Before I found Pi Athens, a sleek urban macaron disguised as a boutique hotel in slender Fokianou Street, I had to ask two taverna waiters, three police officers, a pair of presidential guards and one green parrot the way — the bird had slightly more to say than the guards. This was not, mind you, because the place was at all hard to find but, rather, because I have about as much sense of direction as a monkey in a mall. Furthermore, like many visitors to the Greek capital, my sense of orientation to the city was tethered to the Acropolis and busy Plaka neighborhood at its feet.
That changed once I walked through the glass entrance of the Pi Athens Suites, which the owner and manager Socratis (How perfect is that?) call a “micro luxury hotel” and that opened just last year. True, there are just six big suites, like apartments really, some on individual floors. The top floor is a loft-style suite that’s got a bank of oversized windows with electric blinds that open to a view of the Parthenon. There’s a space-age blue light over the bed hinting that you, not antiquity, is the star of this show — and if your movie is having its premiere in Athens or you’ve got a meeting with the Prime Minister (who dresses like a CIA agent on the make), you’ve just found your crash pad: piathens.com.
The neighborhood itself, Pangrati, is a treasure buried in plain sight, close by the Presidential Palace and virtually next door to the Panathenaic Stadium. The stadium is made entirely from Pentelic marble and occupies the site of a very ancient one — also where the first modern Olympic Games were held. A ramble around this densely-packed district reveals you to be in the midst of the Athenian version of the Upper West Side. There’s not much in the way of iconic sites here but a paucity of tourists in tandem with that, as well as a (Greek word alert) plethora of decidedly non-touristy restaurants, from humble tavernas — including the oldest one in Athens — and cozy pizzerias to hipster eateries like the Black Sheep. You need at least week to do a deep dive into all that, but with two or three nights to spare, Socratis will be happy to steer you in the right direction.
Like most hotels in these parts, breakfast is included in your room rate but owing to the small size of the establishment, it’s done a little differently here. Just take the elevator to the ground floor minus one and find an array of real Greek yogurt along with plenty of Greek honey and candied cherries to top it with, as well as a coffee maker and basket full of sweet oranges that you squeeze for yourself. If you want an omelet made to order, all you have to do is ask. (By the way, for an Athenian breakfast to remember, go to the Acropolis Museum.)
At the end of the day, if you feel like getting a little closer to the stars, head to the top floor and slide back a retractable metal grate: You’ll be trading the comforts of the capsule for sweeping views of the stadium, Acropolis and siren-like Mount Lycabettus from the neatly manicured roof deck.
If a stay at Pi Athens seems indulgent, it also, in that slightly magical “house of the world” sort of way, feels like home. But you would be remiss not to stray at least a little, particularly when there is so much bubbling literally outside the door. If the weather is fine, you can walk up the road that separates the National Garden, much favored by philhellene writer Henry Miller, from the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Arch of Hadrian and the beginning of the Plaka. There, one of the busiest Athenian streets, Amalias Avenue, is home to one of the city’s most genteel secrets, the Onassis Library. Inside it, you’ll find the piano that Maria Callas used to play when she was aboard the famous yacht “Christina,” as well as the Charta of Greece by Rigas Velestinlis, artworks from El Greco, Poulakis, halepas, and more than 3,000 books that represent the spiritual wealth of Greece from the 15th to the 19th century. Richness indeed. The library only recently opened its doors to the public (visit onassis.org).