Hi!
My husband and I have 2 days in Athens ahead of our scheduled cruise and we need to see all the basics because we are first timers to the city.
I’ve read that the Ilias Lalaounis jewelry museum near the Acropolis museum is one of only 3 in the world and is pretty fantastic! But Rick doesn’t mention it in his book. As a jewelry lover and gemologist I am very interested to know if this is worth our time or should we stick to the main sites? Thanks!
Tamsen
I’ve not been to the jewellery museum but friends have and raved about it. if you are interested in seeing some beautiful gold work, suggest you visit the National Archaeological Museum and look at the Minoan gold work from Crete, absolutely stunning!
If your cruise happens to go to Heraklion in Crete be sure to visit the Aechaeological Museum there, it has the best collection of Minoan gold jewellery. Some lovely necklaces that could be worn today and incredibly small gold bees that are very intricately modelled.
Thank you for the wonderful tips Lesley!
I've never been to the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, but the very interesting Benaki Museum features, among all the exhibits, a significant collection of jewelry dating from all periods, from antiquity to the 18th century.
Just two examples among dozens of others.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JWWWD1NotxJRKKhR8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MLRSciM9ExcEaF2x8
The museum is a short walk from Syntagma Square.
https://www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_buildings&view=building&id=11&Itemid=523&lang=en
I viisited the I-L Museum on my first Greece trip 25 years ago, not since, so much may have changed. It may depend on entry fee... it used to be very reasonable... 5-6E... so, worth it for a look-see. Its jewelry is NOT ancient... but rather, Lalounis' own creation of jewelry (mainly gold, with some semi-precious stones) in the style of 3 different ancient cultures -- Greek, Egyptian I think, and a 3rd I can't remember. Another feature was that in corners of each floor were small workshops where individual craftspersons were working on jewelry pieces, interesting to observe. My companion was a graduate of an arrts academy and someone who worked in metals, so she was fascinated. I'd advise looking for reviews from online Arts resources, rather than general Trip-Advisor type comments from general pulblic.
