The Story of Anafiotika

On the third day in Athens, when we were walking on the way to investigate，we run into a warm-hearted old woman, who showed us around Anafiotika and told us much interesting information about it. She is not the villagers, but once lived here for three months and wrote a book about Anafiotika and herself. Here I recorded the content of the chat with her.

‘The Architectural style is quite different from Plaka, because it built by stone masons from the Cyclades island of Anafi in the 1800’s. At that time, the islanders moved to the big city and found a place under the Acropolis and started creating a neighborhood using the architecture from their island, when the law stated:’ if you can build 4 walls and put a roof over it in 24 hours the land is yours.’ So even nowadays, after two hundred years, if you visit this place it feels like you are not in Athens but on a Greek island.

Today, Anafiotika is worth millions, but the house still belongs to the descendant of islanders, which can't sell or even if rent to the outsider, this is tradition. Although it is so close to Athens’ most famous site- the Acropolis -i I love losing myself in its narrow streets, among lemon trees and finally find a terrace to climb and overlook Athens from over there!

I'm poor, all my money and jewellery have been cheated out by my husband, but I'm very lucky, there are a lot of people to help me. A very old woman borrowed her house to me as studio a couple years ago. Please follow me, this is the entrance of this village, It is difficult to find because the villagers hided it intentionally. It is still a secret to many people, even who have spend their whole life in Athens have never visited it before. And this is the house I lived before, no windows, no doors, no water and lights. But I lived here more than three months and I can’t stop loving this tiny place. I like the Small Whitewashed houses with their own garden full of colourful flowers, lemon trees white stoned churches and cats running around, terrace walkways and unexpected view. It can be more charming in the spring. Freedom is other reason why it attracted me. And people here are very nice and friendly. Today, I come back to visit some old friends and show some new picture to them.

 I have walked through most of Europe, but have never been to the United States. In my eyes, this is the most ideal place to live. No cars, no noise, not only have good view, but also easy to access to down-town. Not many outsiders moved in and visitors also rarely come over to disturb. Everyone lived here know each other.’