What I say to my non-Greek friends is that Athens is a really beautiful city, because it is really ugly. I have yet to meet a person living in Athens that likes these buildings for any other reasons than that you've grew up in them. In fact, the houses made in what Greeks call "neo-classical" style are considered to be a major improvement. This is the style you can find in the area of Plaka, Metz etc.
Many people call Vienna beautiful, but I have a direct comparison. I spent most of my childhood in Attica (northern suburbs, 8 Km from Syntagma square, so basically still Athens), in 5 different polykatoikies. All of them had balconies, bidets, elevators, good heating, plenty of light, were quiet and relatively clean. Here in Vienna, I've had one apartment with terrace and 0 with balconies (of 6 total I've lived in), lots of noise, thin walls and dirt. Elevators and toilets inside the apartment were often added in the last 20-30 years in older buildings, balconies are often impossible and you usually have noisy and somewhat dangerous gas heating with boilers inside the apartment. IOW, housing quality in Athens was significantly better even though back then we were lower middle class (my mother was a single mother with 2 kids). The apartment I'm sitting in right now cost me approx. €750k (for 75m²) and has no balconies.
I don't want to go back to Athens, but apartments are typically much better there.
FWIW, the house I lived in from 1985-1990 is still standing and looks exactly the same: https://www.google.at/maps/@38.0225488,23.8094767,3a,65.9y,1...