Thessaloniki

The 15th-century tower on the seafront that is the symbol of the city — once an Ottoman prison, now a museum of Thessaloniki spiralling up six floors to a balcony with the best view over the gulf. Start here; everything is measured from it.

A colossal round Roman temple built for an emperor's tomb, later a church and a mosque — 1,700 years old, with a lone surviving minaret and early-Christian mosaics glinting in the dome. One of the great survivors of the ancient world.

The great carved triumphal arch the locals just call 'the Kamara', straddling the old Roman road and now the city's favourite meeting point. Roman battle scenes above, students and street music below — the living centre of Thessaloniki.

The old upper town, the only quarter to survive the 1917 fire — a climb through cobbled lanes and Ottoman houses to the Byzantine ramparts and the whole city spread out below. The most atmospheric wander in Thessaloniki, best near sunset.

The vast basilica of the city's patron saint, built over the Roman baths where he was martyred — five-aisled, rebuilt after the fire, with rare 7th-century mosaics that survived and an eerie crypt below. The spiritual heart of the city.

The grand civic square that opens straight onto the sea — a sweep of arcaded 1920s facades, packed café terraces, and the city's front room for every parade, protest and New Year. Sit with a frappé and watch Thessaloniki go by.

The excavated ancient agora just above Aristotelous — a Roman theatre, colonnades and the old marketplace, sunk below street level with a small museum. Free to look down into 2,000 years of the city's civic life.

The old oil-and-spice warehouse district by the port, saved from demolition and now a grid of colourful lanes packed with tavernas and mezze bars. Wander it early for the buildings, come back after dark for the noise and the food.

The city's two old covered markets side by side — the restored Modiano hall full of mezze counters and the raucous open Kapani with its fish, olives and spices. The best lunch in the city is standing at a market ouzeri.

The five-kilometre seafront promenade, and Zongolopoulos's famous Umbrellas sculpture rising from the water halfway along — the city's favourite spot for a sunset walk, a bike ride or a beer facing Mount Olympus across the gulf.

The treasures of ancient Macedonia under one roof — most of all the golden wreaths and the astonishing grave goods of Philip II, Alexander the Great's father, from the royal tombs at Vergina. Small, world-class, and never crowded.

The best museum of the Byzantine world anywhere — icons, mosaics and everyday things from the empire that made this city its second capital, beautifully laid out. Essential for making sense of all the churches you'll pass outside.

Thessaloniki runs on bougatsa — warm filo pastry filled with sweet semolina custard or salty cheese, dusted with sugar and cut up with scissors at the counter. Queue at an old bougatsatzidiko in the morning; it's the city's signature bite.

The real Thessaloniki night — a carafe of tsipouro and a table crowded with small plates of grilled octopus, fried peppers and cheese, in a loud tsipouradiko in Ladadika or Valaoritou. Order slowly, stay late; this is how the city socialises.

The Byzantine-and-Ottoman citadel crowning the upper town, a prison until 1989 and now open for the walls, the history and the view — the whole city, the gulf and Olympus laid out below. The reward for the climb through Ano Poli.