Gazi or glocal Athens

It is one of the most modern districts of Athens, where the economic crisis seems to be won by ingenuity, creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit of start-ups, catering and tourist reception activities.

If you get there at 4.00 am, the feeling is that of a place that has just begun to live. Taxis that move young and old, tourists and locals. On the two main routes, which run from the metro station of Kerameikos, trendy or themed clubs, typical Greek taverns, night clubs and disco bars.

Technopolis, downstream of the Parthenon, was an industrial district for the refining and distribution of gas (in particular methane), now completely redeveloped in a useful and happy way. Disused warehouses that become art museums and exhibition spaces, with the names of the most important Greek poets. A sort of industrial "museum" in the Gazi district, where the cultural ferment is dedicated to the composer Manos Hatzidakis.

Center of entertainment and urban experimentation, Gazi is small as a neighborhood, but, perhaps because of this, it represents the most sustainable and vital thing there can be today in Athens, the capital of Greece that is still paying Tsipras austerity and only by a few years relieved by a recession with a minus sign. A real miscrocosm in a city that however suffers all the problems of the metropolis.