GREECE IS | SANTORINI | SUMMER 2016 by GREECE IS

greece is experience culture, gastronomy & more

SANTO RI N I

2016-2017 issue

ISSN: 2459-041X

2ND edition

14 - 43

45 - 86

87 - 126

Welcome

Dis cove r

ex perien c e

127 - 175 Taste

We did our share of soulsearching off the beaten path, visited some amazing places and compiled the definitive guide to this season’s events that will spice up life on the island.

Our journey starts from the inspiring legend of Atlantis and ends with a rare collection of vintage photographs, depicting life and landscapes before the 1956 earthquake struck.

Hop on board one of Sunset Oia’s pleasure craft for an unforgettable day cruise, meet local artists, go on a hike, stop by the famous Atlantis Bookshop; our mix of stories has it all.

Learn all there is to know about Santorini’s renowned wines and products, follow us on a tour of its wineries and restaurants, and get tempted by the signature dishes of some of the island’s top chefs.

WE LCOME

All You Need is Love BY GIORGOS TSIROS e d i t o r - I N - C H IE F , G REE C E I S

“Even if you’ve never been to this Cyclades island in the Aegean Sea, you’d still recognize it immediately – candy-colored houses carved into cliffs, sapphire waters, gleaming white buildings topped with half-spheres the color of a stormy sky. Here you’ll find peace as you roam the black sand beaches or the streets of a provincial village like Imerovigli. Beautiful Oia is world famous for its sunsets, which seem tinted with every shade of an artist’s palette.” This is how TripAdvisor describes Santorini as it names it the second best island in the world to visit in 2016, a distinction that is certainly enviable though perhaps not entirely reflective of reality. Santorini is a small island – with an area of just 76km2 – volcanic, rather hostile in terms of geomorphology, with a vulnerable natural and residential environment, and a finite capacity for people and infrastructure. It stirs from its winter slumber every April and through the summer until October experiences a tourism frenzy that tests its limits. Its international reputation and its admittedly incredible landscapes attract an increasing number of visitors every year: in 2015, airport arrivals reached 360,000 (a 43-percent rise from 2014) and continue to grow this year, and over 124 cruise ships visited its port, carrying around 800,000 passengers. Adding arrivals by ferryboat, it is estimated that the island receives 2 to 2.5 million people a year. It is widely acknowledged that such numbers are having a catalytic effect not just on the destination’s image, but also on the living conditions of locals and visitors. Throughout the summer the streets of Santorini resemble Athens at rush hour. What Santorini needs, with the help of all involved – from the municipal authority, central administration, tourism professionals, state agencies and residents alike – is to abandon the mass tourism model and work towards becoming a more exclusive destination

that operates for a greater part of the year. Its archaeological wealth, vineyards and boutique wineries, its food, architecture, nature trails and beaches, in combination with its international airport and world-class hotels, are everything it needs to attract a more discerning clientele, high-end tourists who are interested in more well-targeted, themed experiences. The municipality’s official campaign, “Santorini, the One, Αll Year Round,” which includes inviting foreign travel writers, hosting important off-season events such as Santorini Experience and the first International Conference on Wine Tourism – both to take place in October – represent steps in the right direction. Meanwhile, dozens of restaurateurs and hoteliers are striving to keep their facilities open all year round by investing in equipment and construction that will allow them to operate during the winter. The municipality has also embarked on a partnership with the University of the Aegean for the establishment of a destination marketing organization (DMO). This is all well and good, but it is not enough. What the island needs is a visionary plan that will be implemented consistently and systematically, and enjoy everyone’s support. In the meantime, if you are lucky enough to be on the island, remember that what it needs, above all else, is some tender loving care. Stray from the beaten path, tour all its wonderful sights, respect it, engage with the locals and try to get in touch with its soul – we hope this issue of Greece Is inspires you. What we can say with certainty is that Santorini will reward you, just as it has so many of the world’s nomads, inquisitive artists and young people fed up with city life who fell in love with this island on one of their holidays and decided to stay.

Growth spurt: Santorini’s eastern coast 120 years ago and today.

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S A N TORI N I 2 0 1 6

58 88

CONTENTS Greece Is - Santorini, 2016-2017 Issue, Second Edition WELCOME 14. Editor’s Notes: Soul-searching

58. Pompeii of the Aegean: Professor Christos Doumas guides us through the

118. Where to Swim 120. Αctivities: From photo tours

in Santorini; The Wedding Industry;

prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri.

to horseback riding, and from e-bike

Santorini Arts Factory; La Ponta, the

excursions to diving in the caldera.

sound of the earth; Crossroad antique

70. Ancient Thera: Santorini’s rebirth. 74. Time Travel: Rare snapshots of life

shop; Black Rock studio, a paradise for

on Santorini before the 1956 earthquake.

recording artists.

82. Architecture: How the traditional

taste 128. Miracles in Arid Soil:

28. Culture & Events: Santorini

settlements were built.

A brief guide to the island’s products, from its split peas and capers to its cherry

Experience & Red Bull Art of Motion, two International Wine Tourism Congress;

EXPERIENCE 88. The Place of Dreams: A travel

136. Arts de la Table: Signature dishes

The arts calendar.

writer recounts her love affair with

by some of Santorini’s top chefs.

38. Amazing Photos

Santorini.

142. Flagship Variety: Assyrtiko’s

94. Atlantis Bookshop: The inside story

astonishing rise in the global wine world.

major sporting events; Santorini’s First

tomatoes and white eggplants.

discover 46. Lost Atlantis: The battle of the

of a world-famous haunt for bibliophiles.

146. With Wine as Our Guide: We

100. Creative Forces: Meeting

came, we saw, we tasted.

narratives.

Santorini’s resident artists.

150. Vintners’ Boutiques: Our grand

50. Timeline: Santorini’s history at a

110. Seaborn Escapes: The Sunset Oia

tour of the island’s wineries.

glance.

fleet offers luxury, safety and memorable

168. For your Dining Pleasure:

52. Born of Fire: The volcano.

experiences.

Selected restaurants that offer much more than a beautiful setting.

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110 168

100

150 greece is - santorini 2016-2017 issue, second edition

Published by: Exerevnitis - Explorer SA, Ethnarchou Makariou & 2 Falireos St, Athens, 18547, Greece ISSN: 2459-041X Editor-in-chief: Giorgos Tsiros (editor@greece-is.com) Commercial director: Natasha Bouterakou (sales@greece-is.com) Creative director: Thodoris Lalangas / www.youandi.gr Creative consultant: Costas Coutayar Deputy editor: Natasha Blatsiou Art director: Ria Staveri Pagination: Natasha Kaika Editorial consultants: Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Vassilis Minakakis Translations: George Kolyvas, John Leonard, Alexia Liakounakou, Damian Mac Con Uladh, Stephen Stafford, Danae Seemann, Christine Sturmey, Graham Wood Proof-reading: Don Domonkos, Christine Sturmey Photo editors: Maria Konstantopoulou, Marika Tsouderou Photoshop: Christos Maritsas, Michalis Tzannetakis, Stelios Vazourakis Advertising: Sophia Tsepa (stsepa@kathimerini.gr) Advertising Department: Tel. (+30) 210.480.82.27 Head of public relations: Lefki Vardikou GREECE IS - SANTORINI is a yearly publication, distributed free of charge. Contact us: welcome@greece-is.com

It is illegal to reproduce any part of this publication without the written permission of the publisher.

ON THE C OVER Stairway to heaven, Santorini-style ÂŠ Shutterstock

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Soul-searching © VANGELIS ZAVOS, DIMITRIS VLAIKOS

K e e p y o u r e y e s o p e n , b e c a u s e w o n d e r f u l r e v e l at i o n s a w a i t

When it comes to imaginative wedding picture-taking, Santorini is a dream destination for thousands of Chinese couples. Here’s a more artistic approach, by our own Dimitris Vlaikos.

orget about the bottlenecks in Fira, the multitudes of sunset seekers in Oia, the hunt for a table with a view, the signs that read “do not enter – private property,” the inevitable dissonance resulting from the arrival of 2 million visitors on an island that is disproportionately small relative to its global fame. Try to escape, if only for a bit, from the magnetic pull of the caldera. Put on your most comfortable walking shoes and chart your own course. An afternoon, for instance, can be spent in Vothonas, a settlement excavated into the banks of a ravine formed by a torrent. The bed of the now-dry Potamos serves as the main street, with lovely gardens on either side, “for in this sheltered spot everything flourishes,” as the English explorer James Theodore Bent wrote when he visited the island in 1883. Have a wander around and take in the architecture, before finding the gravel path that leads to the Church of 14

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Panaghia Trypa, or Panaghia Sergena, hewn into the volcanic rock centuries ago and used as a refuge during the Turkish occupation. The church celebrates on 2 February each year with a big, open fete that is one of the major events on the island’s calendar. Spend a day exploring the highest village (and former capital), Pyrgos, with its 15th-century Venetian castle. Enjoy a coffee at Voula’s Kantouni in the shaded square. Stop off for a tour of the “Santorini of the Past” exhibition (www.santorini-museum.com) housed in a 19th-century building next to the famed Selene restaurant, for a glimpse at the rural and traditional way of life long before the island became a worldclass travel destination. Afterwards, ascend through the narrow streets to the upper square, where the main gateway to the castle once stood. Invaders were greeted with boiling oil poured from a square bastion known as the Fonis-

The quiet side: Finikia settlement stands out for its architecture.

sa (“Murderess”). Higher up, at 567m, the Monastery of Profitis Ilias affords a magnificent view and one of the most beautiful sunsets on the island. If you’re not put off by all these steep climbs, we have a few more to suggest. Emborio, the largest village on Santorini and its old commercial hub, boasts its own medieval castle, the best preserved of the five on the island, but also a number of churches and old windmills. Again, a labyrinth of narrow alleys awaits exploration. Another climb that is well worth the effort is at Mesa Vouno, up to Ancient Thera, where the wind, the view and the energy emanating from the ruins can clear the mind of even the most persistent everyday worries. It’s a simple truth that to really get to know Santorini you have to walk it. The view from the Fira-Oia path (3 hours at a normal pace) is out of this world; the old path from Megalochori to Loutra Plakas soon brings you to a

Natural sculpture: Konstantina Sidiropoulou of K-Yellow Photo Tours (page 122) has an eye for detail.

spot favored by geologists for studying the morphology of the caldera; the walk from Akrotiri to Faros (lighthouse) will reward you for your efforts as the sun goes down and also reveal the “Indian” rock, so called because of its likeness to the face of a Native American. Don’t be afraid to discover places off the beaten tourist path. And don’t forget to chat with the locals. The elderly in particular will share memories from the time before and right after the earthquake, when the island was poor and neglected, sending its children to seek their fortunes elsewhere. They will help you understand the turn to tourism and how, in the first few decades, it was out of control, as vineyards and vegetable gardens were turned into rooms-to-let and other facilities catering to tourists. The young people, most of them well educated and well traveled, dearly love the island, even if they do not hail from it; they will speak about the

need for a change of direction, one that focuses not on visitor numbers but on what those visitors gain and how they advertise Santorini when they are back home. Quality, authenticity, a human scale and an extension of the season into the winter months are the issues that matter to an island that is trying to reconnect with its soul. To end our walking tour, we stopped off at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Fira, accompanied by Christophoros Asimis, the local artist who spent eight years painting every inch of its interior. Just a few steps from the constant coming-and-going of tourists from every corner of the world, we find silence. “How would you introduce Santorini to a foreign visitor?” I ask him. “An island of contrasts... The serene presence of a volcano, the bright nights and the long shadows of day. White houses suspended above the blue sea, bathed in the complex light of simplicity.”

Excavated church: Panaghia Τrypa, near the village of Vothonas.

And then there was light: The lighthouse in Akrotiri, built in 1892 by the French Lighthouse Company and fully automated since 1988.

Catch your breath: An old barber shop in Emborio village, turned into a traditional kafenio.

1. Famous bells: The Chapel of Saint Nicholas, above Plaka in Megalochori, right on the edge of the caldera. 2. Where time stood still: A typical corner in Emborio.

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“To Have and to Hold...” T h e t r u t h b e h i n d S a n t o r i n i ’ s “ w e d d i n g i n d u st r y ”

How many newlywed couples did you see in Santorini today? And if you had to guess how many weddings take place on the island annually, what would the number be? A few thousand, surely? Yet, figures show that just 900 marriages were registered in 2015, bringing in revenues of €76,350 to the municipal authority. In fact, in the four-year period from 2011, there were no more than 4,000 nuptials. Another interesting fact is that 80 percent of the couples who exchanges vows in 2015 were British, with the remainder being mainly Russians and Greeks. So, how do we account for so many reports suggesting a Chinese wedding boom? Santorini has a reputation as the perfect romantic setting for a wedding and the overwhelming majority of Chinese wedding visitors come here mainly for the show: to take photographs and shoot a video (which may include as 18

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many as three cameras and drones, depending on budget) that they can show guests at the wedding proper back home. Having already traveled halfway around the world, they usually continue on their “wedding” trip to London, Paris or Milan. Most of these “weddings” are arranged by Chinese agencies that offer – for a fee in the €1,000 range – a photographer and make-up artist, as well as a choice between four or five bridal gowns and suits, which are usually reused. They also touch up the photographs so that the bride appears with a more oval face and rounder eyes – a new fad, apparently. The poses are rehearsed and the usual three- or four-day visit is stretched out to include a stay at as many as three different hotels. The photo shoots invariably include a caldera view, but may also be in more unusual spots such as a field, a beach or even a cemetery.

Some Chinese firms have opened shop on Santorini, but resistance is growing from local photographers who claim the Chinese crews are not licensed to work in Greece. The “wedding industry” has certainly brought in money and helped extend the tourism season, but the prevailing feeling is that it has not been to the full benefit of the island. There is plenty of room for the municipal registry office to bring in more revenue, for local professionals to become more competitive in their services and for wedding celebrations with hundreds of guests to become a more regular occurrence. - GIORGOS TSIROS

The relatively quiet caldera spots suitable for a proper “wedding” photo are few and this often leads to friction between local photographers and Chinese crews.

Santorini Arts Factory T H E O L D “ N O M I K O S ” T O M AT O P R O C E S S I N G P L A N T T H R I V E S A S A M U LT I - P U R P O S E A R T S P A C E

It is touching to hear Kyr-Antonis, the former chief engineer of the Dimitris Nomikos tomato processing plant in Vlychada, tell stories of the old days, when 3,500 crates of delicious Santorini cherry tomatoes would make their way through the plant’s cogs and wheels every day. He was just 7 years old when he started getting in the way of the plant’s engineers, hoping to earn a small wage as their assistant. Spotting the young man’s potential, Giorgos Nomikos, son of the founder, kept an eye on him and later paid for him to study in the port city of Piraeus giving him a steady job after graduation. Antonis raised three children thanks to the factory and has only gratitude for his former boss. Today, he is responsible for maintaining the machinery and guarding the former plant, occasionally acting as guide.

Shut down since 1981, when poverty and the ensuing explosion in tourism began taking their toll on the island’s manufacturing and processing industries, the factory was revamped to bring out its industrial features, reopening in 2014 as an industrial museum and cultural center. Today, the Santorini Arts Factory hosts exhibitions, concerts and plays, as well as visits from groups of local schoolchildren eager to learn about the arts. It has a gift shop selling souvenirs, books and food products. And even though Kyr-Antonis may wish, in his heart of hearts, that the machines could roar back into life and contribute to Santorini’s economy once more, he takes comfort in the fact that he is serving his island’s cultural life. - GIORGOS TSIROS

info www.santoriniartsfactory.gr • Vlychada Beach, Tel. (+30) 22860.851.41 • Tickets pre-sale: Fabrica shopping center, Fira. D . N O M I K O S T O M AT O I N D U S T R I A L M U S E U M Open daily 10:00-20:00 • Admission €5

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“I cannot think of any other performer who could quote excerpts from Homer as a prelude to his music and yet make it feel so naturally part of the whole performance” Jane Moulder, Member of Τhe Bagpipe Society.

The Bagpipe Savior Y i a n NI s P AN TA Z IS AN D T H E A M A Z IN G S T O R Y O F L A P O N TA W O R K S H O P

“The tsabouna cries, labors, aches… It is the sound of the Earth,” says Yiannis Pantazis, speaking of the traditional Greek wind instrument, much like a bagpipe, that enchanted him as a child and has defined his adult life. Raised among musicians in a small town in northern Greece, he spent years traveling around the islands of the Cyclades following the trail of a dying tradition to learn the art of playing and constructing the ancient bagpipe from shepherds and musicians. “When I first started out, I didn’t even know what it looked like, but nothing is too hard when you love it,” he says, pointing to a tsabouna he made by hand, using a goat’s skin, shin bone and horn. A visit to La Ponta, a workshop and museum in the 13th century Venetian Tower of Akrotiri, is one of the most

memorable experiences for any music enthusiast. With a lot of hard work and with funding from their own pocket, Yiannis and his Greek-American wife, historian Argy Kakissis, did an excellent job remodeling the space. Today, they welcome some 40,000 visitors a year who come to see traditional Cycladic percussion instruments, listen to the music and – why not – to learn to play. Every afternoon and evening, Yiannis marries music to stories taken from history and mythology in an interactive performance “that can turn your average person into a musician in 10 minutes flat,” he says. La Ponta has been featured in various documentaries (TV France 5, RAI 3, BBC 2 Scotland) while in 2014 it was nominated for the National Geographic World Heritage Awards in the “Sense of Place” category. - GIORGOS TSIROS

info Venetian Tower, Akrotiri • www.laponta.gr • Tel. (+30) 22860.853.74 • Open 1 April – 1 November 10:00-14:00 & 17:00-20:00 • Daily performances are held at noon and 18:00 (€7) • Every Mon, Wed & Sat at 21:00 there’s a performance of 10 musical compositions recounting the homecoming of Odysseus (€12) • Every Tue & Fri at 21:00 Yiannis Pantazis and Thanassis Kleopas present a concert series inspired by Akrotiri Castle, taking advantage of the tower’s natural acoustics (€12).

