What I can see

Aeolou Street is one of the busiest, pedestrian shopping streets of Athens. Its starting, and visual escape point is the Tower of the Winds (Aeolus was the god of the winds), an ancient monument in Plaka area. It has always been an ideal promenade, not only because of the timelessly lively shops and cafes, but also because highly interesting architectural monuments and structures lining it, dating from antiquity to the modern and contemporary Greece.

What I can't see

Aeolou Street, along with its parallel Athenas Street and Ermou Street running perpendicularly to both, were the first roads to be designed and laid out in the new city of Athens, in the mid 19^th century. It was also the first bituminized road of Athens. The recent refurbishment undertaken by the Society of Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens has left a trace on the road at the height of Kotzia Square that most passers-by do not notice. The shaped concrete of the contemporary pedestrian street highlights the continuity and progress of the ancient Aharnean Road lying directly below it. There is an amusing incident of 1849 in which a French wrestler (Gascon) having purchased an empty lot at the corner of Aeolou and Evripidou streets, proceeded to challenge the Athenians to wrestle against him in exchange for a penny. Most of the men shied away and this was rather hard on their national pride. Finally, a well-built man from the island of Hydra took up the challenge and won the fight. Gascon protested that his opponent had not respected the rules of wrestling causing the Athenians anger who manhandled him until he found refuge in the French embassy. The man from Hydra was showered with hero honours for many days.

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