Nea Smyrni: the refugees' great square
The quarter built by the 1922 refugees, its vast café-ringed square, and everyday Athenian life. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Plateia Nea Smyrnis (the great square)
Start in the *plateia* (square), one of the largest in Athens and the social engine of the whole quarter. Take a table at any of the cafés along the edge and watch the *volta* (evening stroll) build as the light goes. This is the point of the walk; everything else orbits it.

2. Agia Fotini church
The big church on the square's flank, named for the cathedral the refugees left behind in Smyrna. They rebuilt the name here when they had nothing else. Step in if the doors are open; the congregation still carries Asia-Minor roots.

3. Estia Neas Smyrnis and the refugee story
The cultural centre that keeps the 1922 memory alive — the *Mikrasiatika*, the music, the recipes that came across the Aegean. Check whether anything's on; even the building's noticeboard tells you what this neighbourhood is about.

4. The leafy grid
Walk out from the square into the residential streets — a calm orthogonal grid of low apartment blocks, bitter-orange trees and quiet corners. No monuments, just lived-in Athens. Pick a street and let it lead you; they all loop back.

5. Alsos Neas Smyrnis (the grove)
The neighbourhood's green lung, a pine grove with a small open-air theatre and shaded benches. Families come at dusk, kids on bikes, old men over backgammon. A good place to sit before the last loop back.

6. The café strip on Omirou
End on the streets feeding the square, where the tavernas and *zacharoplasteia* (patisseries) run one after another. Order a *politiko* sweet — the Constantinople-style pastries the refugees brought. Then the tram or bus back to the metro.

Nea Smyrni: the refugees' great square