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Preserving Santorini’s Memory the Crossroad Antique Shop and Gallery in Pyrgos A bed from Afghanistan dated to the last century, which is astonishingly similar to those made at prehistoric Akrotiri; a fireman’s mask, dated 1860, from the house of a ship’s captain in Syros; original 16th-century engravings; an abundance of heirlooms, collector’s items and works of art: all these and more can be found at the enchanting Crossroad Antiques, housed in a former grocery store in Pyrgos. Its energetic owner, Lefteris Zorzos (pictured left), after studying archaeology in London – where he began the collection – returned to Santorini to combine his business activity (Voreina Gallery Suites) with his passion for preserving

and showcasing the island’s heritage. Zorzos sits on the municipality’s Committee on Culture and is busy supervising the digitization of a photographic treasure trove of 7,000 images of Santorini that predate the devastating 1956 earthquake. This year, he opened an art gallery next to the antique shop, exhibiting paintings from the late 19th to the early 20th century. That same space will also be used to house a residency program, and to hold temporary photography and art exhibitions - currently shown, a selection of works by Romanian, London-based artist Alina Teodorescu.

info Crossroad Antiques Pyrgos Kallistis • Tel. (+30) 22860.331.55

– GIORGOS TSIROS

OIA MARITIME MUSEUM Located in the former residence of a ship’s captain and out of sight of the crowds of sunset-worshipping tourists, this charming museum presents Santorini’s maritime history through rare 17th-century figureheads, navigational instruments, ship models, watercolors of vessels, precious documents and photographs. The collection is most definitely worth a visit and the small admission fee of €3 will help keep the museum going. Oia • Tel. (+30) 22860.711.56

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Black Rock Sounds Santorini boasts one of the finest recording studios in the world In sharp contrast to the island’s popular image as a destination that attracts throngs of tourists, there is something quite different drawing people to a certain spot in Akrotiri; just the right amount of peace and solitude in which to make beautiful music. That’s because it’s here that music producer Kostas Kalimeris and his associates have created a world-class recording studio, offering luxury accommodation complete with total privacy, all in a unique setting that has inspired artists as diverse as Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris, OneRepublic, Justin Bieber and Bring Me the Horizon. Impeccably designed by Roger D’Arcy of Recording Architecture and equipped with an 80-channel Solid State Logic 9080 J series console, Black Rock had booked its first client, blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa in 2008, even before it had been completed. “He just saw the drawings!” says Kostas. That same year, it was named the world’s “Best New Sound

Recording Studio” by Audio Pro International. Black Rock’s reputation quickly spread by word of mouth among recording artists, a trend that Kostas hopes will continue so that one day he may welcome his personal top three favorites – Muse, Timbaland and Rammstein – to the facilities. As we are shown around the well-appointed, beautifully-lit villa with its beckoning swimming pool, we can’t help but wonder if we might be looking at the scene of some of those wild parties so often associated with rock legends. Alas, the truth is more mundane. Artists come here primarily to avoid distraction while working on their songs, and perhaps to visit one or two places on the island. Even Justin Bieber, the “bad boy” of pop, turned out to be sociable, friendly and – of course – a real pro. In fact, he left behind a gift for Santorini, a video clip that helped promote the island all over the world. - GIORGOS TSIROS

i n f O www.blackrock-studios.com • Akrotiri, Tel. (+30) 22860.822.90

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A 2.4k open-water swim in the caldera is part of the Santorini Experience.

Santorini Experience Reloaded T H R E E A U T U M N D AY S O F O P E N - S E A S W I M M I N G A N D R U N N I N G F O R T H E B R A V E

Swim in the open sea of the caldera or run through the rugged terrain of one of the world’s most beautiful destinations in what is a truly exceptional sporting event. The Santorini Experience proved so popular last year that it’s back again this autumn, running 7-9 October. Adrenaline junkies, adventurous tourists or anyone who feels ready to test their strengths, are invited to join an event that highlights the island’s potential as an exciting sports destination. The promo video heralding this year’s biathlon with scenes from last year’s event is a good indication of what participants can expect. It captures the essence of a competition that combines the beauty, romance and scenery of Santorini with an adrenaline-pumping athletic experience. The events include the cross-country races taking participants over a range of challenging 28

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terrains in 5, 10 and 15k routes. There’s also a 1k route for kids. The swimming leg is expected to match last year’s 2.4k, from the volcano to the old port, a course that has been designated by the Federation of Technical Swimming. For Santorini Mayor Anastasios-Nikolaos Zorzos, such events are instrumental in promoting alternative forms of tourism and the island’s year-round appeal. “Our intention for any visitor to Santorini is not for them to see it through the eyes of a tourist, but to experience as though they lived here,” he says. This year’s Santorini Experience invites seasoned athletes and amateur enthusiasts to participate side by side. Registrations close 10 days before the event launches. – O M A I R A G I L L

info • For more information, visit www.santoriniexperience.com

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Defying Gravity Don’t be surprised if a freerunner leaps over your plunge pool

Santorini’s anonymous builders carved their homes into the volcanic cliffs of the caldera for the sake of expediency. As their uneven, sugar-cube settlements expanded, they created strange gravitational perspectives; cobbled pathways morphed into iconic rooftops, unwittingly becoming a parkour paradise. This perfect playground draws the world’s freerunning elite every year, and the 6th Red Bull Art of Motion – from 28 September to 1 October – will be no exception. Check out the talent by voting for your favorite 90-second video, and help give one lucky entrant a chance to win free transport to, and accommodation on, Santorini. While anyone over 16 years can compete in the selection jam on 28 September, the on-site qualifier on 29 September will give a sneak peek at the main event, as 20 winners vie for a coveted spot in the finals on 1 October. Eagle-eyed judges will seek those with clear, original moves, while the rest of us will simply enjoy a show with plenty of freeze-frame moments. Lives are sometimes changed. Take, for instance, Dimitris DK Kyrsani-

dis, who was catapulted to parkour stardom after winning the 2014 and 2015 editions of Red Bull Art of Motion, all before turning 21. These days, the two-time champ from Thessaloniki travels the world taking part in freerunning contests, living his dream. Backflips over infinity pools and other gravity-defying acrobatics over the caldera’s steep ledges are the norm in a sport made for volcanic landscapes. It was invented after the 1902 volcanic eruption on Martinique, when a French officer, George Herbert, found himself amazed by the athletic prowess of the indigenous people who routinely leapt over natural obstacles. You don’t have to be a parkour enthusiast to be swayed by the sudden twists of a sport where passion matters more than experience. The spirit of danger is ever-present as rivals throw themselves into the air with reckless abandon, and bond in a celebration of athleticism that conjures the highest of Olympic ideals. – M A RY S I N A N I D I S

info www.redbull.com

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Let’s Talk Wine Tourism A n i n t e r n at i o n a l c o n g r e s s , h e l d o n Sa n t o r i n i f o r t h e f i r s t t i m e t h i s a u t u m n

Santorini has been famed throughout the ages for its winemaking expertise. Long known in Greece as a producer of top Greek wines, the island’s reputation has spread beyond the country’s borders in recent years and Santorinian wines have won both praise from top critics and awards at international competitions. The island was among the first destinations in Greece to pioneer wine tourism, with its first wine tour taking place back in the 1960s. With the unique volcanic terroir and with the use of innovative techniques such as the famous coiled vines, trained into that shape to protect the grapes from the island’s winds, wineries blossomed here. Today, there are around 14 excellent wineries on the island, all within comfortable distance of each other, which makes the island an ideal place for oenophiles. Apart from the distinctive sweet liqueurs such as Vinsanto, Santorini is known for championing the native Assyrtiko white grape variety, and has been producing Protected Appellation of Origin Assyrtiko wine since 1971. Over the years, Santorini’s talent in the field began to attract the interest of the academic community as well, making it the setting for interdisciplinary studies and collaborations. It seemed natural, then, that Greece’s first international Wine Tourism Congress should be held on the island famed for its knowledge in oenology and oenotourism. From 14-16 October, Santorini will welcome some of the biggest names in the world of wine and spirits to discuss various topics, including trends

in the field of oenotourism, marketing and branding issues, and standards of good practice. The invitation list has been designed to represent a holistic approach to wine culture and winemaking. The conference will welcome not only wine industry representatives, but also academics, researches, tourism professionals, development institutions and others. The congress will be chaired by Paris Tsartas, Professor of Tourism at the University of the Aegean, and Yannis Vogiatzis, winemaker and President of the National Inter-Professional Organization of Vine and Wine. The Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris of the Boutari Winery, has been named as honorary chairman. The aim is for the participants to exchange information on several issues related to the wine tourism industry and its development. With its breathtaking natural beauty and a firmly established identity as a tourism destination, few places constitute a more suitable venue than Santorini. The fact that the island still benefits from relatively mild temperatures in mid-October will be an added bonus for participants. For those wishing to participate as non-experts, the “Wine Tourist for a Day” pass, valid on October 16, offers a guided tour of the Akrotiri Archaeological Site, winery and vineyard visits, a boat tour of the Caldera of Santorini and a visit to the volcano along with a light lunch on board. The pass costs €50 and includes all expenses. – O m a i r a G i l l

info Petros M. Nomikos Conference Center, Fira Santorini • For details: Heliotopos Conferences, Tel. (+30) 22860.247.58

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AGENDA

ALL THE ISLAND IS A STAGE From classical theater to rap music, Santorini's cultural calendar has it all. B Y M A R Y S IN A NI D I S

Motimaru Dance Company

Orange Water Festival

SUMMER-LONG The Orange Water Festival is a series of four art events supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Netherlands Embassy. Exhibitions include painting, sculpture, videos and installations by major Greek, Dutch and other international visual artists. Runs until September 30. Free admission. (SAF)

SEPTEMBER 3-4 | Founded in Tokyo and based in Berlin, the Motimaru Dance Company combines modern dance with martial arts to create a new and original dance genre. Their performance is titled “Twilight”. Tickets €8-15. (SAF)

4 | Pianist Athena Capodistria (who is also the director of the Santorini Music Festival) and Italian clarinet-player Fabrizio Meloni take the stage and perform works by Bach, Verdi, Puccini and Dvorjak, with renowned Greek conductor 34

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Miltos Logiadis at the podium. Tickets €20. (PNCC)

5 | MASIF, a musical celebration of the life and work of poet Nikos Kavvadias. The event, organized by the Municipality of Fira and the Municipal Athletic, Cultural and Environmental Agency includes various narrations, occasionally by the poet himself, accompanied by the projection of slides and poems set to music. Begins at 20:30. Free admission. For more information, call (+30) 22860.248.28. (FR) 6 | Yiannis Simonidis and his troupe present “Socrates Now”, perfomed in English. This 80-minute solo performance captures the essence of Socratic ethics in an accessible and engaging manner. Tickets €8-15. (SAF)

6 | The Athens String Quartet joins Italian clarinet-player Fabrizio Meloni in works by Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas, as well as pieces by Weber and Borodin. Tickets €20. (PNCC)

7 | Brazilian Music Night The anniversary of Brazil’s independence is celebrated with a Brazilian music night presented by the Municipality of Fira and the Municipal Athletic, Cultural and Environmental Agency. The musical program is dedicated to the works of the best-known musicians of the country. Petros Kourtis, percussionist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, will also perform. Begins at 20:00. Free admission. For more information, call (+30) 22860.230.77. (GM) 10 | Enjoy the traditional masked dances of Indonesian troupe Prima Ardian at the last place you would expect to find them – the courtyard of the Metropolitan Cathedral at Fira. Free admission. 10 | The Raki Festival at the Perissa Waves Bar celebrates the clear liquor of Crete, distilled from the dregs after the wine is pressed from grapes. Enjoy the drink and dance to the music of the Cretan Association of Santorini “To Arkadi”. Tickets €30.

11 | Italian flutist Giuseppe Nova and pianist Marco Sollini join forces for a classical soiree. Tickets €20. (PNCC) 14 | Violinist Ana Maria Valderrama and pianist Luis Del Valle, both from Spain, perform works by Sarasate and other composers in a program titled “A mon ami Sarasate”. Tickets €20. (PNCC)

17 | The annual Ifestia (Volcano) Festival takes place on the third Saturday of September with a volcano-inspired fireworks display visible from the caldera. Numerous tours are offered for guests to enjoy the revival of the eruption from up close. For more information, call (+30) 22860.248.28.

17 | Greek pianist Yiannis Spanos presents his ballads (accompanied by vocals, bouzouki and guitar) at the courtyard of the Metropolitan Cathedral at Fira. Across the caldera, a fireworks spectacle will be taking place. Begins at 21:00. Free admission. For more information, call (+30) 22860.248.28.

Fabrizio Meloni

Yiannis Simonidis

Maria Mazo

The Medium Project

Yiannis Spanos

Giuseppe Nova

18 | German-based pianist Maria Mazo, winner of the International Maria Callas Grand Prix 2015, takes the stage. Tickets €20. (PNCC)

Sofia Kyanidou and Julia Souglakou, tenor Yannis Christopoulos and baritone Dionysis Sourbis. Tickets €20. (PNCC)

24 | “Last Lust in Santorini”

OCTOBER

is a musical event laid on by the Municipality of Fira and the Municipal Athletic, Cultural and Environmental Agency featuring a number of musicians (and instruments ranging from the guitar to the Cretan lyre) for a night of Mediterranean jazz with avant garde and neo-Romantic notes, as well as flavors from the East. Begins at 20:30. Free admission. Fira, Santorini. For more information, call (+30) 22860.248.28. (FR)

25 | A ‘concertante’ version of Pavlos Carrer's Greek heroic opera “Markos Botsaris” will be performed by sopranos 36

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1 | A lively program of traditional Cretan and Pontian dance, presented by the Cretan Association of Santorini “To Arkadi”, together with the Pontian Association of Santorini “Οi Akrites” and the Municipality of Fira. Begins at 20:00. Free admission. For more information, call (+30) 22860.248.28. (IMG)

15 | Medium Project, a young people's opera company, presents Leonard Bernstein's “Trouble in Tahiti”, a commentary on the futile pursuit of the American dream. Free admission. (GM)

V E N U E D E TA I L S M e t r o p o l i ta n C h u r c h o f T h i r a A popular meeting spot for locals S A F : T h e Sa n t o r i n i A r t s Fa c t o r y Once a processing plant for the island's specialty cherry tomatoes, this venue has been revamped into a cultural center. Located at Vlychada Beach • Tel. (+30) 22860.851.41 GM : G y z i Ma n s i o n The 17th-century Gyzi family mansion, which managed to survive the 1956 earthquake. Located at Fira • Tel. (+30) 22860.230.77 P NCC : P e t r o s M . N o m i k o s Conference Center A magnificent complex of buildings in the town of Fira is home to the 38th Santorini Music Festival. • Tel. (+30) 22860.231.66 & 22860.230.20, or visit www. santorinimusicfestival.com

IMG : I n d o o r M u n i c i pa l G y m n a s i u m Located at Fira • Tel. (+30) 22860.24828 Peris s a Wav es Ba r Located on the black sand beach of Perissa, famous for its water sports. Info regarding the Raki Festival is available from the Cretan Association of Santorini “To Arkadi” • Tel. (+30) 6944.885.731 FR : F i r a , Sa n t o r i n i The ultimate venue for events by the Municipality of Fira and the Municipal Athletic, Cultural and Environmental Agency; artists and times are announced closer to the date, subject to weather conditions • Tel. (+30) 22860.248.28.

IN PICTURE S

Amazing santorini

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A DIFFERENT ANGLE

You may wander its cobbled alleys and enjoy its famous sunset, but you will never see it quite like this, in all its splendor: The 2 kilometer stretch of Oia, clinging onto the northern rim of the caldera, at a height of 70-100 meters above sea level.

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elemental force Fire, air, water and earth are the stuff that every beach on Santorini is made of: landscapes spewed forth from the bowels of Earth and frozen in time. The dramatic, sculptural cliffs of Koloumbo were formed by an underwater volcano 8 kilometers off the coast.

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SANTORINI 2016

liftoff Cupolas, domes, excavated houses and rooftops all come together in a colorful caleidoscope, a game of sight and mind. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be there in it, somewhere, getting lost in the beautiful chaos, falling in love with it all and promising yourself that one day youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll return.

