If you want to get under the skin of a city, tasting and smelling is, without doubt, one of the most fascinating, fun and magical way of doing it.

Greek food has such a strong presence all round the world that I wasn’t sure how much I would learn (I’m just greedy, so I thought it would be a yummy day). What I hadn’t expected was the breadth and depth of knowledge our guide had, and - by contrast - just how little I actually knew! Greek salad in London (or anywhere else) has very little resemblance to Greek salad ...

Tiama took us from breakfast to dinner, from everyday peasant food to street food to elegant food, from savoury to sweet, from Greek coffee to mastika. We salivated over sesame bread, swooned over pita, breathed in the giddy smells of the spice market, crushed basil leaves between our fingers and learnt about herbs, ate olives so meaty I could almost go vegan if I had those in my life, went dreamy-eyed over thick Greek yogurt drizzled with thyme honey, and feasted on moussaka.

But it wasn’t just the food. As we walked round Athens, she wove the history of the city, its buildings, its traditions, its family life, its culture into the food we ate and tasted.

All this in just four hours. I could have read a book on Athens and not learned as much. I could have spent five days marching round with a guidebook and would not have learned as much.

I wanted another four hours, and then another four days of it! Tiama is absolutely superb as a guide. Her English is brilliant, she is funny, witty, brilliantly clever, and a lovely person to spend time with.

Thank you. Worth every single penny.