Thessaloniki in 3 days

Ano Poli (the Upper City — the Byzantine-era upper town of Thessaloniki on the hill above the modern city; the only part of Thessaloniki that survived the 1917 fire (the Ottoman timber-frame houses on the hill did not burn in the fire that destroyed the lower city) and preserves the character of the pre-modern city; the Byzantine walls (the 5th-century CE walls built during the reign of Theodosius II — the same wall-building programme that produced the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople (406-413 CE); the Thessaloniki walls survive more completely than any other Byzantine urban fortification in the Balkans; the highest point of the walls (the Trigonion Tower — the 15th-century tower at the northeast corner of the wall circuit that commands the finest panoramic view in Thessaloniki: the entire city, the Thermaic Gulf (the inner arm of the Aegean Sea that defines the Thessaloniki waterfront), the Chalkidiki peninsula in the south, and on clear days the summit of Mount Olympus (2,917 m — the highest peak in Greece, 80 km southwest)); the Ottoman wooden houses of Ano Poli (the two-storey timber-frame overhanging upper floor (the sachnisi — the bay window feature of Ottoman domestic architecture) preserved in the narrow lanes of the upper city).

Atatürk's Birthplace (the house at 75 Apostolou Pavlou Street in the Bachtsi-Saray neighbourhood of Thessaloniki where Mustafa Kemal (later named Atatürk — "Father of the Turks") was born on May 19, 1881; the house was built in the early 19th century in the Ottoman style (the three-storey timber-frame house with the projecting upper floor and the wooden shutters); the Turkish government has operated the house as a museum since 1953 (the building was given to Turkey as part of the population exchange agreement by the Greek government); the museum documents the early life of Atatürk (his education at the military school in Thessaloniki, his early involvement in the Young Turk movement, and his role in the 1908 Constitutional Revolution that ended the Hamidian absolutism); the Ottoman legacy district (the Bachtsi-Saray neighbourhood retains several Ottoman-era mosque buildings (the Yeni Cami (New Mosque, 1902 — the last Ottoman mosque built in Thessaloniki before the 1912 Greek conquest; designed by the Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli in a Moorish-influenced style for the Dönmeh community (the descendants of the 17th-century followers of the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi who converted to Islam))).

Jewish Thessaloniki memorial sites (the city that was known as "La Madre de Israel" before the Holocaust): the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki (147 Vasileos Irakleiou Street — the museum in the former Modiano Market building that documents the 500-year Sephardic Jewish community of Thessaloniki; the community was established in 1492-1498 by the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain by the Edict of Granada (the same expulsion that coincided with Columbus's first voyage to the Americas — the Jews expelled from Spain arrived in the Ottoman Empire just as Spain was expanding into the Americas); by 1900 the approximately 80,000 Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki constituted approximately 50% of the total population (the city was majority Jewish — the only major European city with a Jewish majority at the turn of the 20th century); the Ladino language (the Judeo-Spanish language spoken by the Thessaloniki Sephardim (the 15th-century Spanish of the expulsion era, preserved in the community for 450 years with Hebrew, Greek and Turkish loan-words)); the Holocaust (between March and August 1943, the German occupation forces deported all 54,000 surviving Jewish residents of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 19 deportation trains; approximately 96% were murdered); the Holocaust memorial at Eleftherias Square (the memorial unveiled 1997 at the site of the former Jewish commercial quarter destroyed in 1917).

Thessaloniki street food tour (the best food city in Greece by the consensus of Greek food culture — Thessaloniki's food culture is the most diverse in Greece, reflecting the Ottoman, Sephardic Jewish, Anatolian refugee and Macedonian layers of the city's history): the bougatsa (the thick custard-filled filo pastry — the Thessaloniki bougatsa is the definitive version; the bougatsa is eaten for breakfast and as a snack; the best bougatsa in Thessaloniki is at the Bougatsa Bantis and the Boug atsa Giannis near the Kamara (the arch of Galerius); the koulouri Thessalonikis (the Thessaloniki sesame ring — the large sesame-coated bread ring (20-25 cm diameter) that is the most iconic street food of northern Greece; the koulouri vendor (the wooden cart with the koulouria hanging on the horizontal pole) is the most photographed street food image of Thessaloniki); the trigona panoramatos (the triangular filo pastry filled with whipped cream syrup at the Trigona Elenides patisserie (near the Trigonion Tower in Ano Poli)); the tsipouradiko (the Thessaloniki institution: the tsipouradiko serves tsipouro (the Greek marc spirit, similar to Italian grappa) with a succession of free small meze plates (one meze plate per round of tsipouro) — the most extraordinary value in Greek dining).

Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (the most important archaeological museum in northern Greece — the collection documents the history of Macedonia from prehistoric times through the Roman period; the Macedonian gold (the extraordinary gold collection from the Macedonian royal tombs and aristocratic burials: the gold wreaths (the Macedonian oak wreath — the thin beaten gold leaves of the funerary wreath worn by the Macedonian aristocracy; the finest examples in Thessaloniki weigh 290-320 grams and have individually detailed leaves cast in gold); the gold larnax (the Macedonian gold burial box — the casket that held the cremated remains of the royal dead (the Philip II larnax at Vergina, 60 km west, is the most famous example; the Thessaloniki museum holds comparable examples from the Sindos, Derveni and Aghia Paraskevi aristocratic necropolis)); the Derveni Krater (the 336 BCE volute krater (large bronze wine-mixing vessel, 90.5 cm height) found in a cremation burial near Thessaloniki in 1962 — the finest example of ancient Greek metalwork in existence: the intricate relief scene of the Marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne with the maenads, satyrs and Dionysiac animals in high relief bronze cast).

Vergina (60 km west of Thessaloniki — 1h by car or bus; the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (the ancient Macedonian capital before Pella); the tomb complex (discovered 1977-1978 by the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos — the most important Greek archaeological discovery of the 20th century; the tombs were found unlooted (the first unlooted royal Macedonian tomb ever found) because Andronikos excavated the Great Tumulus (the burial mound) from the top rather than from the side, as grave robbers always do; the gold burial goods (the gold larnax with the 16-pointed star of the Argead dynasty on the lid (the dynasty of Alexander the Great) containing the cremated bones of an adult male (identified by Andronikos and subsequent researchers as Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE) — Alexander the Great's father); the golden crown of myrtle leaves inside the larnax; the iron and gold armour with the traces of purple and gold textile (the most significant textile evidence from ancient Greece); the ivory portrait heads from the tomb's kline (funerary couch) (the head identified as Philip II has the distinctive right-eye damage consistent with the historical record of Philip's arrow wound at the siege of Methone).

Thessaloniki waterfront promenade (the Nea Paralia — the 3.5 km waterfront promenade along the Thermaic Gulf (the inner arm of the Aegean) from the White Tower north to the port; redesigned in 2013 with the themed garden sections (the Umbrellas Garden, the Floating Gardens, the Sculpture Walk), the seafront cafés and the bicycle path; the Thessaloniki sunset (the sun sets over the Thermaic Gulf directly to the west from the Thessaloniki waterfront — the sunset view over the water from the White Tower or the Aristotelous Square seafront is the most photogenic moment of the day in Thessaloniki); the Aristotelous Square (the main square of Thessaloniki — the 1920s neoclassical square designed by the French urban planner Ernest Hébrard as part of the post-1917 fire reconstruction plan (the fire that destroyed 32% of the city in 1917 provided the opportunity for Hébrard's radical urban redesign — the Aristotelous Square, the new port boulevard and the radial street plan of modern Thessaloniki are all Hébrard's 1918 master plan); the seafront café culture (the seafood cafés and the frappé-and-ouzo culture of the Thessaloniki waterfront promenade).

Thessaloniki final dinner at a traditional taverna (the Thessaloniki dining culture reflects the Anatolian Greek refugees who arrived after the 1923 Lausanne population exchange (the mandatory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey — approximately 1.2 million Greeks from Anatolia were resettled in Greece, with large concentrations in Thessaloniki and the surrounding Macedonia region; the Anatolian Greek cooking (the cuisine of the Greek communities of Constantinople (Istanbul), Smyrna (Izmir), Pontus and Cappadocia) brought the most diverse culinary tradition to Greece — the spices, the slow-cooking techniques and the dried fruit and nut combinations that distinguish Thessaloniki cooking from Athenian cuisine); the must-order dishes: the giaourtlou souvlaki (the Thessaloniki-style souvlaki served on toasted bread with the tomato sauce and a dollop of strained yogurt — the most distinctive Thessaloniki dish); the chortopita (the wild greens pie in the Macedonian style); the final tsipouro with the small meze at the tsipouradiko (the tsipouro spirit with the olive oil-marinated anchovies, the sliced feta and the fried bread (tiganopsomo)).