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SANTO RI N I

T RAC IN G H ISTORY

Both a destructive and a creative force, the volcano has been defining Santoriniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fate - and shaping its unique landscapes - for millennia. Follow us on a journey through the ages, from prehistoric times to mid-20th century. Oia and Ammoudi Harbor in a 1953 painting by Captain Antonios Dimitriou Dakoronias, founder of Oiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Maritime Museum.

MY TH

Atlantis The Battle of the Narratives

Few legends have seized the imagination of man as powerfully as that of Plato’s Utopia. Those who seek to correct the great philosopher for their own ends threaten the magic of the dream. BY ELEFTHERIA TR AIOU I L L U S T R A T IO N K A T E R I N A A L I V I Z A T O U

he gods, it is said, once divvied up the different parts of Earth among themselves by lot so as to establish who owned what and put all acrimony to rest. The island of Atlantis came to Poseidon, who settled it with the children he had sired with a mortal, Cleito. He fortified the small hill that was his home near the center of the island, making it impregnable. Around it, he built concentric rings, two of land and three of sea, so perfectly round they appeared as if shaped by a lathe. This description is from Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias, penned some 2,400 years ago. In these works, the great Greek philosopher discusses the notion of an ideal state, a Utopia everyone would like to call home. Here we find some 20 pages in which he describes Atlantis. I wonder what the philosopher would have thought if he knew that in those few pages he had created the greatest legend of all time? No other myth has so excited the imagination as Atlantis, judging from the thousands of monographs, articles, novels and science-fiction works in46

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spired by it. The location of the sunken continent has even come to constitute the object of research for serious scientists, some of whom have launched major search operations across the globe. A case in point is the 2011 endeavor presented by National Geographic and conducted by a team of US, Canadian and Spanish archaeologists and geologists, headed by Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford in Connecticut, USA. Using satellite imagery, deep-ground radar and digital mapping, the scientists located traces of a 4,000-year-old sunken city in a national park north of Cadiz in Spain, near the Gibraltar Straits. They believe this city could be Atlantis and that it was wiped out by a huge tsunami. Such theories find a fervent audience among Atlantologists, those who believe the mythical city really existed. Among their list of possible locations, we also find the Greek island of Santorini a prime candidate, because of the massive volcanic explosion in 1613 BC that erased a brilliant civilization from the map.

The Santorini theory The truth is that there are several similarities between Plato’s Atlantis and Santorini to back the belief. The volume of the volcanic material that was ejected from the bowels of Earth created a massive subterranean crater that swallowed up most of the island, forming the stunning caldera we see today and forever changing the island’s shape, even as a resulting tsunami swept over every island at a distance of 50 to 60 kilometers from the epicenter of the eruption. While the volcano is believed to have destroyed Akrotiri, the blanket of ash it deposited preserved segments of the prehistoric city, including imposing two-story and three-story homes and world-renowned frescoes that attest to an advanced civilization with a high standard of living. Its residents had a sophisticated grasp of technology that allowed them to build ships and to evolve as a significant maritime trade force in the Aegean. Is this evidence enough to support the theory linking Atlantis to Santorini? Before going into that, let us look at what else Plato wrote about the lost continent.

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MY TH

Illustrations suggesting that Santorini was in fact Atlantis, from the seminal book Atlantis: The Truth Behind the Legend by eminent seismologist Angelos G. Galanopoulos (1910-2001) and British archaeologist Edward Bacon (1906-1981).

Plato’s Atlantis Having sired five sets of twins, Poseidon parceled out Atlantis in 10 parts. He gave the best part to his first-born son, Atlantis, after whom the continent and the ocean were named, and appointed him king over his brother kings. Their joint dynasty survived for several generations and acquired more wealth than any other before or after it. The island was much richer than necessary for its residents to live well. It had fertile lands (that yielded two harvests a year), lakes, rivers and natural thermal springs that were of particular benefit to the residents, as well as rich vegetation that fed a host of wild beasts, including large, voracious elephants. Its mines yielded ores in such quantities that the walls of the acropolis were dressed in orichalcum (or copper) that shone like fire, while the wall around the Temple of Poseidon and Cleito was made of gold. 48

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This abundance of raw materials led to the construction of palaces that were (and still are) considered unrivalled in elegance and splendor. The people built bridges over the circular seas and a canal connecting the outer to the inner ring, that was so big it could accommodate even the biggest ships. They also built underground dockyards and had two more ports that bustled with ships and merchants coming from every corner of the world. What went wrong? For many generations, the people of Atlantis revered their divine heritage and remained pure of heart and mind, dedicating their lives to good works. The spirit of the divine, however, began to wane, as the human element prevailed and the people became intoxicated with wealth and passion, avarice and arrogance. Fuelled by a sense of their own omnipotence, they set out to conquer the entirety of Europe and Asia. In the war that ensued, they were defeated by prehistoric Athens, which saved the world from the threat of Atlantis. The coup de grace came from Zeus himself, who could no longer watch his chosen people continue on the road to perdition. Atlantis was surrendered to the ocean and swallowed whole. Correcting Plato Let us return to the scenario that places Atlantis in Santorini. According to Plato, Atlantis was bigger than Libya and Asia Minor combined. It was located at the Pillars of Heracles (present-day Gibraltar) and was destroyed in the 10th century BC. These “facts” contradict our winsome Atlantologists, who, in order to give credence to their claim, have gone so far as to correct Plato. They argue, for example, that Plato was mistaken when he used the word “bigger” and meant, instead, “between.” By placing Atlantis “between” Libya and Asia Minor, however, they fail to explain how such a large expanse could fit in the Mediterranean basin. Some Atlantologists also believe that the Pillars of Heracles represent two capes, one in Crete and the other

in the Peloponnese, so far apart that travelers could not discern them when moving between the two. Can we really believe that Plato was so ignorant of geography that he confused these capes with the rocks of Gibraltar, which form the narrow straits between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean? A third discrepancy concerns the date of the sinking of Atlantis. Plato attributes his information on Atlantis to three Egyptian priests who imparted it to Solon, one of the seven wise men of antiquity. Atlantologists argue that the priests were mistaken in believing that the continent disappeared 9,000 years before Solon’s time, indeed placing the date 1,100 years before. This is, indeed, convenient as it puts the date at around 1500 BC and associates the destruction with Minoan Crete and the Santorini volcano. In the Platonic narrative, Atlantis was made up of concentric rings of land and sea. Atlantologists say that Santorini, together with the two small islets in its caldera, Thirasia and Aspronisi, are what remains of the central circle, while Crete formed part of the outer ring. This means that they designate Santorini the capital of Atlantis and, by extension, of Minoan civilization, something that cannot be the case, as Santorini was part of the Cycladic civilization. The dream What can we infer from all this? It is true that Atlantis has all the attributes to feed the imagination. It was the victim of divine destruction, like Sodom and Gomorrah, because its arrogant and bellicose residents provoked the wrath of the gods. That an entire continent was swallowed by the sea also reminds us of the scale of change that major natural disasters can bring to the world map, as was the case with Santorini. Mainly, though, the legend of Atlantis speaks to every human’s dream of an ideal state. Like the rest of us, the Atlantologists wish that such a state had really existed; the difference is that they want it to have done so at any cost.

TIME LINE

turbulent HISTORY The devastation of the volcano did not stop pioneers, fortune hunters and conquerors from sailing for Santorini’s shores through the centuries.

4500 BC

18th century BC

1614-1613 BC

Detail of an offering table, Museum of Prehistoric Thera

Akrotiri. Section of the miniature Flotilla frieze, National Archaelogical Museum

1207

1487

1566

The family crest

Venetian tower known in Ottoman times as “goulas”

First inhabitants. Traces of their presence have been found at a number of locations, particularly the settlement of Akrotiri.

Archaeological Site of Akrotiri

The settlement of Akrotiri takes on the characteristics of a large town and assumes a key role in sea trade, maturing into a sophisticated civilization.

The Minoan eruption buries the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri under thick layers of pumice and ash, leaving the island uninhabited for centuries.

8th century BC

King Theras and a few dozen Spartans establish a colony at the top of Mesa Vouno and name the island Thera in his own honor.

Theran Geometric amphora, Museum of Prehistoric Thera

4500 BC

Following the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, Marco I Sanudo establishes the Duchy of the Archipelago. Thera and Thirasia are given as fiefdoms to Jacob Berozzi.

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Annexed by Venice, seven years after being given as part of a dowry by the Duke of Naxos, Giacomo III, to the Duke of Crete, Domenico Pisani.

After years of Ottoman raids, including by the notorious pirate Barbarossa, Santorini is finally forced to recognize the sovereignty of the Sultan.

Detail of a copper engraving by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur

1707-1711

Volcanic eruptions result in the formation of Nea Kameni, the tiny islet in the center of the caldera, which acquired its present form as recently as 1950.

In 1154 the Muslim geographer Al Idrisi is the first to call the island – formerly known as Kallisti, Strongyle and Thera – Santorini.

288 BC

4th century AD

Inscribed Roman-era steles from Ancient Thera

Church of Panaghia Episkopi, the most important Byzantine monument on the island

The island moves into the sphere of influence of the Ptolemies, who transform it into an important naval base.

During the Byzantine period, Santorini becomes part of the Province of the Islands.

8th century AD

1154

Photo of Pyrgos

Detail of a map drawn by the geographer

Continuous Arab raids on the coast force the inhabitants to move further inland, establishing new settlements.

The Muslim geographer Al Idrisi is the first to call the island – formerly known as Kallisti, Strongyle and Thera – Santorini (Santa Irini).

9.7.1956

Santorini becomes home to one of the largest merchant fleets in the Aegean.

View of Emborio in a tinted copper engraving from 1782

1830

Integration into the newly established Greek state. The island’s naval force participated in Greece’s liberation from Ottoman rule.

Watercolor by Aristides Glykas, Oia Maritime Museum

10.1.1950

The last recorded eruption results in the creation of the most recent volcanic rocks in Greece.

Photo by Giorgos Ioakeimidis

9.7.1956

The most powerful earthquake in Europe in the 20th century (7.8 on the Richter scale), its epicenter the nearby island of Amorgos, causes extensive damage.

A prayer after the earthquake. Photo by Walter Carone for Paris Match

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18th-19th centuries

THE VOLCANO

BORN OF FIRE Over 3,500 years ago, one of the most awe-inspiring volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind, created one of the most beautiful and dramatic island landscapes in the world. BY n ata s h a b l at s i o u

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THE VOLCANO

pring, 1613-1614 BC: The days were growing warmer and the cosmopolitan port of prehistoric Akrotiri should – under normal circumstances – have been buzzing with life. Potters should have been hard at work on clay jars, fishermen returning from sea with full nets and merchants loading their ships with amphorae of wine from the island’s rich vineyards. Yet the streets were deserted. The earth shook non-stop. Stairs were cut in two and walls bent out of shape. The residents had fled the city, helter-skelter. Where they went, nobody knows. To this day, not a shred of evidence of life has been dug up. It is possible they managed to leave the island; but it is also likely that they gathered in open spaces or near the port in the hopes of getting away, as was the case with the residents of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

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Did they know what was happening? Excavations have revealed that prehistoric Akrotiri was a sophisticated society with an advanced civil protection mechanism to respond to earthquakes and possibly volcanic eruptions. What the residents probably did not know when they abandoned the city was that the colossal explosion that was building up would be unlike anything ever recorded in the history of mankind before. It is estimated that in just six days, more than 90 billion tons of molten rock was ejected into the air. The volcano was swallowed by the sea, forming the caldera we see today and creating a massive tsunami that swept across the Aegean to slam the northern and eastern coast of Crete. It is believed that the wave destroyed the Minoans’ commercial fleet and vast tracts of crops on

The Minoan eruption was the largest volcanic event on Earth in the last 10,000 years. Santorini and nearby islands within a radius of 60 km were completely destroyed.

THE VOLCANO

Crete’s northern coast. The acid rain that fell on the island over the next few years decimated its flora and fauna. The volcanic ash, after covering the entire island in a 10-meter-thick blanket, traveled across the world. Ash and droplets of sulfuric acid from the eruption are still being found by scientists today, even as far away as the glaciers of Greenland. The effect on the climate was felt across the globe. According to experts, the eruption caused a volcanic winter, plunging the world’s average temperature by 1-2 degrees Celsius. The devastation of Santorini was total. Signs of habitation did not reappear until after the 8th century BC, while the islands within a radius of 60 kilometres suffered a similar fate. Other than the unfathomable destruction of nature, the volcano may also have triggered the demise of the most

advanced civilization of the time, the Minoans. The effects of the massive eruption challenged a socio-political establishment that already appeared to be under pressure. Why, for example, had the priests been unable to prophesize the catastrophe? The crisis created turmoil, transformed Minoan society and led to a decline that was followed by a period of spiritual retrenchment. Fortune hunters pursued the legend of lost Atlantis, described by the Greek philosopher Plato, while the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, as well as the the 10 plagues described in the Old Testament, all became associated with the eruption. In the last 400,000 years, the volcano has erupted and been reborn from its ashes 12 times, causing dramatic changes to the archipelago’s morphology. Some 25,000 years ago, Santorini

Another explosion such as that of the Minoan era, which would not only wipe out Santorini but also reshape the entire Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, cannot be ruled out, but the threat is remote if one considers that such events occur only once every 15,000-20,000 years.

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Α never-before seen photograph of the volcano dating back from 1866, a year of intense activity that tripled the size of Nea Kameni and brought renowned volcanologists from around Europe to Santorini.

was twice the size it is today but 4,000 years later, the eruption of a volcano at Cape Riva sank a large part of the island and formed a caldera, near the present one. Around 17,000 years after that eruption, in 1613 BC, the last big explosion on Strongyle broke it into three parts: Thera, Thirasia and Aspronisi. Another 1,500-odd years passed before new land started to rise from the caldera. Eight more eruptions followed before the islets of Palia and Nea Kameni settled into their present form. The area has been calm since 1950, when the last lava outflow was recorded, with the hot springs bubbling up from the sea and the vapors around Nea Kameni being the only evidence of activity. Another explosion such as that of the Minoan era, which would not only wipe out Santorini but also reshape the entire Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, cannot be ruled out. But the threat is remote if one considers that such events occur only once every 15,000-20,000

years and it has been just 3,600 years since the last big eruption. Nothing can stop the volcano but we have managed to control its effect on human life. Volcanologists and other experts from around the world systematically study, record and observe seismic activity in the area, the level of the coastline, changes in temperature and the content of the vapors and hot springs, as part of a reliable monitoring system that allows them to predict when the next volcanic eruption will occur within a window of a few months to a year. Thanks to an increasing body of knowledge and the vigilance of scientists, we can rest easy and simply enjoy the legend of Atlantis, the secrets of the unique geological story that is the caldera’s formation and the dramatic beauty of Santorini’s colorful rocks.

The last volcanic eruption in Santorini was in January 1950. Ash and fireballs were spewed to a height of 1,000 meters, followed by lava flows that created the youngest volcanic rock formations in Greece.

• Special thanks to volcanologist Giorgos Vougioukalakis from the Institute of Geology & Mineral Exploration.

Info Take a sea excursion to the volcano. Sail around the tiny islands of Palia Kameni and Nea Kameni, bathe in the hot sulfur springs on Palia Kameni and walk right up to the active, smoldering crater. R e a d : “Blue Volcanoes: Santorini” by George Vougioukalakis, Institute for the Study and Monitoring of the Santorini Volcano, new edition 2005. w at c h t h e d o c u m e n ta r y: “Doomsday Volcano” by National Geographic, in which explorer-in-residence Robert Ballard dives into the belly of Santorini’s caldera.

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AKROTIRI

POMPEII OF THE AEGEAN

Excavations have brought to light a settlement with a sophisticated layout.

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What is it like to walk through the streets of an island settlement that came to life some 6,000 years ago, flourished, then was buried completely by a gigantic volcanic eruption? Archaeologist Christos Doumas leads us through one of the most intriguing prehistoric sites in Europe.

