Piraeus is the port of Athens, a city in its own right of about 170,000 people 10 km south of the centre. It is the largest passenger port in Europe by ferry traffic and the gateway to almost every Greek island that is not too far away to fly to. For most travellers Piraeus is a place to catch a boat, but the archaeological museum holds some genuinely first-rate finds — the 6th-century BCE Piraeus Apollo and a hoard of large classical bronzes lost in a Roman shipwreck and rediscovered in the 1950s — and the Mikrolimano harbour is the city's most attractive small port, ringed with seafood restaurants and good for an evening fish dinner.
The metro Line 1 runs direct from central Athens to Piraeus in about twenty minutes. Tram 5 reaches the port from the city centre via the coast in about an hour.