Sunset

There’s a moment at Cape Sounion — right around 7:30 in the evening in summer — when the sun hits the marble columns of the Temple of Poseidon and the whole thing glows amber against a deep blue sea. Nobody talks. Everyone just watches. I’ve seen it three times now and I still get chills. A Cape Sounion day trip from Athens is one of the easiest and most rewarding half-day excursions you can make. It’s only 70 km from the city center, the coastal drive is stunning, and the payoff — an ancient temple on a cliff 60 meters above the Aegean — is the kind of thing that makes Greece feel like Greece.

Athens doesn’t usually top the “romantic getaway” lists. Paris gets the love locks. Santorini gets the sunset proposals. But Athens? Athens is where romance sneaks up on you — over a candlelit dinner where the Parthenon is glowing right above your table, on a sailboat watching the sun melt into the Aegean, or walking through a hidden neighborhood that feels like your own private discovery. My partner and I have done the romantic circuit in Athens more than once, and every time we find something new that makes us want to come back. Here are the best romantic things to do in Athens — from the iconic to the unexpected.