ÂŠ VANGELIS ZAVOS, Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Sports/General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage/ Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades

BY TA S S O U L A E P TA K I L I

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SANTORINI 2016

ÂŠ Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Sports/General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage/ Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades

AKROTIRI

Detail of the Blue Monkeys fresco, 17th century BC. An exquisite piece showing monkeys scrambling up a rock to escape a dog, with a realism that suggests the artist had actually seen the animal even though it was not endemic to the island. (Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Fira)

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AKROTIRI

One of the most famous wall paintings from Akrotiri. The boy seen here is wearing large amounts of jewelry, as opposed to his sparring partner, who has none. The scene depicts a playful display of strength rather than competitive sport. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

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AKROTIRI

krotiri was a Bronze Age settlement with stone-paved streets and squares, a distinct zoning plan and an advanced system of urban drainage. Its houses once stood two or three stories high, built with stones and mud. The ground floors held craftsmen’s workshops and storerooms, mainly for caches of food. The rooms of the upper stories featured large windows and were usually bathed in natural sunlight. Most interior walls were painted with elaborate scenes of people, animals and plants. Household furniture was wooden and the loom was an essential piece of equipment, used by the lady of the house to weave the family’s clothes. The town’s inhabitants were mariners, artisans, traders, farmers, shepherds and highly specialized craftsmen. They planted wheat and barley, which they harvested with stone or bronze sickles and stored in large earthenware jars. They also cultivated olives, from which they made oil. Indeed, their output was so high that they exported their surpluses. Wine production was another key economic activity. In a further sup-

1. Flotilla miniature frieze from the West House (National Archaelogical Museum, Athens) 2. Visitors to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera never cease to be amazed by the ceramic masterpieces. 3. Rhyton depicting a lioness or a small lion, from Sector Alpha, 17th century BC (Museum of Prehistoric Thira, Fira)

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plement to their income, the Akrotirians supplied Crete, the center of the Minoan world, with large quantities of obsidian (black volcanic rock) and metals. The local diet on Santorini (Thera) consisted of pulses, vegetables and many kinds of fish, caught in surrounding waters and sold in the harbor. But a favorite delicacy was snails, brought to the volcanic island from Crete. This is how Christos Doumas, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Athens and long-time director of excavations at Akrotiri, describes life in the ill-fated settlement during the 2nd millennium BC. He also recounts, in a recent conversation, the great wealth that accumulated on Thera in

that distant age through maritime commerce: “The island had trade relations not only with Crete but also mainland Greece, the Dodecanese, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt.” Thus, prehistoric Therans, wealthy, well-stocked and having satisfied all their basic needs, were able to turn their attention to more artistic pursuits and other pleasurable aspects of life, including the “art” of good eating. Doumas particularly focuses on how art flourished as a means of projecting social status, and on the democratic structure of Theran society: “It is telling that men, women and children are depicted equally in wall paintings. For this reason, Akrotiri is also called the ‘prehistoric Venice of the Aegean’.”

AKROTIRI

A SLEEPING GIANT AWAKENS This was the situation, then, until the spring of 1613 BC, when the island’s volcano suddenly awoke from an age-old slumber. The eruption that followed, the most powerful to have occurred anywhere in the world over the past 10,000 years, completely destroyed life on Santorini and on nearby islands. “If there had been no volcano, however, there would have been no Santorini as we know it today and, of course, there would have been no Akrotiri. Thanks to the volcano’s ash, the remains of the prehistoric settlement have been preserved down the centuries,” explains our esteemed guide, who has made this place his life’s work.

In 1975, Doumas took over the excavations that had begun eight years earlier by the eminent Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos. Since then, he has brought to light an amazing wealth of information about this “Pompeii of the Aegean.” And today, at the age of 83, he continues to work ceaselessly. Besides the final, cataclysmic eruption, there were many damaging earthquakes during the town’s life, Doumas relates. After each event, “a significant portion [of the rubble] was…simply deposited in…roads and squares. This meant [repeatedly] raising the level of the streets, while the ground floor level of a house remained the same. Consequently, semi-underground compart-

ments were gradually created beneath houses,…used…as storage spaces and household work spaces.” Frequent clean-ups and efficient, speedy evacuations are also the reason that no skeletons—animal or human— have been found at Akrotiri. Doumas notes, “Even if there were victims…, we would not find evidence of them, since they would have been moved outside the town either to save their lives, if they were still alive, or to bury them according to society’s customs. In the final event, “…as…great clouds of volcanic ash were moving eastward, Akrotiri’s residents would have moved west...” Thus, the site’s excavator concludes, “There should be burials yet to be discovered somewhere between the archaeological site and the present-day lighthouse.” “We should be proud of Akrotiri,” Doumas asserts. “It has a part in archaeology courses at universities all over the world. In the history of Aegean civilization, it is considered to have equal importance with the Acropolis (for the Classical period) and Mount Athos (for the Byzantine period). It is a momentous legacy.”

4. Dolphins pithos (a large storage jar), 17th century BC (Museum of Prehistoric Thira, Fira). 5. Gold ibex figurine, 17th century BC. Very few precious artifacts have been found at Akrotiri, since the inhabitants probably took their valuables with them when they left the island. (Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Fira)

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All of this makes a visit to Akrotiri a unique experience. The archaeological site (covering an area of 12,000 m2) is protected by a bioclimatic shelter supported by 96 steel columns, designed by architect Nikos Fintikakis. Elevated walkways take visitors around and through the settlement, while specially located viewing platforms provide excellent vantage points. Also not to be missed is the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, which features important finds from Akrotiri: marble figurines, pottery, bronze implements, cooking utensils and impressive storage jars with designs indicative of their contents. Of particular note are the celebrated Theran wall paintings (Blue Monkeys fresco, House of the Ladies fresco, etc.), the work of outstanding artists, as well as telling artifacts (seals, lead weights, clay tablets inscribed with Linear A script) that

provide evidence of the complex society of prehistoric Akrotiri and its systems of writing and measurement. The site’s ancient residents devised methods for the efficient management of goods, developing a type of bureaucracy. Lastly, before leaving the exhibition area, don’t forget to visit one of the museum’s most impressive finds: a golden figurine of an ibex, quite unique, found in December 1999 preserved in excellent condition and still in its wooden case! In concluding our conversation with Professor Doumas, I ask him what Akrotiri means to him personally. “The scene of the crime!” he laughingly replies. “I will always return here, as long as I can still stand. And when you consider that only three percent of the prehistoric settlement has so far been investigated, we archaeologists still have many centuries of work beneath this shelter!”

2. Plaster cast of a carved wooden table designed for ceremonial banquets, 17th century BC (Museum of Prehistoric Thira, Fira).

“We should be proud of Akrotiri. In the history of Aegean civilization, it is considered to have equal importance with the Acropolis and Mount Athos. It is a momentous legacy”

Info Akrotiri lies at the southwestern tip of the island, 15k from Fira • The archaeological site is open 8:00-20:00 daily until the end of October Winter hours: 8:00-15:00 daily except Mondays • Tel. (+30) 22860.819.39 M u s e u m o f P r e h i s t o r i c T h e r a Fira, tel (+30) 22860.232.17 • Open 8:00-15:00 daily except Tuesdays D o n ’ t f o r g e t to buy original souvenirs and objects of art from the newly installed wooden kiosk of the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Studies on Prehistoric Thera, just outside the complex. All proceeds go towards the excavation and restoration work in Akrotiri.

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1. Photographing a staircase broken in two by an earthquake (front of Sector Gamma).

The archaeological site (covering an area of 12,000 m2) is protected by a bioclimatic shelter supported by 96 steel columns.

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Xesti 3

Homeric word used to describe buildings with exterior walls constructed of dressed stones. Each of these was numbered in the order in which they were discovered: “Xesti 1,” “ Xesti 2,” “Xesti 3,”, etc. Buildings with such distinctive masonry were clearly not random. Indeed, some of them have been shown to have a public character. These include Xesti 3, left of the entrance to the archaeological site, and Xesti 4, a little to the right. Others, with a more limited use of dressed stones, have been proven to be private houses, apparently belonging to prosperous families.

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Beta Building

A two-story construction located east of Telchines Street, Beta Building has suffered much damage from the seasonal stream that flowed beside it. Inside this building were found some of Akrotiri’s most important wall paintings: the Boxers, the Antelopes, the Blue Monkeys (pictured) and the Four-footed Animals.

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Square of the Miller

Inside the south entrance to the structure known as Complex Δ (Δ15), a milling installation was found. The small square located just in front of the entrance to this place is conventionally called “Miller’s Square.”

House of the Ladies

A large two-story structure with a central light well, it owes its name to the wall paintings that covered the north and south walls of one of its rooms (pictured: female figure from the south wall). Three colored ribbons, reminiscent of waves, form an arch over the figures, probably representing the celestial vault. In the western part of the same room, the Papyrus Fresco was found.

Telchines Street

The Telchines, in ancient mythology, were sea monsters with human faces, believed to have taught the art of metalworking to humans. This name was given to the first street that was unearthed - and later proved to be the town’s main thoroughfare because in Building Γ, the first building encountered on the road’s left side, a ground floor room contained heavy stone hammers and anvils, indicating that it was a metallurgical workshop.

Alpha Section

This is a building complex on the northern edge of the excavation. Also known as the Pithoi Storeroom, its name comes from the discovery in the complex’s three largest rooms of many storage jars (pithoi) containing legumes, flour and barley. Next to it is the North Mill, in which was found a milling facility and a basket containing fish and sea urchins.

A visit to Akrotiri is a unique experience. Elevated walkways will take you around and through the sheltered settlement, that covers an area of 12,000 m2.

The West House

The ‘Plateia’ of the Triangle

The largest public square in the town of Akrotiri, at the point where Telchines Street ends. Located on the west side of Delta Complex, it was thus named because of its shape. On the southwest side of the square is the House of the Anchor, while on the northwest side stands the West House.

Square of the Double Horns

This house, with three floors and sixteen rooms, was once an affluent residence. On the ground floor were food stores, workshops, a kitchen and living quarters for workers and servants. Upstairs, there was a work space with a loom, a storage room, a toilet and two additional rooms serving as living rooms during the day and bedrooms at night adorned with magnificent wall paintings and other fine decorations. From these rooms come the murals of the Fishermen (detail pictured) and the famous miniature known as either the Fleet Fresco or the Flotilla Fresco.

Curetes Street

Double horns were an element of Cretan prehistoric architecture, but we don’t know exactly what they symbolized. The town of Akrotiri was strongly influenced by this architecture, although Cretans themselves were not necessarily present on the island. Rather the horns were a cultural element copied by Thera’s wealthy merchants/ sailors, as so often happens with many cultural elements throughout the world. Such cultural transmission seems unquestionable, particularly given the close economic and cultural relations now recognized to have existed between Thera and Crete especially after the start of the 2nd millennium BC.

When other streets of the prehistoric town began to emerge through further excavation, mythology aided us again in following Marinatos’ example of using mythical groups for their names. One such group was the Curetes, benevolent spirits who protected the baby Zeus from his father Cronos by using their metal instruments to produce a loud noise.

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The Man Behind It All T i r e l e s s ly d e d i c at e d t o h i s l i f e ’ s e x t r a o r d i n a r y w o r k , Em e r i t u s P r o f e s s o r Christos Doumas continues to cast light on Santorini’s prehistoric roots

BY VA S S I L I S M I N A K A K I S

Imagine a man who, for half his life – more than 41 years, has been synonymous with the archaeological site of Akrotiri; who is bound in spirit to every stone, artifact and building; and who has a story to tell about every one of them, leading us back through the era when the settlement now buried beneath volcanic material was brimming with life. Think of a man warm and direct; mild-mannered and gentle; above all, welcoming. Akrotiri is like a second home to Doumas, especially as he has directed its excavations since 1975, after having succeeded another top Greek archaeologist, Spyridon Marinatos, who first discovered the settlement. Here we have an insightful scientist who “circulates” within the prehistoric Aegean as if there were no 4,000 or 5,000 years separating us from this era; he guides us with the comfort of a great navigator of knowledge, describing the everyday life of Akrotiri’s people – their homes, their habits, their social organization and even their daily diet and seafaring practices, as revealed in the famous miniature frieze of an ancient Theran flotilla. Doumas appears indefatigable, a scientist who, after four decades of archaeological excavation, is again ready 68

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to start something new, this time in the House of the Benches at the southwestern edge of the green-canopied site. Christos Doumas – in the eyes of his colleagues, the visitors and the residents of Santorini – represents all this and more: an esteemed emeritus professor of archaeology, who over the years has authored numerous books on the prehistory of the Aegean archipelago. Originating from a rural family, Doumas studied in the 1950s, a difficult time in Greece, then went on to reach the greatest heights in archaeology – not least of which was the honor bestowed by his being named Commander of the Order of the Phoenix. Throughout his life, he has occupied himself with an ancient culture that bloomed in a tiny corner of our world, but which had broad horizons. A culture, he notes, “that resulted from humans’ responses to their environment, especially to its volcanic conditions. Even today the island of Santorini does not exist without the volcano: it continues to shape the conditions within which people live, and from this natural force stems the island’s unique qualities, its distinctive landscape, its crops and its wines.”

w e e v o l v e c r e at i v e ly i n t r a d i t i o n Baxes, Î&#x2122;a, Santorini tel (+30) 22860.716.44 â&#x20AC;˘ www.sigalas-wine.gr/english/

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ANCIENT THE R A

Santorini’s Rebirth © VANGELIS ZAVOS, Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Sports/General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage/ Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades

The great ancient civilization that revitalized life on the island has left its mark on the stark ridge of Mesa Vouno mountain. BY TA S S O U L A E P TA K I L I

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he view is stunning from the top of Mesa Vouno (365m high), on the south-eastern slopes of Santorini Island. Present-day Kamari (ancient Oia) and Perissa (ancient Eleusis) stretch out before us as we gaze beyond them to the horizon of the Aegean Sea. The Dorians arrived at this rugged, wind-swept spot in the 8th century BC. They consisted of a few dozen Lacedaemonians, led by their Spartan king Theras, who landed on the Cycladic island, established a colony and named it Thera in his own honor. Until then, the island had been known as Strongyle (after its round shape) or Kallisti (meaning “most beautiful”). The Spartans knew what they were doing when they settled on Mesa Vouno. “Its precipitous location is naturally fortified and has great strategic advantages, as one could easily control the entire southeastern Aegean from this vantage point,” explains Maya Efstathiou, an archaeologist employed by Greece’s 21st Ephorate of Antiquities for the Cyclades and Samos. Other topographical factors also were important to these early settlers, who had left hearth and home to make a new start in a foreign land. The only natural springs on the island were located here, while local limestone provided an abundance of building material. The town of ancient Thera thus was born. Through many centuries of historical turmoil, it experienced fluctuating periods of prosperity and poverty, security and anguish. One thing remained certain, however: from the time of Thera’s foundation, even though Santorini was repeatedly conquered and settled by a succession of different nations, the island was never again completely abandoned as it had been in the Late Bronze Age – following the terrible volcanic eruption that wiped away the island’s brilliant prehistoric civilization at Akrotiri. In historic times, Thera grew into the island’s administrative, religious and commercial center, featuring public buildings, markets, baths, pagan temples, Christian churches, a theater, neighborhoods of private residences and an infrastructure that included water reservoirs, a sewage system and an excellent network of roads. Its buildings were defined by their simple yet graceful lines. The quantity and provenance of imported artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations at Thera show that it had commercial ties — stretching as far back as the 8th cen-

From the time of Thera’s foundation, even though Santorini was repeatedly conquered and settled by a succession of different nations, the island was never again completely abandoned as it had been in the Late Bronze Age.

tury BC — to all the major urban centers of the time: from Corinth and mainland Greece to the islands of the northern Aegean, the Cyclades and Crete, as well as Cyprus and North Africa. Thera, in fact, was one of the earliest-known places to adopt the Levantine alphabet of far-off Phoenicia as the basis of Greek writing. The decline of the hilltop town finally began in the late 3rd century AD, as eventually it became more convenient for residents to live directly on the coast, in the island’s seaports of Oia (Kamari) and Eleusis (Perissa). In the late 7th and 8th centuries AD, however, “Arab raids rendered life on the coast dangerous and makeshift settlements began to form in the hills once more. Nevertheless, a short time later, Ancient Thera was abandoned for good,” notes Efstathiou. Fortunately, the city did not disappear into the annals of history, as numerous traces of its rich past remained visible above-ground and the accounts of travelers kept its memory alive. German-led excavations in the 19th century, followed by Greek investigations starting in 1961, have revealed a large part of the ancient city and today allow the archaeological site’s visitors to get a feel for the former town’s once-thriving life. This picture comes further together with a visit to the Archaeological Museum of Fira, where one can view unique finds from the site that include statues, other votive offerings and decorative and utilitarian objects—fascinating traces of long-past lives whose true stories we may never be able to do more than imagine.

Info A R R I V E E A R LY to avoid the heat and take time to explore the site at a comfortable pace. The Archaeological Site of Ancient Thera and the Archaelogical Museum in Fira are open daily except Mondays 8:30-15:00 • Archaelogical Museum, Fira, Tel. (+30) 22860.222.17 • www.odysseus.culture.gr

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ANCIENT THE R A

1. - 2. - 6. Ever since the city of Ancient Thera was born, the island of Santorini was never again abandoned.

3. Detail on an Attic blackfigure kylix from the 6th century BC.

4. Clay figurine dating to the 7th century BC with amazingly well-preserved colors. From the position of the arms above the head, it is believed to depict a woman mourning. (Archaeological Museum, Fira).

5. Serving dish, a representative example of Theran pottery in the Geometric and Archaic periods. (Archaeological Museum, Fira).

7. Geometric-period vases are the earliest surviving works of art from Ancient Thera. (Archaeological Museum, Fira).

IN PICTURE S

TIME TRAVEL An enormous effort is underway to create a digital archive of thousands of photographs documenting life on the island before the devastating earthquake of 1956. Here is but a tiny sample. BY LEFTERIS ZORZOS

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BEFORE THE BUILDING BOOM

SEE MORE A larger selection of rare photos can be found on our website, www.greece-is.com

The excavations of Ancient Thera, under the direction of Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, brought the German Archaeological Institute to Santorini. Its members took photographs not only of the archaeological site, but also of the landscapes and architecture of the period. This photograph, taken on the eastern side of the island, shows Kamari beach, with Monolithos in the distance. Very few farmsteads are evident in the area, a direct contrast to the modern appearance of the area.

