well as hosting a number of fashionable shoe
shops. Nearby Mitropoleos Street specializes in fur shops, top
quality jewelry shops and dozens of souvenir shops.
There are a handful of large and well-known department stores
offering reasonably priced items ranging from house-hold goods
and appliances to clothing, shoes, home decor art objects and more
individualized commodities. Some even have Greek souvenirs for sale.
Shopping hours are normally 09.00-15.00 Monday, Wednesday,
Saturday and 09.00-13.30, 17.30-20.30 Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday. Sundays most shops are closed except those in tourist
areas.
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