No tourists, no cafes, the empty streets of old Athens
No one’s been looking for souvenirs this fall in Athens’ oldest neighborhood, Plaka.
Its streets, existing long before the city imported a grid system, are lined with stores closed up behind aluminum shutters. The pandemic has kept tourists and afternoon strollers away.
Most of Athens’ historic center, Plaka and nearby districts in a semi-circle around the Acropolis, is unusually quiet ahead of Christmas.
Ancient monuments are a little easier to make out from a distance, fewer scooters are swerving around traffic, and cats parked at once-coveted spots in front of cafes are a little less aloof.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 prompted Greece to impose two countrywide lockdowns, in the spring, keeping infection rates low, and in the fall as authorities scrambled to cope with a rampant rise in cases.
The restrictions closed bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and many services considered non-essential but making up a large slice of Greece’s tourism-dependent economy.
The number of visitors traveling to the country plummeted by 76.1% on the year in the first 10 months of 2020. Spending also sank by 77%, according to central bank data released this week.
Greece is expected to see a 10.5% contraction of its gross domestic product this year, above the forecasted EU average of 7.4%, while its debt-to-GDP ratio is set to surge to a staggering 208.9%.
A elderly man walks with his dogs past Areopagus Hill during a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Athens, Greece, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A man walks in the Syntagma metro station, with the Greek Parliament building in the background, in central Athens, Greece, during lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
The streets are empty near Omonoia Square in central Athens, Greece, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020, during a lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A man walks in the Plaka district of Athens behind closed coffee shop and restaurants during a lockdown order by the Greek government to to avoid the spread of the coronavirus in Athens, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A woman prays outside a closed Orthodox Church as a priest inside holds Mass, amid a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Monastiraki district of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Men walk past a giant mural by Greek street artist iNO depicting the eyes of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Cats stand amid an empty street in the Plaka district of Athens, with the ancient Erecthion temple on Acropolis Hill in the background, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A man sleeps outside shuttered shops in the Monastiraki district of Athens, Greece, during a lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Monday, April 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A family looks at an empty street in the Plaka district of Athens during a lockdown order by the Greek government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Athens, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A man walks in the rain on Pnyx Hill in front the ancient Acropolis Hill with the ruins of the fifth century BC Parthenon temple, in Athens, Greece, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020 (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
An elderly man walks along an empty street in the Psiri area of central Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Text for AP News Story, No tourists, no cafes, the empty streets of old Athens.
Photos by Petros Giannakouris