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Nikos apartments in Chania Crete. Low prices luxury family accommodation just a few steps from Chania old town, and 5 min from Chania town center visit us

The Old City

South from the harbour square, up Halidhon, lie the less picturesque but more lively parts of the old city. First, though, just a short way up on the right, is Hania's Archeological Museum (Mon-Fri 8.30am-3pm), housed in the Venetian-built church of San Francesco. Though it doesn't look much now, with its campanile gone and a crumbling facade, this building was once one of the island's grandest: inside, where there has been substantial restoration, you get a better sense of its former importance. The Turks converted the church into a mosque, from which a beautiful fountain and me base of a minaret have survived in the pungent, flowery garden alongside.

Large quantities of Minoan pottery, including a few of the huge Minoan storage jars option, dominate the front part of the museum. In the centre is a collection of Minoan clay tombs (lamakes), some wonderfully decorated, and one still containing two small skeletons. For archeologists, the most important items are the inscribed tablets excavated in Kastelli: this is the only place other than Knossos where examples of Linear A and Linear B script have been found together.

Towards the back of the church, the collection is arranged chronologically, progressing through a large group of Classical sculptures, a case full of Greco-Roman glassware and some recently discovered third-century Roman mosaics reassembled on the floor. These are really lovely, particularly those of Dionysos and Ariadne, and of Poseidon and Amymone. Outside in the garden courtyard (often enlivened by classical music drifting over the wall from a cafe outside) are other assorted sculptures and architectural remnants, including a lovely one-legged, headless lion.

Cathedral Square and "Leather Street"

Just past the museum, on the other side of Halidhon. the Cathedral sits at the back of a small square. Given Chania's history and importance, you might expect this to be rather impressive: in fact ifs a singularly unattractive little building, dating only from the last century- Nor is the square, which must once have been at the heart of life in Chania. particularly lively any more except as a taxi rank; to one side, above a periptero or street kiosk, are the ramshackle domes of a former Turkish bath.

The street just above, Odos Skridlof, is considerably more interesting and animated. Here traditional leather makers still ply their trade, and although many are now geared to tourists, prices for leatherwear remain the best in Crete ~ and there are still a few shops which ignore sandals and bags in favor of traditional high Cretan boots and hefty work shoes.

The market and points northeast

In the other direction, continuing to the end of Skridlof or up behind the cathedral, you reach the back of the market An imposing and rather beautiful cross-shaped structure, this dates from the beginning of this century, when it was supposedly modeled on the market at Marseilles. At the back is a small shaded square where locals sit outside a couple of kafenia. As you wander round these streets, a minaret keeps appearing above the rooftops, only to disappear when you head towards it: actually located on Dhaliani, it seems to be part of a carpenters' workshop, but is fenced off and closed to visitors.

A second minaret (recently restored) adorns the church of Ayios Nikolaos in Platia 1821, further over to the east. Built by the Venetians, this church was converted to a mosque under Sultan Ibrahim and reconverted after Crete's reversion to Greek authority, but has been so often refurbished that there's nothing much to see. The square itself, whose name recalls the date of one of the larger rebellions against Turkish authority, after which an Orthodox bishop was hanged here, is another pleasantly shaded space set with cafe chairs.

Nearby are two more old churches: San Rocco, just a pace towards the harbor, is small and old-fashioned, while Ayii Anaryiri, which retained its Orthodox status throughout the Turkish occupation, has some very ancient icons. Again the area as a whole - known as Splantzia - is full of unexpected architectural delights: carved wooden balconies and houses arching across the street at first-floor level Many of the streets between here and the inner harbor have recently been redoubled and generally refurbished, and they're among the most atmospheric and tranquil in the old town.

Continue eastwards, past another section of ruinous wall stretching round from the inner harbor, and you'll hit the sea again. From here you can follow the coast round into the smarter areas of the modem city.