It’s a scorching, sweltering day in Athens when I step inside the lobby of The Dolli, an experience akin to having a soothing cold towel gently pressed against my forehead. Outside, the temperature is pushing 40 degrees, the traffic is snarled, and the streets are full of tourists hell-bent on getting the most out of their holiday. But inside this newly opened hotel, the lobby is filled with cool air and cool marble, with lofty ceilings and light streaming through tall arched windows, all combining to create a calming cocoon.
While Athenians head to the islands to escape the summer heat, The Dolli gives visitors a very good reason to brave the temperatures and stay in the city for a couple of days. Aside from its elegant interiors, the new hotel’s dazzling rooftop pool, with waters that reflect the Acropolis like a mirage, is undoubtedly one of the chicest spots in the city right now. In spite of the heat, my first glimpse of it gives me goosebumps.
Opened earlier this year in a restored heritage building, The Dolli is squeezed between the busy shopping streets of Ermou and Monastiraki, and the narrow lanes of Plaka with their cafés, restaurants and archaeological sites dating back millennia. Built in 1925 by Greek architect Andreas Kriezis, the edifice was originally designed as a residence for his two daughters. They never moved in, and the building subsequently became a department store, housing furniture companies. The last of them, Hitiroglou, moved out in the early 2000s, and the building shut its doors, standing empty until it reemerged as The Dolli.
The hotel is an ode to elegance and style, combining the vision of its owner, creator and CEO of Greek hotel company Grecotel, Mari Daskalantonakis, with the building’s lovingly restored bones. It was the combination of architectural styles – a blend of neoclassicism and eclecticism, of high ceilings and curved lines, of flowers and baroque-style angels above the door – that led Daskalantonakis to come up with the hotel’s name. A play on the word “idol”, she wanted to give The Dolli a female identity that would correspond with the femininity of the building that was to become its home.
Daskalantonakis’s sense of style can be seen and felt everywhere in the hotel, from the 17th and 18th century antiques, including two antique statues of Atlas – one holding up the world, the other the universe – sourced from her personal collection, to the bespoke furniture created by local craftspeople. Her touch is present in the art curation, with Greek mythology-inspired ceramics by Jean Cocteau sitting alongside chairs and tables by French sculptors François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, mobiles by Alexander Calder, and more contemporary pieces, including a balloon chair from Korean designer Seungjin Yang’s Blowing collection. French furniture designer Pierre Paulin’s modular Pacha sofas, designed in the 1970s and reissued by Gubi, invite you to sink into their comfy forms, inspired by clouds. On the ceilings are recreations of the building’s original decorative plasterwork featuring the Sun of Vergina, an ancient motif found on the coffin of the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon.
This isn’t a museum masquerading as hotel, though. The art is fully integrated into its surroundings, given space to breathe. The only pieces kept behind glass are two priceless Greek antiquities. Cocteau sculptures sit out in the open on top of the mantelpiece, and a Lalanne silver bird table is topped with bowls of sweets, inviting you to help yourself whenever you’re feeling peckish.
Up in the guestrooms, three-and-a-half metre ceilings and tall windows let sunlight stream into spaces where bright white walls are offset by earthy tones. Wooden furniture is custom-made for the hotel by a small business run by two brothers from the west of Athens (another pair of brothers from Crete made the wood panelling and shelves in the downstairs library), part of the hotel’s philosophy of supporting local artisans. In a twist of history, the curtains have been sourced from Hitiroglou, the last fabric company to leave the building before it closed its doors. Bathrooms are calming spaces, and the rain shower that pours down from its 3.5 metre height is powerful and energizing. The bed envelops you like an embrace, at once fluffy and cosy, yet cool and refreshing. The only thing that could entice me out of it in the morning, after hitting the snooze button over and over, was knowing what awaited me on the rooftop.
And so up we go, to bathe in the cool morning light with a perfectly layered freddo cappuccino and some of the most jaw-dropping, heart-stopping views in the city. Rising above its neighbours, but not so high that it loses its human scale, The Dolli’s rooftop is surrounded by a mix of mid-century apartment blocks, colourful neoclassical houses, and archaeological sites like Hadrian’s Library, the Tower of the Winds and the Roman Agora. And above it all are the Acropolis and the Parthenon, reflecting in the mirror-like surface of the pool, perhaps the best way to see these ancient wonders without physically stepping inside them.
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The pool here is undoubtedly the hotel’s biggest draw, fodder for tantalizing Insta-posts and languid afternoons sitting on its built-in bench, gazing at the views. It’s not huge, nor is the surrounding deck. You won’t be lounging on sunbeds here, but the bijou terrace has sofa seating that’s comfortable enough to curl up beneath a parasol with a book and a cold drink. As you lounge, take note of the travertine marble used up here on the rooftop, chosen after consultation with the city’s archaeological committee to identify materials that would complement, not compete with, the view of the Acropolis.
For the best photo opportunities and clear reflections in the water’s undisturbed surface, head up in the early morning. Or come in the evening, when rose gold sunsets soften the view and the Parthenon’s subtle lighting makes it stand out in even sharper focus.
Many hotels in Athens have rooftops, but The Dolli’s is a true treasure. And in spite of how phenomenally stylish it all is, this isn’t a hotel that’s trying to be cool. The Dolli is the epitome of quiet luxury, a place that whispers rather than shouts. With a setting like this, it doesn’t need to.
