For sure, most visitors are attracted to Athens by the thought of standing in the midst of the ruins at the Acropolis, the startling 500-foot-high plateau that is the city's crown. Here, on a site slightly more than seven acres, stands the greatest of ancient Greece's architectural achievements. Much restoration work has been done, but the ravages are evident. Many people skip the Acropolis Museum, but in doing so they have missed many of the graceful statues and other finds discovered on the plateau.

To really understand the breadth and scope of Greece's long history, visitors should make Athens' National Archaeological Museum a part of their itinerary. Here, under one roof, are awe-inspiring collections from mankind's most significant early civilizations. The perfectly proportioned, well-lit rooms are filled with incredible finds from the Neolithic, Cycladic and Mycenaean civilizations along with those from the later Hellenic and Roman periods. Among the most notable exhibits are the golden Death Mask of Agamemnon; the 3,500-year old, well-preserved frescoes from Santorini; the Hellenistic statue of the Horse with a Little Boy Jockey; and the decorative artifacts, urns and vases from the Neolithic and Cycladic period.

It is hard to walk around the many neighborhoods of Athens without discovering another museum. One of the most important and most enlightening is the Museum of Cycladic Art with a collection that was assembled and donated, for the most part, by the Goulandris family. The Byzantine Museum is the city's best repository of works from that period thanks to Georgios Sotirou, another of Athens' philanthropists.

Athens is a city of neighborhoods, but the one that captivates most tourists is the Plaka, the oldest continuously-inhabited area of Athens. Filled with lively conversation, music, restaurants, souvenir and antique shops, when one meanders the narrow streets of the Plaka, one is really taking the happy pulse of this city.