Last year, a ticket to a live performance by Patti Smith at the open-air Herodes Atticus amphitheater brought me back to Athens. It ended up being the unexpected memory trigger for re-discovering the city where I had lived as a child.
When Smith railed against political injustice in a rain-soaked rendition of “Gloria,” the Athenian audience members were ecstatic. Here was the legendary singer-poet, saluting the nation for prevailing over a tumultuous decade of bankruptcy and disillusionment.
