DIMITRIS RIGOPOULOS

Athens’ tourism miracle getting warped in the heat

A veteran hotelier in Athens used to say, “Tourism is like a storm; for three years you might ride high on the waves and for the next two, you struggle to keep your head above water.”

Scrubland fires becoming Attica’s new nightmare

While low vegetation was once seen as a blessing as it could delay the spread of a fire, this is no longer the case, as the recent blazes in Attica and on Serifos showed.

01.07.2024 / 21:38

The binary legacy of the Acropolis Museum

June 20, 2009 seems like a good starting point to be searching for the “ground zero” of the tourism boom in the central Athens neighborhood of Koukaki. But is it the only one?

19.06.2024 / 11:43

‘I believe we got it right the first time’

For many years, French-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi was an almost unwanted person in Greece, at least for those who knew his name and associated him with the first and most emblematic public building constructed in Athens in the 21st century.

15.04.2024 / 13:29

New anxieties grip Greeks in 2024

Tapping into the values and beliefs permeating Greek society, a survey by the Dianeosis think-tank shows that the return of economic insecurity, the consequences of climate change and the demographic issue are seen as major threats to the country’s future.

12.04.2024 / 11:31

Is national kitsch not so bad after all?

When Tina Kyriaki saw Marina Satti’s video for Greece’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time, it made her mad. Very mad, in fact. “My first thought was that we were gouging out our own eyes,” the founder of Alternative Athens tells Kathimerini, quoting a Greek proverb.

11.03.2024 / 21:47

Athenian reflections of a Harvard dean

It was Sarah Whiting’s last morning in Athens. For the final day of this dense, week-long tour of Greece, the weather improved and the winter sun shone over Syntagma Square. From her hotel balcony she enjoyed a typical sunny Athenian panorama, with the silhouette of the Parthenon in the background. Until […]

05.03.2024 / 10:57

Metapolitefsi divides generations

The remarkable (if not yawning) chasm between the generation that experienced the entire cycle of Greece’s return to democracy and younger age groups born into the cycle of the so-called Metapolitefsi has been vividly illustrated by a poll commissioned by Kathimerini.

22.01.2024 / 22:03

No breaks on the path of radical reform

It took him just nine months in office in his first-ever term in government to score his first big win as head of the ministry responsible for bringing Greek bureaucracy into the digital age.

12.01.2024 / 05:03

Talk of the town: The changing face of Athens

We take a closer look at some of the key infrastructure challenges currently facing Athens, as local authorities strive for sustainable development.

24.12.2023 / 16:15

Government explores relocating PM’s office to Bodossaki Mansion

Government officials are contemplating the prospect of relocating the prime minister’s office, currently situated in the iconic Maximos Mansion, to the upper floors of the imposing Bodossaki Mansion. This move comes in the wake of the recent 12-year lease signed by the Greek Parliament for the Bodossaki Mansion.

21.11.2023 / 15:32

Short-term rentals changing cityscape

Short-term rentals, mainly through online platforms such as Airbnb, are making living in Athens more expensive and rapidly changing the cityscape, mostly not for the better, as several local residents have told Kathimerini.

27.09.2023 / 20:45

Greek doc sounds alarm from the front line of the climate crisis

“For all our family members that might not hear this announcement and the measures to be taken, please inform them by giving them a phone call. We must move to a safer place to protect ourselves from the potential rising waters during this cyclone.”

26.08.2023 / 17:30

Is Omonia about to become livable again?

A middle-aged German couple walk along Tritis Septemvriou Street towards Omonia Square. Strolling nonchalantly along, they talk and laugh in an animated manner, seeming to enjoy the hot Athenian sun. If the Omonia Square fountains weren’t in the way, they’d be able to see the Acropolis.

04.07.2023 / 21:16

The last bluff

Brussels, Friday, June 26, 2015, shortly before 9 o’clock in the morning. Then-Premier Alexis Tsipras announces to his stunned colleagues something that none of them could have imagined until that moment: a referendum.