DRESSED TO IMPRESS

One of the first professional photographers on the island was Antonis Lagadas, who was particularly fascinated by the local social life of the early 1900s. In this incredible photograph from 1908, published here for the first time, we see a group of people dressed for a special occasion standing outside Aghios Efstathios in Megalochori. (Antonia Noussia Collection)

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THE HIGHEST VILLAGE

Pyrgos at the end of the 19th century. The old Venetian fortress dominates; below it, several neoclassical mansions are evident. (German Archaeological Institute)

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THE AGE OF SAILS

The old port of Fira was a bustling hub with direct trade routes to several ports in the Mediterranean and Russia. (Circa 1900 - German Archaeological Institute)

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BEASTS OF BURDEN

The old port of Fira and the stairway leading up to the top of the caldera. Several barrels are lined up for transport as the hard-working donkeys wait patiently for their next load. (Emmanouil Lignos Collection)

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THE MUSIC SCHOOL

The Santorini Music School was founded by Don Pashalis Mitilinaios, who was born in 1866. Mitilinaios died just a few months after the earthquake of 1956, heartbroken by the destruction of the organ at the Catholic Cathedral of Saint John in Fira. This picture, one of the first of the music school, dates from 1901. (Santorini Catholic Archives)

THE OLD “NEXT” GENERATION

Children pose for a photograph in the garden of the neoclassical Langadas family mansion in Pyrgos in the 1920s. (Maria Nomikos Collection)

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A STAR HAVING FUN

September 1955: Actress Olivia de Havilland learning a Greek dance during a visit to Santorini, where she was invited by Markos Nomikos, a politician and shipowner. The photograph was taken by renowned Greek photo-journalist Konstantinos Megalokonomou. (Dimitris Tsitouras Collection)

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END OF AN ERA

The cataclysmic earthquake that occurred in the early morning of July 9, 1956 changed the island forever. This year, on the 60th anniversary of that earthquake, exhibitions and talks focusing on the event will take place in Pyrgos and Kamari. (Santorini Catholic Archives)Â

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THE STRUCTURE of Life Santorini is defined by its simple buildings, and their ability to adapt to all that nature and history throws their way. BY ΤA S S O U L A E P TA K I L I

“A

rchitecture shows us how people lived on Earth until they died. Anyone who knows how to live, knows architecture and what we seek from life is expressed in the way that we do architecture. Let us learn to be simple, to live and build sparsely, without superfluous ornamentation, without palaver and without all the extra weight that we don’t need at all. Let us strive for a life that is simple, clean and bright, just like the architecture we build for its sake.” These are the guiding principles of the celebrated Greek architect Aris Konstantinidis (1913-1993) as outlined in his book The Architecture of Archi-

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tecture. It is impressive how this description appears to apply so perfectly to Santorini. From prehistoric Akrotiri (built on the coast and protected from the strong northerly winds but also stretching inland, thus benefiting both agriculture and fishing) to the amazing yposkafa (‘dug into the rock’) homes we see in Oia today, the architecture has been fully adapted to the particular conditions on the island and has catered to the needs of its people throughout the ages. It is believed, for example, that the first residences to be hewn out of the caldera’s rock face appeared in the 7th century to protect locals from the Arab

Architecture on the island of Santorini is defined by the volcanic landscape. As this drawing by architecture students at the National Technical University of Athens shows, the buildings are literally embedded into the cliff-face of the caldera in Oia.

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Architecture started becoming more sophisticated in the early 20th century as the island’s population became richer thanks to agriculture, shipping and commerce.

raids that were ravaging the Mediterranean. Safety continued to be a key concern throughout the Middle Ages and up to the 18th century. Residents had to find ways to protect themselves from pirates, and the architecture of that time is largely of a defensive nature. The construction of fortified castle-towns, known as kastelia, began in the 14th century at Skaros (present-day Imerovigli) and Aghios Nikolaos (Oia), followed later by Pyrgos, Emborio, Akrotiri and Panaghia (Fira). On the cone-shaped rock of Skaros you can still see some traces of the fortified tower of Goulas and a castle that survived Turk and pirate raids throughout the Venetian occupation, but was severely damaged by the eruption of the volcano off the beach of Koloumbo in 1650. All the castle-towns were abandoned by the mid-18th century, as the threat of pirates waned and the people began feeling constrained behind their thick walls. They struck out to parts of the island that had been off-limits until then and started laying the foundations of the residential developments we see today. We have an excellent idea of how the island was at that time thanks to a map drawn in 1801 by French entomologist and traveler Guillaume Antoine Olivier, held today by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library. The locals had limited funds with which to build, however, and most constructed their homes themselves – oc84

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casionally employing unskilled labor to help – looking only to create adequate shelter without much concern for architectural or aesthetic style. Even so, the prevailing social, financial and geomorphological factors contributed to the creation of a charming style of architecture that is still very alluring. Architecture started becoming more sophisticated in the early 20th century as the island’s population became richer, thanks to agriculture, shipping and commerce. The nobles

and sea captains were in a position to build homes that would reflect their economic and social status, drawing inspiration from Europe’s Renaissance and neoclassical architecture and using skilled workmen and expensive materials. This newfound wealth is also reflected in the public buildings and churches of the time. However, even these “foreign” buildings blended harmoniously with the landscape and the island’s unique urban fabric, never striking a discordant note.

Fira, the island’s capital, has undergone many changes due to the influx of tourism and the transformation of buildings for other uses. However, the southern part around Aghios Minas has remained relatively unchanged.

The materials How do you build anything, from the humblest home to the most opulent mansion? You start with the materials available at hand, and Santorini has a wealth of such gifts, thanks to the volcano. The black igneous rock is hard and extremely tough to temper, so it has been used mainly for walls. The island’s red rock is seen mainly in domes and arches, while chunks of pumice proved ideal for smaller rooms built above archways. The ground pumice, however, is by far the most important material. It holds together well and, when mixed with lime, makes a very durable mortar. For decades, this was a major export and has been used in such major projects as the Suez Canal and the ports of Alexandria and Istanbul. Rising demand led to quarries being opened in Oia, Fira, Akrotiri and Thirasia, though these closed in the 1980s. Found in abundance in the soil, this pumice allowed locals to dig deep into the landscape without fear of rock falls.

ARCHITECTURE

The buildings

Yposkafa The Santorinians built their houses into the volcanic rock, creating entire villages nestled into the island’s cliffs. Most of the yposkafa are along the brow of the caldera in Fira, Oia and Imerovigli, but there are also examples in once-fortified settlements like Pyrgos, Emborio and Akrotiri. In Vothonas, Finikia and Karterado, construction followed the streambeds, and homes were build into their steep banks. An yposkafo can be a dwelling that is dug entirely into the rock or one with exterior additions that are usually covered by a dome. They tend to be quite narrow and deep, with the living room at the front, bedrooms in the back, a tiny kitchen tucked away off the main living area and a bathroom placed outside the house proper, usually on a corner of the balcony or courtyard. Following the natural lines of the caldera, the houses face south and west, while their horizontal arrangement means that one home’s balcony is another’s rooftop. The most interesting element of this architecture is the use of domes, which come in all shapes and sizes, and lend a certain sculptural quality to the island’s settlements. Because yposkafa made use of what nature provided, they tended to be built by poorer residents such as laborers, farmers and sailors (Oia has an entire neighborhood built by crewmen).

1. Island yposkafa dug into the volcanic rock at Kontochori. 2. A ship merchant’s house in Oia, destroyed by the 1956 earthquake.

Kapetanospita Prosperity came to the island in the late 19th century and so did more impressive homes. Oia was especially popular among the island’s high-ranking maritime officers: in 1890, it had a population of 2,500, a fleet of 130 sailing ships, 13 parishes, a bank, a customs office and a number of small manufacturing firms. Vineyards were planted across its plateaus and Santorini’s famous wine was exported in large quantities, even to France. The shipowners and captains, of course, were not about to start scrabbling through the rock to make their homes, known as kapetanospita or captain’s houses. They built them in the loftier quarters of Oia and Fira, inspired by Renaissance and neoclassical architecture. Their homes were big and often multistoried; they had spacious courtyards and incorporated many elements of the vernacular architecture, including domes. As an added luxury, they had large tanks to collect rainwater, because drought was and is an ever-present threat on this arid island.

3. Traditional two-level house outside the fortresss of Pyrgos with overlapping buildings on all sides.

Agrotospita & canaves The eastern end of Oia was reserved for farmers; today this quarter is now part of the rest of the village. The main characteristic of these farmers’ homes (agrotospita), usually built on the fringes of the town or even in the fields, was their large courtyards. Their canaves, the grape-pressing and storage areas that were built underground or into the rock, were also impressive with their arched doorways, large enough to roll big wine barrels through. Santorini used to have canaves all over. In Finikia, in fact, there were as many as there were houses. 3

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The churches Santorini’s churches are defined by anonymous vernacular architecture. The island has over 600 churches and chapels, only one-fifth of which are dug into the rock. These are simple, square edifices, mostly done in a sparse white, without any particular ornamentation. There are also a number of larger churches that were built in the late 19th century (like Panaghia Bellonia in Fira and Aghios Georgios in Oia) and designed in the Byzantine and classic Greek styles.

* All the illustrations are from the study The Architectural Analysis of Santorini’s Traditional Buildings and Complexes, carried out on location in October 2015 by 70 architecture students at the National Technical University of Athens, under the supervision of professors Elena Konstantinidou and Eirini Efessiou, and lecturer Riva Lavva.

The industrial buildings The Santorini cherry tomato that has become one of the island’s signature products started being cultivated more intensively in the late 19th century. From 1925 until the early 70s, concentrated tomato, along with wine, was a mainstay of the island’s economy. Production began in small cottage units and was later increased, thanks to the development of larger plants that today constitute very interesting examples of smallscale industrial architecture. There were 14 processing plants on the island during the tomato’s heyday. Today, the former Dimitris Nomikos factory in Vlychada has been transformed into a modern industrial museum that offers visitors a fascinating glimpse into the island’s modern past. You should not miss a visit to the Gaia Winery on the road between Kamari and Monolithos either, as it, too, is a very interesting example of industrial architecture.

1. Churches form an integral part of the island architecture with different styles and influences evident. 2. The Old Tomato Factory in Vlychada is characteristic of the industrial architecture of the island.

* Special thanks to architect Voula Didoni – a resident of the island for the past 50 years – for all her valuable information. Material has also been drawn from the excellent tourism portal of the Santorini Municipality, www.santorini.gr.

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The creative force of the volcano Santorini’s volcano is, perhaps, the factor that has most strongly determined how the islanders have lived through the centuries. A 7.5-Richter earthquake on July 9, 1956, caused widespread damage and left deep scars not just on the island’s residential character, but also on its economy, leading to a wave of emigration that decimated its working-age population. The people, however, persevered and rebuilt their homes and public buildings, as though bracing for the tourism boom that was to follow, and which brought new life, even to the ruins.

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SANTO RI N I

M A K E T HE MOST OF YOUR STAY

A wide variety of activities and experiences, from sailing around the caldera to visiting the workshops of local artists, await visitors wanting to do more than just lounge by an infinity pool, taking in the glorious view. ÂŠ Illustration by Ignatios Manavis for Greece Is.

1. Vlychada, located on the south side of the island, is made up of windswept sand formations that look like cliffs in a celestial landscape. Misty mornings add their own eeriness to the stunning beach. 2. Imerovigli’s name is a combination of two words: “Imera” (day) and Vigla (view spot). Offering one of the best views of the caldera, it has come to be known as the “balcony of Santorini.” Villagers once gathered here to look out for approaching dangers such as pirate ships. 1 2

3. The scenic village of Oia, perched atop the northwest edge of Santorini. The town lines the northern edge of the caldera for almost 2 kilometers and is known for its sunset. 4. The winding lanes of Santorini, inaccessible to cars, require the use of donkeys for transporting heavy loads. They were especially necessary when taking travelers from the old port of Fira to the town above before the cable car was built in 1982. They continue to be a symbol of the island and efforts are being made to ensure their protection in the wake of controversy regarding their working conditions.

5. Finikia is a calm contrast to the caldera villages and just a 15-minute walk away from Oia.

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A Place of Dreams An island whose beauty was born of disaster, Santorini has the fuel to reignite the wonder of childhood in adults. BY Amanda Ruggeri

he first time I visited Santorini about a decade ago, I was 21 and fresh from university. The world felt like a blank map to be filled in – and this island, one I’d fantasized about ever since seeing photographs of it in a travel magazine, was one of the stops I was looking forward to most. The island did not disappoint. As I pulled into the island by ferry, it felt like I’d fallen into a fairytale: with all the terraced houses and domed churches perching on the 300-meter high cliffs of the famous caldera, shimmering pastel in the dusk light, Santorini promised the kind of beauty most of us only get to see on postcards. Throughout the next few days, whether climbing through the black rocks around the volcanic crater at Nea Kameni or breathing in the incense of the Byzantine church in Oia, examining 3,600-year-old frescoes in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera or paddling through the volcanic hot springs at Palia Kameni, I kept thinking how lucky I was to be here. How extraordinary life could be.

But Santorini has the kind of rare beauty that means you can project whatever you want onto it. At that age, the island was a rosy daydream of what life could be: I took a cheesy snapshot next to a hand-lettered sign that said “WORK AVAILABLE”, my thumbs up, and considered calling the phone number, just to see. It wasn’t just me. The island is so striking, pinning down its reality is almost impossible: you can’t experience it and not make it something more than a place in your mind. Even as you’re hiking its steps, sipping its wines, chatting with locals, part of it still remains, indelibly, a dream. A fantasy. A myth. No surprise, then, that there are legends associated with the island: it’s said the island was given by Triton to the son of Poseidon and – more famously – that Santorini is the real Atlantis. I visited the island again two years later. I’d crammed enough traveling into those 24 months to become vaguely jaded: now, Santorini seemed almost too perfect. A kind of theme park where everything, from the lushly coated cats

Santorini has the kind of rare beauty that means you can project whatever you want onto it. At 21, the island was a rosy daydream of what life could be.

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1. There are several charities that help with the daily feeding, neutering and re-homing of the colonies of cats, including the Santorini Animal Welfare Association (Tel. +30 22860.314.82, www.sawasantorini.org). The Aegean cat is a naturally occurring landrace of domesticated cat originating from the Cycladic islands. It is known to be the only native Greek variety, and is one of the oldest domesticated cat breeds. 2. Every Greek island is known for its fresh fish and seafood, and Santorini is no exception.

that sat on impossibly pristine stoops to the world-famous sunsets that lit up the sky in orange and pink, seemed designed just for our consumption. The beauty can almost be too intense. Craig Walzer, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, has been running Santorini’s only English-language bookstore – Atlantis Books, modeled after Shakespeare and Company in Paris – for 12 years. In that time, he’s watched a lot of people come and go. All of them, he said, share one thing in common: “Intelligent adults come here and turn into infants,” he told me. All the beauty proves too much to absorb, so they become distracted by each small piece of it – a cat or a church dome or a sunset – and flit from one to the next, camera in hand, as overwhelmed as children. It can take a couple of trips to see past that beauty, to start to understand what really makes the island tick. And on my third visit – a trip taken alone – that’s what happened. For the first time in Santorini, I rented a car. Criss-crossing desolate hills and dramatic coastline, I saw the island in a way I hadn’t been able to before. Away from the Oia–Fira tourist circuit, I tasted crisp Assyrtiko wine while looking over a bright sea; I listened to the waves while nibbling on tzatziki and snapper at Amoudi Bay. The more I saw, the more one thing became clear: Santorini’s beauty was far more than what you saw on the surface. It was in the island’s sounds, tastes, history and people. And much of it came from a surprisingly unbeautiful, and violent, event. In 1600 BC, the island was huge, round and home to the flourishing Minoan

3. The island’s old-timers have seen Santorini transformed from a poor rural community into a top global destination.

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Picturesque Imerovigli lies on the rim of the caldera overlooking the cobalt Aegean sea.

