Visitors heading up the hill to the Acropolis are wearing headwear of every kind under the harsh sun, from straw boaters and Panamas to baseball caps and bucket hats.
Hat racks are ubiquitous across central Athens this season. Local shops and kiosks maintain stacked outdoor displays as tourists look for protection against the intense midday heat.
Greece recorded a peak year for tourism in 2025, with the landmark attracting roughly 4.6 million people. Sightseers spend hours exposed to mid-30s Celsius (mid-90s Fahrenheit) temperatures with scarce shade. At the base of the monument, even a carriage horse joined in, sporting a brown bucket hat altered with holes cut for its ears.
“You need a hat. I’m already red as it is,” said Jack Yosif, an Australian tourist wearing a black baseball cap. “It’s a bit more of a common thing nowadays, and people are a bit more aware.”
Scorching temperatures didn’t deter a record 38 million visitors last year, the most recent for which there is data. The combination of extreme heat and high demand for sites – which means not everyone can visit in the morning – is adding urgency to sun protection.
Greek health campaigners have welcomed a growing awareness of the dangers of ultraviolet exposure and risk of heat stroke. Red Cross volunteers at the Acropolis hand out kits with sunscreen, water, information leaflets and red caps.
On nearby Syntagma Square, kiosk owner Konstantinos Mallios says hat sales have risen in recent years. His stylish and souvenir models run up to 20 euros ($24) while the cheapest costs 6 euros. Available elsewhere is semi-disposable headgear: mass-produced hats made using compressed paper pulp.
And there are more ostentatious options. At her basement workshop, hatmaker Lisa Sarigiannidou turns straw braids into boaters using century-old presses and molds in a matter of minutes. Her hats start at around 50 euros, with elaborate designs costing more than 100 euros.
“People’s attitudes toward hats have changed,” said Sarigiannidou, who was trained by her hatmaker father. “In the past, when a young woman tried on a hat and looked at herself in the mirror, she usually laughed. Now they try them on seriously … and they wear them straight out the door.”
Meanwhile, another devastating summer of wildfires has reignited a debate about the safety of Greece’s power networks, especially its cables, which face intense heat and gale force winds and often criss-cross rural areas of scrub or forest that haven’t seen rain in months.
