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The new Greek National Tourist Board (GNTO) information office, close to Plateia Syntagma, offers basic advice and brochures about the city and the surrounding area.

The GNTO website is a good starting point. For archaeological sites and museums, try browsing www.culture.gr for forthcoming cultural events www.cultureguide.gr and for a taste of the Athens Festival summer programme visit www.greekfestival.gr Greece Now (www.greece.gr) features regular articles about contemporary Greek politics and culture.

The English-language papers to look out for are Athens News and Kathimerini . The former has a section listing forthcoming events; the latter is sold as an insert with the International Herald Tribune .

Glossy bi-monthly Odyssey features stories about Greece and the Greek diaspora. Athens Today is a free fortnightly pocket edition with information for visitors.

The city radio station Athens 9.84 (9.84FM) broadcasts the news in English at 8:30am and 4:30 pm Mon–Fri, the BBC World Service is on 107.1 FM and most hotels offer satellite TV.

The GNTO distributes free maps of Central Athens, Piraeus and the coast, and Attica. For the widest range of books about the city in English, try Eleftheroudakis bookshop.

The Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry offers information about business opportunities in the capital, while the British Hellenic Chamber of Commerce provides information about doing business in Greece.

The Olympic movement (www.olympic.org) provides facts and figures from the Athens 2004 Olympics, plus information about past and future games.

Organizations such as Holiday Care Service and Tipscope, both based in the UK, provide advice and information for disabled visitors travelling to destinations in Greece. In addition, Can Be Done Tours arranges tailor-made holidays especially for people with disabilities.

Beyond the classics listed on page 37, check out Modern Greece – A Short History (C M Woodhouse), Petros Haris’s The Longest Night – Chronicles of a Dead City , which describes life in Athens during World War II, and Dinner with Persephone by Patricia Storace – an amusing account of an American poet’s one-year sojourn in modern Athens.