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1. The jaw-dropping views of Oia on the northern tip of the island have launched a million postcards. The best thing to do is to sit gazing out at the exquisite view of the caldera, while waiting for the sun to set. 2. Firostefani may be considered a separate village, however it is hard to know where Fira ends and it begins. Perched on the top of the caldera, it provides a quiet alternative to the island’s busy capital.

city of Akrotiri. And then Santorini’s volcano erupted with such force that it spewed out a 30-kilometer-high column of ash and rock. It collapsed huge sections of the island into the sea and devastated Crete, located just 140 kilometers away, with a tsunami up to 150 meters tall. Some archaeologists argue that the eruption helped end the Minoan civilization. Out of the devastation came life. That eruption is why Santorini’s farmers and winemakers swear by the soil: its high mineral content makes it ideal for the island’s crisp, acidic Assyrtiko, which you can taste at any number of vineyards – Gavalas Wines in Megalochori, Antonis Argyros’ Art Space Winery or Domaine Sigalas outside Oia. That eruption is also, of course, what made the island so extraordinarily beautiful. It created the dramatic caldera, the sheer cliffs striped with the lava’s reds and browns and blacks. It painted the island’s beaches with a 92

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rainbow of sand: there is a black beach, a white beach and a beach colored blood-red. And it froze the town of Akrotiri, preserving the vibrant frescoes and exquisite figurines now in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera. This was the missing piece: this beauty didn’t come easy. It took a devastating catastrophe. Not that it’s all high-stakes drama here. Head beyond the bustle of Fira or Oia, or even visit the island outside of high season, and the peace is palpable. In Imerovigli, the only person I ran into was an elderly woman, picking her way up the path in red shoes and a cane, who said “Kalimera!” to me with a big smile. On Red Beach, I picked my way up the rust-colored lava boulders and was startled to see one other person, a man draped across one of the rocks, eyes closed, relaxing in the sun. On the road that wound up Profitis Ilias mountain, I pulled over to take photographs of the terraced vineyards that spread before me into the sea, dotted with yel-

low flowers: the only sound I could hear was the breeze. Later, at the Demilmar Beach Restaurant Bar at Perissa, I tasted the volcano’s minerals in the wine and watched its colors play in the black sand before me. And I thought about how even though most visitors to Santorini see only its beauty, so much of Santorini’s character is shaped far below the surface, in a place where volcanoes rumble and eruptions begin.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amanda Ruggeri is a journalist and editor living in London. Her work has appeared on the BBC, and in National Geographic Traveler, AFAR, The New York Times and Travel + Leisure, among others.

Atl antis booksHOP

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS More than just a place where one can find something to read, Oiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atlantis Books is the heart of an ever-growing international community of book and art lovers. Its co-founder gives us the inside story. BY Cr aig Walzer

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The spiral on the ceiling of Atlantis Books arbitrarily archives the names of those who have lived, worked, or contributed to the shop in a meaningful way.

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1. The original founders of the bookshop, packing up their van “Danny” in Cambridge, England, in December 2003 as they set out on their initial drive across Europe to Oia. 2. The famous shrine to Mount Your Own Fish Trophies – the only book that’s not for sale. 3. Craig at work.

n a bright July morning, Oia’s main pedestrian thoroughfare is so busy with honeymooners, sightseers and camera-wielding cruise-ship emissaries that to join its course and inch along its flow is to experience firsthand the most vexing of all the Greek labyrinths (and, by the way, Borges’ favorite): the labyrinth that is a single, straight line – virtually unnavigable. Things weren’t always this way. In the spring of 2002, Oliver Wise and I spent a week in Santorini during our midterm break. We were struck dumb by the natural beauty of the landscape and by the serenity of our surroundings. We spent the first few days devouring the handful of books we’d brought with us as hungrily as we took in the breathtaking view before us. When we ran out of reading material and discovered there was no bookshop on the island, we decided, over a glass of wine, to open one of our own. Oliver christened it Atlantis Books, and the wheels of aspiration were set in motion. The next 18 months saw us go about the necessary business of graduating from university, saving money and assembling a group of dynamic, energetic and creative individuals to make the bookshop a reality. On New Year’s Day in 2004, Chris, Maria, Will, Tim, Oliver and I, together with “Danny” (our blue van), set off on the long trek from Cambridge, England to Oia, Santorini. We found an absolute hallucination of a building located beneath the ruins of a Venetian castle, signed a lease, drank our whisky, and quickly came to realize that we had no idea what we were doing. To evoke the glory of that first summer would require all the bright, elegiac artistry of Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald combined, so let’s just say it was wonderful and leave it at that. At the end of the year, the lease ran out on our beautiful structure under the castle and it was returned to the landlord to convert to presidential suites. We were left with no bookshop, no palatable alternative and an increasingly insistent declarative question: It’s time we left Santorini, isn’t it? But we didn’t leave. We gritted our teeth and started over, this time in the heart of the village, using flotsam and driftwood to construct a bookshop every bit as beautiful as the original. Before you could say “the folly of youth!”, we were

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up and running again, thanks in no small part to the generous support and encouragement of the local community. In the decade since then, as our bookshop has become exponentially better and more widely renowned, we’ve slowly learned how to sell books, how to meet our customers halfway and how to run a business empathically. While we may not stock Ayn Rand, Paulo Coelho or Fifty Shades of Grey, we try to have something for everyone, regardless of budget, language, reading experience, or the arcane troughs and elations of personal preference. What we wish to suggest, and what we hope our selection evidences, is that from literary fiction to beach-reads to good erotica (we’ve devoted a whole shelf to “Sexy Books”), we’ve managed to maintain our sense of identity without turning the project

4. The founders of Atlantis Books on the rooftop of their original location, with their beloved dog Athena, in April 2004.

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into an exclusionary practice. Then there’s the matter of Paravion Press. Because we were frustrated that so many potential customers wanted to take home a piece of our shop but were afraid of the looming luggage restrictions on their flights home, we decided to design and produce small editions of our favorite short works tailored specifically to be sent by mail. We launched our first series in 2010, and today we have more than 20 titles in print, including works by Katherine Mansfield, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson and Walter Benjamin, as well as a special edition of James Joyce’s beautiful Christmas story, The Dead. Of course, Paravion Press could not help but fly away one day itself. In one of several bookshop marriages (more on that later!), co-founder Will Brady married Oliver’s cousin’s dear

5. Seeing Santorini in the distance on January 4, 2004, as the team arrives to build Atlantis Books.

6. January 2004: Chris Bloomfield, Maria Papagapiou and Craig scouting the location that would become Atlantis Books’ first home.

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friend Libby, and moved to New York. In our usual circuitous fashion, the new headquarters of Paravion Press has followed him there. Now we can print our new editions on a Monday, fly them over the Atlantic and have them in Greece and on our shelves a week later. This year, we’re working on a special Henry David Thoreau volume, a bilingual Poe/Baudelaire, and a very special book by our favorite Greek children’s author (whose name we can’t reveal just yet). We also produce beautiful handmade journals and limited edition art prints by our friends who have illustrated our publications. Obviously, we realize what a privileged position we occupy. The whole world comes to our doorstep. Being the only bookshop in a town full of visitors eager for new experiences – often people who would never even think to enter a bookshop at home – means the seduction process is partly done for us by the magnificent Greek caldera. On top of that, we’re just different. Against a backdrop largely composed of restaurants and jewelry stores, our bookshop stands out like a dramatic pause. We offer a haven for bibliophiles, an adventure for inquisitive travelers, and, we hope, a curious and beguiling spectacle for everyone else. Apart from our location, we’ve also been fortunate with our hosts and neighbors. As the village continues to flow and overflow with more and more visitors, just knowing we can always stop by for a beer with Dimitri Kolioussis, the icon painter, or herbal tea and a game of chess with Nikos Rigopoulos, a local photographer, becomes a source of enormous consolation. Lina and Iris across the road are never short on smiles, despite the long days they put in, and Panos at Candouni and Jean-Luc at Kyprida are friends for life (and the patron saints of our bellies). The more people that visit the island, the more close-knit and interdependent the consistent local community has become. The core bookshop community has grown closer, too. Oliver met Ryan when she walked into the bookshop that first year, fell in love and went home and got married. On the fourth of January 2012, eight years to the day we had arrived in Santorini, they gave birth to Annie. Two of the other founders, Chris and Maria, got married on our terrace in July 2014, just in time to inaugurate the 3rd Annual Caldera Arts and Literature Festival. Now they’re returning to the shop in July with their baby boy Jonah in tow. We’ve brought in Art from Ireland, Jorge from Spain, Viviana from Greece, Elisa from Italy, Edwin from Sweden, Nick and Caroline from England, and the mysterious Silent K, who’s currently in Zambia, allegedly.

Our network of friends, partners and colleagues continues to ripple out from our perch on the cliffside and it’s these new integral people that keep the shop alive because, more than anything, we are a living, breathing venture that continues to evolve. When people come in and ask “How long did it take you to build this place?”, we like to say, “Twelve years so far, and we’re not finished yet.” On any given day at the bookshop in the high season, you’re guaranteed to meet at least one fascinating person before you close up for the evening. Our time here has been illuminated by an extraordinarily entertaining and memorable cast of characters, including the Canadian septuagenarian with the bionic eye and the gruff habit of muttering “Jesus Murphy” at every opportunity, whose penchant for idle shit-stirring caused minor offence to at least half the people in the shop that morning. Our favorite, though, remains the mysterious Italian wayfarer who took so much pleasure in our “Rent-aCat” sign that he stopped dead in the street, alone, in the early hours of the morning, laughed loudly and then shouted “Fantastico!” before sprinting off to we know not where. As Santorini’s economy continues to develop and grow, an independent bookshop might be expected to burn up like a love-letter in a house-fire. We take great pride in the fact that a creative endeavor like ours can hold its own in a place where terms like ‘throng’ begin to seem touchingly inadequate for the legions who descend on Oia every summer. The island gets stranger and stranger, but this just focuses our minds and motivates us to be all the more interesting ourselves. We are still holding on to that first impression when we fell in love with the landscape, while also reminding those lost in the labyrinth that Santorini is not an amusement park or a human entertainment factory – it’s a haven, a harbor, a majestic spot made full by wonderful, breathing (and reading) people. Folks come into the bookshop and say that working here must be a dream. Trust us when we tell you that it’s not. We work absurdly long hours, never take a day off after March, and from June to August can’t even find time for a gentleman’s game of boules in the car park. But as far as real life goes, life in our little bookshop – hosted graciously by a little island that has been hospitable to us for over a decade – beats the hell out of just about any alternative we could dream up. We love giving our visitors a taste of our world. And every time we watch a ferry leave the port and escape out of the mouth of the caldera, we’re always grateful that we, Atlantis Books, get to stay a little bit longer. That’s all we’ve ever wanted.

As Santorini’s economy continues to grow, an independent bookshop might be expected to burn up like a love-letter in a house-fire. We take great pride in the fact that a creative endeavor like ours can hold its own.

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Author Craig Taylor reading at the first Atlantis Books. Caldera Festival, November 2011

Author Paul Murray reading from bookshop favorite Skippy Dies at the Caldera Festival, July 2014.

Bookshop cat Sylvie making a mess.

The Atlantis Books team admires their work curating the high shelves of “Fancy Books,” September 2015.

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creative forces It makes no difference if they were born on the island or chose to live and work here; Santoriniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artists remain for the inspiration, the light (and the audience) that drives them. BY GIORGOS TSIROS

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Christoforos Asimis, arguably Santorini’s most renowned artist, is seen at left in his studio. Here we have one of his signature “deconstructed” landscapes.

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AK Art Foundation A Family Affair

info A K A r t F o u n d at i o n Fira–Pyrgos Road • Tel. (+30) 22860.215.06 Α K G a l l e r y Fira, Tel. (+30) 22860.230.41 • Οia, Tel. (+30) 22860.721.14, www.ak-galleries.com

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Christoforos Asimis is in his “work” clothes as he welcomes us to the dazzling white, minimalist space that is the AK Art Foundation. He’s wearing trousers and a sweater, splattered with paint from a half-finished landscape that captures the island’s pristine light. The painting is by no means “touristy”; there is something powerful which distinguishes it from the “souvenir art” found all over the island. It is as if the artist had endeavored to take people’s impressions of Santorini’s beauty and deconstruct them. Exhibited in the gallery is another piece that attracts one’s gaze; an imposing, abstract painting on canvas from a new series of works by Christoforos’ son, Katonas, an artist and architect who studied in the UK. Katonas focuses on the notion of the condensation of time; he is inspired by Jacques Lacan, delves into the subconscious with abstract brushstrokes and striking colors, and endeavors to recreate the theta brain state, in which it is believed you can change reality and create absolutely anything. All around us in the room are sculptures by Katonas’ mother, Eleni Kolaitou – evocative xoana (archaic female figures), life-like animal and bird figures, ships that immediately bring the Aegean to mind and handmade jewelry. Indeed, there’s little that the most artistic family on Santorini cannot do: in addition to Christoforos, Eleni, and Katonas, there’s also Marianna, Katonas’ sister, with a background in performing arts, who last year also held a painting exhibition. They are all remarkable artists, joined by bonds of blood and love, working autonomously but becoming one another’s strongest critics when necessary, supporting and complementing each other. The colors, lines and “moods” of Santorini guide their hands. As Katonas says: “You always carry things from your birthplace, and these come out unconsciously in your work. Santorini is a place that provides stimuli, even when you are standing somewhere with your eyes shut.”

1. Painter-architect Katonas Asimis in his studio. 2. Οne of the latest pieces from her son, Katonas Asimis. 3. A work from Eleni Kolaitou, in the family’s brand-new Oia gallery.

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DIMITRIS KOLIOUSIS The Icon Painter

Dimitris is an ascetic with a hard rock spirit. He lives in a trailer and enjoys the winter tempo on the island that he “adopted” 38 years ago, as soon as he stepped off the boat and set eyes on the stark landscape surrounding Armeni. In his rock-hewn workshop at Oia, he studies and creates, listening to The Clash and Jimi Hendrix. He plays the guitar and offers a glass of wine to likable visitors. Self-taught, Dimitris paints emotionally evocative figures of saints on old pieces of wood that he processes for weeks: his materials are glue made from rabbit skin, asbestos-soaked cloth, gold leaf, egg temperas and shellac with wax. I ask him if an icon painter must be devout, and he replies with a question: “I have two friends. One is devout, always praying and a

regular churchgoer, but his work is woeful. The other one drinks, smokes and swears, but his works are wonderful. Which one would you buy from?” In a word, Dimitris believes that an icon painter is a conveyor of man’s collective faith and this is what guides his hand, irrespective of his undoubted talent. “There are many who are more talented than me, but I was fortunate; I became aware of my leaning at an early age and since then, thanks to my work, I’ve managed to raise three children …” What does he love about Santorini? “The allure of the landscape and the quality of its colors. Here, green combines with deep red, with ochre colors and with the blue of the sea in ways that just aren’t the same as in other places.”

info Tel. (+30) 22860.718.29

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ART Tons and tons of marble makes its way through Grigoris Kouskouris’ hands every year. At left, one of his more utilitarian creations.

GRIGORIS KOUSKOURIS

The Marble Sculptor

The same tattooed hands that have become used to transporting 150-kilogram blocks of marble uphill, a few steps at a time (“and the car never nearby”), can, with surgical precision and using an assortment of chisels and files, carve elegant and modern creations, both utilitarian and decorative. A fourth-generation marble sculptor, Grigoris is the great-grandson of the celebrated Michalis Kouskouris from Pyrgos on Tinos. He started sculpting at the age of 10 and by now has reached the point where he no longer needs to make initial drawings in order to create; the idea is transferred directly to the marble. “I find it intriguing to take a block of such a hard material, without knowing what rift or grain it may conceal within, and do with it whatever you might imagine. And then there’s also the val104

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ue it acquires over time,” he says, as his 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Chloe – who has already caught the sculpting bug – plays among the marble slabs and the family’s ceaselessly active dog, Tequila, scampers around our feet with a piece of marble permanently ensconced in her mouth. “In Greece,” Grigoris continues, “we no longer appreciate the value of marble, perhaps because we always had it, from the Acropolis to our grandmother’s sink! It is also perhaps a matter of artistic education and sensibility. The English, the Scottish, the Americans, the French and the Belgians show much greater interest. I have seen visitors sit in the gallery for half an hour, caressing a smooth marble surface, until their wife complains, ‘You never pay that much attention to me!’”

info S P I RA M AR B LE AR T G ALLERY Gallery: Pyrgos • Tel. (+30) 22860.271.34 Workshop: Mesaria • Tel. (+30) 22860.332.69 • www.kouskouris.gr

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Earth & Water The Clay Master

A fifth-generation ceramist whose family hails from Naxos, Andreas Makaris is a recipient of five Greek National Pottery Exhibition awards. Ηe has been inspired by the colors of Santorini and the age-old art of ceramics for the past 30 years, ever since settling on the island with his partner and wife, Kristi Kapetanaki. “Back then, things were different; the island was just a collection of villages. Greece was much cheaper. Americans would come and buy pieces of extraordinary beauty for very little. We were just happy to be working,” he says. Today, they create both commercial and studio pottery, using a variety of techniques. “What’s most appealing about it is that you start with a basically worthless material, something so dirt-like that

neurotic mothers berate their children for touching it. It may take many hours of work, but you can use this material to make something unique, that contains a part of your soul. But if you’re not careful, if you don’t love the material, by its very nature, clay will have its revenge.” At 67, Andreas continues to work the wheel (a difficult art, often requiring up to a decade to master) and to instruct apprentices at his workshop. “At least 30 of my former apprentices are now professionals, and four of them have their own workshops right here on the island.” As he talks, he takes a lump of clay and, in a few minutes, creates a perfect slender pitcher nearly a meter tall. It’s a work of art from an award-winning artist, and he’s done it with the easy grace of a true master.

info E a r t h & W at e r A r t P ott e r y S tudio Megalochori • Tel. (+30) 22860.826.25 • www.earthandwater.weebly.com

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In the experienced hands of Andreas and Kristi, three to five tons of clay per year take every possible form and color.

