Lord Byron was famous across Europe when he first laid eyes upon Athens from a hill north of the city on Christmas Day, 1809. Their guide called out “Affendi, affendi, to chorio” (meaning Sir, sir, the town) and through the fir trees Byron and his companion John Hobhouse saw the plain of Attica and the surrounding mountains, the most “glorious prospect” either of them had ever seen. It took them a few hours to actually enter the city as they admired the olive groves, the vineyards, the verdant valley of the river Cephissus and the dark-green cypresses. The city itself was rather modest, with a population of some 10,000, and was surrounded by a wall you could walk around in 47 minutes.