Alexandros Hatzis

Thessaloniki is a city that eats all day, and I think it has the best food in Greece, although I am obviously biased. I was born in Ano Poli, the upper town inside the Byzantine walls, and I still live there with a view of the bay and the neighbour's cats. I studied history at Aristotle University and spent a year in Seville, where I learned Spanish and realised that the Sephardic Jews who made Thessaloniki their home after 1492 had brought an old Spanish with them. My food walk starts with bougatsa at breakfast, then the Kapani and Modiano markets for koulouri, cheese pies, olives and cured fish, mussels and a glass of tsipouro near the port, and trigona from Panorama to finish. My history walk climbs through Ano Poli to the walls and the Heptapyrgion fortress, passing the Rotunda and the church of Agios Dimitrios. Now I show Thessaloniki live on a video call, phone in hand, and I answer questions as they come.