The night before I left for Greece, I went out to dinner with a friend. “Athens is good for only one night,” he insisted. “You see the Acropolis, and then you get out of there as fast as you can.”

I couldn’t disagree more.

But I suppose that many visitors who overnight here en route to the islands or a cruise would feel the same way as my friend, especially if they’re only spending a few hours in the tchotchke-plagued Plaka, baking in the sun and being hassled by touts. However, if you take more time to explore, you’ll discover that Athens is full of treasures: genre-defying restaurants, stylish boutiques, extraordinary museums and world-class art galleries, all hidden in crumbling, graffiti-smeared neighborhoods — and even in quiet corners of touristy Plaka.