1260 Ceramic Studio

A Love Story Carved in Clay

imagination and consummate skill in the single-firing technique. Marina and Giannis bring to their work a deep love for nature, for the properties of clay and for the art itself. “You can spend your whole life making ceramic objects without reaching the first rung on the ladder; it’s endless,” says Marina, showing me the works of a Japanese master of the raku technique she admires, on his Facebook page. Giannis points out just how wonderful it is to create a unique object using little more than earth, water and fire. “And the place itself provides plenty of inspiration,” he continues, as Marina nods in agreement, “with all its remarkable contours, with the caldera, the colors, and the culture that flourished here.”

info 12 6 0 C e r a mic S tudio Megalochori • Tel. (+30) 22860.824.23 • www.1260ceramicstudio.com

Giannis Vlantonopoulos first came to Santorini in 2007 to work under master potter Andreas Makaris. Two years later, Marina Taliadourou came to visit him; they fell in love (with the island and each other) and became determined to set up a workshop and never return to Athens. They weren’t discouraged by the crisis, or by the sudden change in tempo for two young people used to a different pace of life in the capital. The workshop was created in 2011 with, they reveal candidly, “zero capital,” and named after the highest temperature at which their ceramic creations are fired in the kiln. Since then, it has become a hotspot for friends, visitors and anyone interested in modern ceramics, particularly ceramics created with passion,

Giannis and Marina are more inclined towards modern pottery, which, however, is firmly based on age-old traditions.

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ART

The Landscape Painter

The Expert Copyists Classically trained artists and long-time partners Aspasia Vovola and Dimitris Bellos aspired to create an accessible, multi-purpose cultural hub that would accommodate everything from theatrical performances to work by multi-discipline resident artists. They specialize in original-size replicas of wall paintings from Akrotiri, created through a time-consuming procedure that involves first “spoiling” the painted canvas and then preserving it with kourasani, the highly durable medieval form of natural plaster used in the monasteries of Mt. Athos. Ak r o n A r t C e n t e r Tel. (+30) 22860.820.02 • www.akron-art.com

In 1981, Vassilis Kyrkos came to Santorini on holiday, from Florina in northern Greece, and felt that he could make a living here as an artist. He bought an old ruin and set up his first studio. Since then, he has painted Santorini thousands of times, using a multitude of techniques. He sells his art at prices ranging from €15 for copies to several thousand euros for original works on canvas, and also experiments with figure and portrait painting, capturing scenes of everyday life. K y r kos A r t G a l l e r y Oia, Tel. (+30) 22860.713.25 • www.kyrkos.gr

The Wood Sculptor

Τzamia+Krystalla Gallery

Mati Art Gallery

Originally established in Hania, Crete, as a small factory working exclusively with glass and crystal, the gallery opened in Santorini in 2008 and hosts paintings, ceramics and ceramic sculptures, objets d’art, gifts, souvenirs and jewelry by selected Greek artists.

Established in 1990, this is the main venue where visual artist Yorgos Kypris displays his work, inspired by fish, boats, seabirds, planets and more.

• Fira, Tel. (+30) 22860.212.26 • www.tzamia-krystallagallery.gr

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• Fira, Tel. (+30) 22860.238.14 • www.matiartgallery.com

Albanian Eduart Gjopalaj came to Santorini at the age of 14 to work on building sites, discovered his talent and began working on church icon screens. Ηis first wood sculpture workshop at Kamari became a success and recently, he acquired his own gallery, in Fira. This is a success story, dedicated with love to the olive tree, the local reddish eucalyptus, the linden and all the other sources of wood with which Eduart creates. His favorite subject? “Hands. They are the most difficult thing for any artist to do.” E G AR T G ALLERY Tel. (+30) 22860.364.55

E XPE RIENCE

Seaborne Escapes with Sunset Oia Boasting rave reviews, it is little surprise that Sunset Oia sailing cruises receives a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence year after year.

SAILS AHOYî&#x20AC;&#x201E;

The Sunset Oia fleet invites passengers to embark on a Santorini island adventure or a romantic private sailing tour.

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ALL ABOARD THE S/Y SUNSET OIA

Sail into the Santorini sunset with a 5-hour tour around the island, including stops for swimming at iconic beaches, such as the Red Beach and White Beach, and the healing hot springs.

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ROMANCE ON THE S/Y SUNSET SANTORINI

Get private, personalized service as you sail to the hidden gems that only the locals know about. Or, if you prefer, visit nearby or even far-away Cycladic islands.

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egardless of the vantage point from which you observe it, Santorini is a spectacular island to behold. Whether watching the sun cast its golden glow on the houses in the center of the picturesque village of Oia or exploring the beautiful seascape on one of Sunset Oia’s chartered yachts, you will be dazzled by this island paradise. Away from the throngs of tourists, a tailor-made cruise to picturesque ports and remote beaches offers travelers a chance to experience another side to this popular destination. Apart from unique sunrise and sunset options and the more run-of-the-mill excursions to the volcano, where visitors can swim between the hot and cold turquoise patches of the sulfuric springs of Palia Kameni, travelers can enjoy more sea adventures. Possibilities include snorkeling in the deep blue waters around the caldera, sunbathing while taking in the striking beauty of the landscape, tasting the delicious snacks and dishes offered on board, while being treated to the personal service offered by Sunset Oia. The prestigious yacht and catamaran charter company has been a frontrunner in providing activities on the seas around Santorini since it was launched in 2009. The company offers exclusive, semi-private and customized excursions from its base in Oia on a wide variety of vessels, combining affordable packages with top-rate luxury and always with the safety of passengers a top priority. For this reason, Sunset Oia’s fleet is manned by expert sailors and professional captains with years of experience under their belt. The top-of-the-line vessels ensure that passengers travel in the lap of luxury and comfort, with Sunset Oia boasting the youngest fleet of its type in Greece. In the latest wave of expansion, two brand-new catamarans were added this year. The Sunset Amorgos, a Lagoon 520 catamaran, with an overall total length of 15.85 meters, can carry 18 passengers. Its day and sunset tours start from Ammoudi and take visitors on a sea route around the island that takes in traditional favorites, such as the volcano 114

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and springs, as well as the Red Beach, Aspronisi, Akrotiri and Vlychada. The other new addition is the Anafi, a Lagoon 450 almost 14 meters in length, which can also transport visitors in grand style to the crystal-clear waters of the nearby island of Ios or other areas around the caldera. The superb Sunset Ios, a Fountaine Pajot Taiti 80, has an overall length of almost 24 meters. It is spacious and comfortable enough to accommodate wedding parties or other similar events. Whether it’s a formal function or romantic couple’s cruise you’re interested in, Sunset Oia has a vessel to suit your needs. Imagine a cruise aboard the Alexandros, a Ferretti 680 motor yacht. You'll feel like royalty as you lounge around the stylish sitting area with elegantly designed interiors. Soak up the sun on the upper-level deck and then retreat to the lower deck for privacy, relaxing around the four luxurious cabins that include a master bedroom and VIP bedroom fitted with king-size beds and en-suite facilities. Another option for private tours is the Emily, a Cumberland 46 power catamaran with hulls that are specially designed to offer maximum stability. Ideal for beach and cave exploration, it has a shallow draft that allows it to approach hidden gems. It is available for private charter tours around the island or visits to nearby islands. The variety of destinations and quality of the 11-strong fleet has earned the company the top ranking in its category, according to TripAdvisor, making it a strong international competitor. “The boat was extremely nice, clean and state-of-the-art. We have been on other catamaran tours in Grand Cayman, the coast of California and Hawaii, and though we loved every one of those tours, this boat was by far the nicest one we had been on for a touring boat,” writes one happy customer, Loretta E. from Southern California. The company has received kudos and accolades for its cuisine, which includes local delicacies such as grilled shrimp and skewered chicken or pork, along with an array of vegetarian and gluten-free options using the finest local

produce. Fine local wines and refreshments are generously offered to guests for the duration of the tour. Little wonder that a large number of TripAdvisor reviewers refer to the on-board cuisine as a pleasant surprise and the “best” during their stay. “There was plenty of space to spread out, but we also enjoyed chatting with other people on the boat. We jumped in the frigid water to get to the hot springs – it’s worth it; don’t worry if you aren’t a strong swimmer, they provide pool noodles. They prepare delicious Greek dinner on board with all the local wine and beer you can drink,” writes Jessica H. from Texas, who describes the fivehour cruise as her husband’s favorite part of the vacation and a “wonderful experience.” Reviewers also praise the crew’s experience and willingness to provide information about the island’s rich history and culture. “They took the time to extensively explain the coastline and answer random questions about Greek culture, including the compelling story of the hermit who lives at the edge of the volcano,” writes New Yorker Iris H. It’s not just the exquisite facilities and cuisine that make Sunset Oia cruises worthwhile, it’s the experience and tailor-made memories that last a lifetime; the feeling of satisfaction that lingers on well after the trip has ended.

The crew draws on its experience to provide interesting information about the island’s history and culture, and is also on hand to respond to all your needs and wants.

E XPE RIENCE

THE FLEET OF SUNSET OIA

S/Y SUNRISE Lagoon 560 Catamaran SLG

S/Y SUNSET AMORGOS Lagoon 520 Catamaran SLG

S/Y SUNSET OIA Lagoon 500 Catamaran SLG

S/Y AMMOUDI Ocean Voyager 74 Catamaran SLG

S/Y SUNSET IOS Fountaine Pajot Tahiti 80 Catamaran SLG

Premium Semi-Private Built: 2014 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 56ft/17.07m Passengers: 22 max

Premium Semi-Private Built: 2016 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 52ft/15.85m Passengers: 18 max

Premium Semi-Private Built: 2009 Cruising / Saling Overall Length: 50ft/15.24m Passengers: 16 max

Semi-Private Built: 2011 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 74ft/22.55m Passengers: 48 max

Semi-Private Built: 2015 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 80ft/23.75m Passengers: 80 max

Available for 5-hour day and sunset tours, starting from Ammoudi Bay and Vlychada port respectively. Includes stops for swimming at the hot springs, the White Beach and the Red Beach (towels and snorkeling equipment included). On-board barbeque with local delicacies, salads, fruit, Santorini wine and soft drinks. Transport from/to your hotel is included.

Departs from Ammoudi at 10:15. and from Vlychada early in the afternoon for 5-hour day and sunset tours, including stops at the hot springs, the White Beach and the Red Beach, for swimming (towels and snorkeling equipment included). Onboard barbeque with local delicacies, salads, fruit, unlimited Santorini wine and soft drinks. Transport from/to your hotel is included.

Available for 5-hour day and sunset tours, starting from Ammoudi and Vlychada harbors respectively. Includes stops for swimming at the hot springs, the White Beach and the Red Beach (towels and snorkeling equipment included). On-board barbeque with local delicacies, salads, fruit, Santorini wine and soft drinks. Transport from/to your hotel is included.

Last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s addition to the Sunset Oia fleet is also the biggest catamaran in Santorini. Available daily, for 5-hour day and sunset tours around the caldera and the beaches of southern Santorini. It starts from Athinios Port at 10:00 and then at 14:30. With a comfortable layout and a large space for dancing, the Sunset Ios is also available for wedding parties and other events.

S/Y SUNSET SANTORINI Lagoon 400 Catamaran SLG

M/Y EMILY F. P. Cumberland 46 Power Catamaran

M/Y IGUANA Speedboat 35 Lux Speedboat

M/Y ALEA Alfa Marine 74 Motor Yacht

M/Y ALEXANDROS Ferretti 68 Motor Yacht

Private Tours Built: 2015 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 40ft/11.97m Passengers: 14 max

Private Tours Built: 2007 (Refurb. 2015) Cruising Overall length: 46ft/13.95m Passengers: 16 max

Private Tours Built: 2010 Cruising Overall Length: 35 ft/10.6m Passengers: 4 max

Private Tours Cruising Overall Length: 74ft/22.30m Passengers: 4 cabins

Private Tours Cruising Overall Length: 68ft/21.03m Passengers: 4 cabins

Available for private excursions around Santorini and nearby islands on a 5-hour tour, with stops around the caldera, the White and Red beaches and the hot springs. Another option is the full-day tour to Ios island. Full barbeque meal, drinks, towels, snorkeling equipment and more amenities are provided. Transport from/ to hotel included.

Two powerful 310 hp engines allow this vessel to cruise at a maximum speed of 20 knots while the hulls are specially designed for maximum stability. Shallow draft allows it to approach hidden island gems safely. Available for private tours around Santorini and nearby islands as well as multi-day charters. Full barbeque meals, drinks, towels, etc included. Hotel transport included.

Enjoy an exciting adventure on a private day or sunset tour aboard the luxury speedboat in sheer style. Swim at secluded beaches around Santorini or neighboring islands, or enjoy an intimate romantic cruise. With quick and easy adjustments, the exterior space can be transformed to a lounging area. Gourmet snacks, unlimited drinks, towels, snorkeling equipment and hotel transport included.

With a maximum speed of 40 knots, the Alea smoothly connects Santorini with Mykonos and remote islands of the Small Cyclades. It is available for day trips or multiday cruises. Spacious indoor and outdoor areas for leisure and enjoyment; four luxurious cabins with en-suite bathroom facilities. First-class service, gourmet meals, beverages, towels, snorkeling equipment and surprise amenities are provided on board. Transport from/to hotel included.

This vessel is a perfect choice for yachting and private tours. Four luxurious cabins (master bedroom, VIP bedroom with king-size beds and luxurious en-suite facilities), lower- and upper-level decks with highend amenities and a maximum speed of 32 knots make this an ideal choice for luxury excursions and island hopping. Gourmet snacks, unlimited drinks, towels and snorkeling equipment, all provided on board. Transport from/to hotel included.

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S/Y SUNSET ANAFI Lagoon 450 Catamaran SLG Private Tours Built: 2016 Cruising / Sailing Overall length: 45ft/13.96m Passengers: 16 max Feel like royalty as you enjoy a private tailor-made excursion on one of the most luxurious Lagoon catamarans on Santorini. Guests can explore the beauty of the island with stops for swimming and snorkeling at the White and Red Beach and hot springs (towels and snorkeling equipment included). Enjoy a full barbeque with fresh fish, champagne and unlimited drinks.

INFO:

www.sunset-oia.com Tel. (+30) 22860.722.00 Mob. (+30) 698.026.8881 ticket offices:

Oia, Ammoudi reservations@sunset-oia.com

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every beach is a stage Some of our favorite spots to go swimming. On account of the shape of its coastline, Santorini has fewer easily accessible beaches than other Cycladic islands, but it still offers plenty of choice. Let’s say, for example, that you want to party at midday to thumping music, drinking cocktails or shots and uploading photos on social media while soaking up the sun in the spirit of a Mykonos beach party. Well, you should probably go to Perivolos, where beach bars like Chilli and Wet Stories feature DJs and offer an experience very different to the island’s trademark “views and romance.” 118

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If, on the other hand, you prefer to follow the locals to their favorite places for a swim, then head north (in the direction of Oia), to Koloumbo with its warm waters, to Pori for peace and quiet, or to Baxedes for black sand, shallow waters and surfing (when the north wind is blowing). Then again, you may be more of an explorer-hermit who wants to feel that the sea is all yours. If so, the ideal solution would be to rent a yacht (Sunset Oia, which you can read about on page 110, is your best bet).

Swim & Party

OUT OF THIS WORLD

WHERE THE LOCALS GO

Κamari (southeast)

Mesa Pigadia (southwest)

Koloumbo (northeast)

Miniature version of the famous Vlychada, with small white pebbles and impressive rock formations, which the local fishermen have excavated into shelters complete with painted wooden doors for their boats. Accessible on foot or by boat. A good choice for a relaxing swim when the north winds are blowing.

A remote sandy beach known for its warmer waters because of an underwater volcanic crater, which last erupted in 1650. Accessible only by vehicle. Bring your own water and supplies.

Tourist hot spot with watersports, fine black sand and deep waters. Busy, with all kinds of stores along the coastal road, which becomes pedestrian-only in summer. It was once more awarded a Blue Flag this year.

Perissa (southeast) One of the first seaside areas to feel the tourism boom, a magnet for the young crowd, offering plenty of facilities (accommodation, camping, beach umbrellas, restaurants, bars, watersports, diving center). Blue Flag recipient, with fine black sand.

Baxedes (north)

Red Beach (sοuthwest) The volcanic star of Santorini, backed by steep, deep red cliffs. Can get quite crowded in high season. Boats leaving from Perissa and Kamari bring visitors here in 30 minutes but you can also reach the beach on foot from Akrotiri. Take care, there have been reports of rockfalls.

A quiet beach with black volcanic sand and small pebbles. One of Oia’s most popular spots, particularly with families, thanks to its shallow waters. It is also preferred by surfers when the winds are northerly. Access by car or motorbike.

Pori (northeast) A small, secluded beach with dark sand and, a small fishing harbor, located further along the coast to the south of Koloumbo. The locals love it because it’s quiet and undisturbed. There are also a couple of nice fish tavernas.

Perivolos (south-east) A continuation of Perissa, also with black sand, as well as inviting waters and plenty of options for sporting activities, food and fun. Cosmopolitan and trendy.

FAMILY Monolithos (east)

The greatest asset of such lunar beaches is that the tall rocks provide shade and plenty of nice, private nooks and crannies.

A long stretch of sand with shallow waters, a playground and other sports facilities, plus a lifeguard, making it ideal for families. You will find a selection of restaurants and tavernas, along with changing facilities, showers and public restrooms.

