Sightseeing in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC and named after the sister of Alexander the Great. It has never started over since — it simply kept layering. The White Tower on the waterfront is Ottoman, the Rotunda was raised under Galerius in the early fourth century and belongs to the same complex as his arch, and fifteen early Christian and Byzantine monuments are on the UNESCO list: this was the second city of Byzantium after Constantinople. Walking tours pull that into one route, from the port up to the Ano Poli with its ramparts and the whole gulf below. The archaeological museum then explains what the streets show only in fragments.

The second layer is Macedonia around it. At Vergina, an hour away, lies the tomb of Philip II, Alexander's father: the golden larnax and the armour rest under the tumulus where they were found. Dion, at the foot of Mount Olympus, was the sacred city of the Macedonian kings. The apostle Paul preached at Veria, and the steps of the Bema still mark the spot. These are day trips, usually private, back by evening.

Then come the journeys people plan a Thessaloniki trip around. Meteora is three hours away: monasteries on sheer rock pillars, reached for centuries only by rope net; you can go by coach or by train. Halkidiki covers the sea — a cruise to the Blue Lagoon and a sailing along the coast of Mount Athos, where the monasteries are visible from the water. And food walks through the centre make the point that the cooking here sits closer to Istanbul than to Athens.