The National Garden & Zappeion

On a hot afternoon in central Athens, the National Garden feels like a small miracle. Step in from the traffic of Amalias Avenue, a few metres from Syntagma metro and the Parliament, and within a minute the noise drops away under a canopy of trees. The garden was created for Queen Amalia, the wife of King Otto, the first king of modern Greece, and completed in 1840 as the private royal garden; it was long known as the Garden of Amalia before opening to the public as the National Garden. It covers about 24 hectares, with some 7,000 trees and 40,000 shrubs and other plants from more than 500 species and varieties, many brought from abroad in the nineteenth century. A network of winding paths leads past six small lakes and ponds with ducks, under pergolas and avenues of palms that now tower around 25 metres high. Look for the sundial at the main entrance, the conservatory, considered the first working greenhouse in Greece, and the Roman ruins, including a mosaic floor from the courtyard of an ancient villa uncovered during nineteenth-century excavations. The garden has a children's library, founded in 1984, with reading rooms, a fairy-tale room and a music and film room, and there is a small cafe near the Irodou Attikou Street entrance, close to the Presidential Mansion. At the southern end, the garden opens onto the gardens of the Zappeion Hall, an elegant neoclassical building with a horseshoe-shaped colonnaded atrium designed by the Danish architect Theophil Hansen and opened in 1888. It was funded by the Zappas family as part of their effort to revive the Olympic Games, and it hosted fencing events during the first modern Olympics of 1896. The Zappeion is still used for exhibitions and conferences, and Greece's accession treaty to the European Communities was signed here in 1979. Its forecourt is dotted with statues, including one of Lord Byron being crowned by a figure representing Greece.

How to use the garden: think of it less as a sight and more as the city's shady living room. It is the perfect connector between Syntagma, the Panathenaic Stadium and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, all of which lie around its edges, and walking through it rather than along the busy avenues makes any route more pleasant. In summer it is several degrees cooler under the trees, so it is the obvious place to rest between the Acropolis Museum and the Changing of the Guard. With children it is invaluable: there are ducks and turtles in the ponds, a playground, shady benches and the children's library.

Practicalities: the National Garden is free and open during daylight hours, from early morning until around sunset, and the gates close in the evening. There are seven entrances, including the main one on Amalias Avenue near Syntagma, one on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue near the Parliament and one on Irodou Attikou Street, and the southern end of the garden opens onto the Zappeion grounds. Paths are mostly level and unpaved; strollers manage fine. The garden can close during storms and very strong winds, when falling branches are a hazard. Bring mosquito repellent on summer evenings.

A classic walking loop: watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Parliament, enter the garden from Amalias Avenue, wander south past the ponds to the Zappeion, then cross the road to the Panathenaic Stadium. From there, walk west to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, and finish in Plaka for lunch. In the evening, the Zappeion area is a popular spot for an open-air cinema or a drink under the trees.