White Beach (southwest) If you do get as far as Red Beach, it is worth paying a visit to its neighbor, a small cove surrounded by high rocks that overlook the pebble-and-sand beach. There are only a few loungers and umbrellas. You can reach it by caique from the beach to the right of the Akrotiri archaeological site (a short and pleasant boat ride) or on foot (on the road to Faros, follow the sign to “Kambia” and, from there, take the footpath).

Vlychada (south) Easy to reach, quite large and with a striking setting. One part is equipped with loungers and has an excellent beach bar (Theros, Tel. +30 6977.222.666), but there is also plenty of space to spread your towel or strip off far from prying eyes.

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ΑCTIVITIE S

SAME ISLAND, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE Place yourself in the able hands of the island’s dedicated professionals and let them offer you memorable experiences, on land or at sea. BY MARIA COVEOU

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Diving INSIDE THE HEART OF THE VOLCANO

In 1975, Jacques Cousteau sailed the legendary Calypso into the waters of Santorini on a quest for the Lost City of Atlantis. The results of his expedition may have been disappointing, as extensive underwater research failed to reveal any concrete evidence of the existence of that fabled civilization, but Cousteau made another important discovery: the wealth of Santorini’s marine environment, a treasure that continues to attract divers from around the globe. The world’s largest underwater caldera may not offer much in the way of fish sightings, due to the unfortunate ravages of over-fishing, but it still boasts many other attractions, such as lush meadows of sea grass, stunning undersea cliffs, caves and volcanic reefs, as well as a number of shipwrecks. Among the most popular dive sites are the areas off the islets of Palia and Nea Kameni, where vast lava formations illustrate just how the molten lava emerged from the bowels of the earth, and the spot in the cove of Taxiarchis off Nea Kameni where the submerged wreck of a passenger ship offers itself for exploration and great photo-ops. Akrotiri in the south of the island is another must for divers. Famed for its lava caves and coral formations, this is also where Jacques Cousteau’s son, Pierre-Yves, placed a commemorative plaque honoring his father, at an easily approachable depth of 7m. Wherever you dive, there’s something to see. The conditions are ideal, with visibility reaching 20m and the water temperature climbing to between 23-27C in the summer.

Info Santorini’s dive centers are certified by the leading international authorities. They provide all the equipment and offer a complete range of programs, from the kids’ Bubblemaker to instructor-level training. • Atlantis Oia, Tel. (+30) 22860.711.58, www. atlantisoia.com • Aegean Divers, Aghia Irini, Pyrgos, Tel. (+30) 22860.332.01, www.aegeandivers.com • Santorini Dive Center, Perissa, Tel. (+30) 22860.831.90, www.divecenter.gr • Mediterranean Dive Club, Perissa Beach, Tel. (+30) 22860.830.80, www.divingsantorini.com • Navy’s Waterworld, Kamari Beach, Tel. (+30) 22860.281.90, www. navyswaterworld.gr • Volcano Diving Center, Kamari, Tel. (+30) 22860.331.77, www.scubagreece.com

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Photo Tours M ore than p oint & shoot

Sea Kayak Paddle and discover

They understand the tides, can read the winds and know every inch of the coastline. More importantly, the people of Sea Kayak know how to share that knowledge and can show you a great time as you explore hidden coves, tucked-away beaches and the beautiful volcanic rock formations that nature has sculpted over millennia. From their headquarters on the beach of Akrotiri, the company arranges pickups and drop-offs at your hotel. The tours they offer, ranked by TripAdvisor users as one of the “must” experiences in Santorini, include Stand-up Paddling, going from Akrotiri to Vlychada (2 miles, 2.5-3 hours, including snacks; €70 with pick-up/ drop-off, €60 without) and South Discovery (7 miles, 5 hours including snorkeling at Kambia and a light picnic; €80 per person), both suitable for beginners. For experienced paddlers, tours include: the Caldera Crossing (12 miles, 8.5 hours, including a coffee break at Thirasia, swimming, snorkeling, a picnic lunch at Palia Kameni and dinner at Balos Bay; €174 per person) and the fascinating Round the Lighthouse Full-Day Τour (9 miles, 10 hours, including a picnic lunch and dinner; €175 per person). All tours are for groups of four to 16 people, aged 14 or above. Family trips can be arranged for guests with children aged 5-12 (3-4 miles, 4-5 hours, including swimming stops, a picnic lunch and snorkeling).

Info S A N T O R I N I S E A K AYA K www.santoriniseakayak.com • Tel. (+30) 6951.801.051

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Santorini is one of the most photographed islands in the world, and almost everyone who’s ever visited has the customary collection of shots from the top of the caldera. But imagine what magic you could produce, guided by someone who has explored all the island’s secret spots and studied its sunlight, who knows when and where to take that photograph so that it looks like it came from the camera of a professional. Konstantina Sidiropoulou is one of a handful of such experts. An oenologist who eventually succumbed to her passion for photography, Konstantina spent months exploring the island’s nooks and crannies, recording its prettiest spots and discovering the perfect perspectives. A graduate of the Leica Academy for Creative Photography in Athens, she has put together a series of expeditions that can be tailored to individual specifications or are organized along particular themes, such as landscapes, architecture, the caldera, or the ‘Golden Hour’. These are available as tours for two people (2 hours at €210) or small groups of six (4 hours at €90 per person) and take visitors off the beaten path to capture the true essence of Santorini.

Info Κ -Y e l l o w www.kyellow.photo • Tel. (+30) 6984.229.712

ΑCTIVITIE S

Walking Tours On t h e ( n o t s o ) w i l d si d e

Walking tourism has been gaining in popularity around the world in the past few years, and Santorini is particularly well suited to this activity. Fans of the island argue that, unless you really walk its streets, its alleys and its fields, you will never truly know this island jewel. In 2014, the Municipality of Thira took the first step in developing this form of tourism by signposting some of the island’s many trails; there are also digital and print guides available from the publishing company Anavasi (www.anavasi.gr) featuring 25 hiking routes. However, few of those 25 routes are signposted today, and many may be impassable in places, having been swallowed up by rock-falls or vegetation. Therefore, until more thorough efforts are made to organize and maintain the walking trails, Nikos Boutsinis is your man. With a degree in tourism studies from the UK and an inherent love for nature, as well as the people and traditions of Santorini, Nikos knows what he’s doing. Recently, he spent

an entire winter designing tours along the island’s best-preserved routes, with planned stops for cooking classes, wine tastings and visits to archaeological sites, castles and museums, but also with a few off-the-beaten-path spots that help acquaint visitors with lesser-known aspects of the island. The tours he has created range from 4 to 10 kilometers and the walks last between 4-4.5 hours, with prices starting at €70 per person. The names he has given the tours are good indicators of what they offer: Τhe Caldera Hike, Santorini Wanderlust, Southern Exposure, Oia’s Hidden Treasures, and more. His company also organizes private guided tours that allow visitors to set their own pace and enjoy an experience tailor-made to their own interests. Clients can also combine walking tours with swimming stops, yoga, sea kayaking or e-biking (motor-assisted biking). If you want to go it alone but need advice or further information on the condition of a given trail, the team is always happy to help.

Info S ant o rini Wa l kin g T o u rs www.santoriniwalkingtours.com • Tel. (+30) 6971.603.600, (+30) 22860.364.96

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eBike Tours N o s w e at

Horseback Riding Ga l l o p in g t o w ar d t h e s u ns e t

Riding fans and incurable romantics will be glad to hear that this relatively new addition to the list of alternative forms of island touring is already a success. Once a key mode of transport on this craggy island – and an environmentally-friendly one at that – horses are perfect traveling companions, as the staff of family-owned Santorini Horse Riding know very well. This is why they decided to design a series of excursions that offer visitors not just fresh insights into the island, but also into these noble animals. Manos, Taxiarchis, Noni and Argyro are just four of the 15 horses that can take you from Megalochori, the village where the stables are located, through uncharted trails, past vineyards, down impressive gorges and along romantic beaches, with possible stops at traditional tavernas and wineries. The team offers three excursions: the Megalochori Tour (1 hour; €45 per person or €90 with a meal and wine tasting); the Vlychada Beach Tour (2 hours; €90 per person or €150 with a meal and wine tasting); and the Caldera Tour (2 hours; €90 per person). The price includes all equipment, bottled water and photographs from some of the prettiest spots along the way. There is a small additional fee if you want to be picked up and dropped off at your hotel. Groups are kept small, at four to five people, in order to ensure the best possible experience for everyone, while you can also arrange a private excursion (ideal for couples). Inexperienced riders will be shown the dos and don’ts, while all guests are given a few moments to acquaint themselves with their horses before they set off. Children must be chaperoned by a parent or guardian.

Info S ant o rini H o rs e R i d in g www.santorini-horse-riding.com • Tel. (+30) 22860.305.96, (+30) 6942.254.548 • email: info@santorinihr.com

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Vassilis and Katarina are avid cross-country bicyclists who have cycled thousands of miles all over the world. But you don’t need to be as advanced as they are to follow them on their Santorini tours. While the island appears, at first sight, not to be particularly bicycle-friendly with its steep inclines and, in the summer months, its busy roads, the team’s electric mountain bicycles allow you to decide if you’re going to do all the leg work or let technology take over while you simply enjoy the scenery on some of the island’s quieter byways. The team offers two tours: the 40k Cross-Island private tour (4 hours; €150, including pick-up, drop-off and refreshments) and the 22k Sea Side group tour (3-3.5 hours; €90 per person, including wine tasting). They take you along ancient wine routes, down to local beaches and through unspoiled traditional villages, revealing lesser-known aspects of this multifaceted island. Both tours end with a swim at the black sand beach of Perivolos. The experience has received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor.

Info S ant o rini M T B A d v e nt u r e s www.santoriniadventures.gr • Tel. (+30) 22860.305.54, (+30) 6980.289.453 • email: info@santoriniadventures.gr

taste GREECE IS

SANTO RI N I

F EAST FOR L IFE

Santorini may be small in size, but it holds a treasure trove of gastronomic experiences thanks to its local products, winemakers and inspired chefs who are spearheading a culinary revolution. Turn the page and read all about it. ÂŠ Four Seasons on Santorini: Autumn, painting by Antonios von Santorinios-Santorinakis, Bridgeman Images.

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PRODUCTS

Miracles in Arid Soil Unirrigated and wind-scorched, Santorini’s signature products survive thanks to the island’s rich volcanic soil, feeding on minerals as they patiently await a rare rainfall. BY NENA DIMITRIOU

weet red juice dribbles down the hand of the person who takes a greedy bite out of a Santorini cherry tomato. It has been a good crop this year. In February, when the farmers planted the seeds, they wished for mild winds and low temperatures because gales snap the shoots and heat dries out the fruit. Their wishes came true. Four months later, the bright red fruit sparkles in the fields. In former times, sowing, harvesting and processing was all done by hand. The tomatoes would be collected in wicker baskets in late June. They would be squeezed batch by batch, the skins and seeds sieved to release every drop of precious juice. The seeds were treasured like a talisman, to be replanted nine months later, while the juice was boiled in great metal pots. In July, the flat roofs of houses would turn from white to red, as north-facing wooden racks were filled with tomato juice left to dry in the sun. Day by day, with the hot Cycladic sun beating down on the terraces, the juice would thicken as the water evaporated. In the past, households would only grow as much as they needed to see them through the year. Gradually, however, the locals began to discover the commercial value of their tomatoes and set up small processing units, the island’s first canneries, where the fruit would be passed through makeshift sieves and the condensed tomato juice poured into cans, one jug at a time. Today, 60 hectares of cherry to-

In need of just a little rainwater, the tomato acquires a sweet taste, juicy flesh and a bright red color thanks to Santorini’s rich soil.

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PRODUCTS

1. & 2. The tomatoes need four months from the day they are planted before the producers get their hands on the ripe fruit. Producer Lefteris Drosos with this year’s production on his farm at Emborio. 1

matoes are cultivated across the island, yielding 300 tons destined for the new facilities of the Santo Wines Cooperative, the last surviving processing unit on the island. It takes about 3-4 kilograms of fresh fruit to produce one kilo of triple-concentration tomato paste of the type originally made by the locals. Other than paste, juices with varying degrees of concentration and whole, canned tomatoes, the unit also produces a tomato and Vinsanto wine sauce, as well as sun-dried tomatoes in jars and tins that are exported around the world. A star of the local cuisine, the “humble” Santorini tomato has been classified as a product with Protected Designation of Origin since 2013. This tiny fruit, weighing in at just 20 grams, has a thick skin, compact flesh and a

bitter-sweet flavor. It forms the cornerstone of a simple yet inspired style of cooking. Only a handful of the imaginative recipes with which housewives fed their families are still prepared today in Santorini’s kitchens. The old hands say that to really bring out the flavor of the tomato paste you need to mix it with a few teaspoons of olive oil before you start cooking. One dollop of tomato paste can transform the supporting cast of garlic, onion and pasta into a hearty manestra (orzo) soup or elevate a slice of baked cod into a regal feast. Using a single chicken from their coops and their own tomato paste, the housewives of Santorini would stretch the ingredients to three or four different dishes: chicken soup the first day, chicken in tomato sauce served with potatoes the next, and pasta cooked in

Experienced locals say that to really bring out the flavor in the tomato paste, you need to mix it with a few teaspoons of olive oil before you start cooking.

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stock made with the leftovers on the third. The larger tomatoes would be stuffed with a little rice and whatever herbs were growing in the garden, and then baked in the oven. The same casual approach was adopted to make the tomato fritters that are still served at almost every taverna on the island, with the tomato being grated and mixed with all sorts of garden greens such as chard, leeks and onions, along with a few teaspoons of flour to bring it all together. Any tomatoes that remained at the end of July and were still fleshy would be threaded on a string and left to dry in the sun. Once they were well dehydrated, they would be stored in the cool of the canava, the storage area dug into the rock. These would later be used to make rice dishes or to add some flavor to simple vegetable stews. The white eggplant, another product native to Santorini, is said to have come to the island at some point in the 19th century from Egypt, a major trading partner and export market. They were traditionally used in baked casseroles, where they would be cut into thick slices and cooked with tomato and onion. The white eggplant harvest

advertorial

Relax to the sound of the waves, right on the picturesque bay of Ammoudi, absorb the view and indulge in a wide array of fresh and delicious seafood, based on both traditional and modern recipes, always prepared with love, knowledge and respect. Available for wedding receptions and all kinds of events, hosted on our multilevel terraces.

AMMOUDI FISH TAVERN www.ammoudi-santorini.gr • amoudi@otenet.gr • Tel. (+30) 22860.722.98 • Ammoudi Bay, Oia, Santorini

#AmmoudiFishTavern

PRODUCTS

1. The seeds used for the cultivation of the white eggplant come from the previous year’s harvest. 2. The buds of the caper plant are called “buttons” (koumbia) by locals. 3. & 4. The leaves and fruit of the wild capers are sealed inside jars with water and salt. Their briny flavor makes them an excellent condiment.

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coincides with that of the cherry tomato (planted in May, gathered in July), which gave rise to a number of dishes combining the two, such as papoutsakia (baked eggplant with tomatoes and onions instead of the usual minced meat), eggplant and potato casserole with tomato sauce, and scrambled eggs with eggplant and tomato. They were also pickled in vinegar and served as a tasty meze. The flavor of this eggplant is almost indescribable; it is very sweet, with no seeds and rich flesh. It can be found today in the island’s restaurants in many forms; as a puree, in a savory millefeuille, in fritters, in moussaka and in scrambled eggs. Since yields are very low, it is extremely difficult to find off the island, with supply only just sufficient to cover demand on Santorini, so don’t pass up on the opportunity to taste it. The availability of capers is similarly limited. The caper plant is not cultivated, but can be found only in the wild, sprouting atop the island’s craggy rocks and other unlikely places. It is said that ants carry its seeds to their winter nests so that, a year later, a new caper bush springs up. Farmers and household cooks take to the rocky expanses at the end of April to collect the buds and any leaves. They boil them for a couple of minutes to soak out the bitterness, salt them and then take them to the cooperative. There, the capers are packaged in jars with brine. Their 4

advertorial

GAIA Wines, which has two modern wineries in Nemea and Santorini, has one simple mission: to capture the best that Greece’s indigenous grape vines have to offer and to bring them to you. Complex, sophisticated and with a long heritage behind them, our fine Greek wines capture the volcanic intensity of Santorini and the rolling green hills of Nemea through the Assyrtiko and Agiorgitiko grape varieties. Our passion for showcasing Greek vines has won over even the most demanding wine aficionados, resulting in GAIA Wines appearing in Wine & Spirits magazine’s top 100 for seven years straight. Wherever you may go, a bottle of GAIA wine will always bring you back to our shores.

Gaia Nemea Winery Koutsi, 205 00 Nemea, Greece • Τel. (+30) 27460.220.57 • www.gaia-wines.gr • Facebook: Gaia-Wines • Twitter: @GaiaWines

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gaiawine@otenet.gr

Gaia Santorini Winery Exo Gonia, 847 00 Santorini, Greece • Tel. (+30) 22860.34.186

PRODUCTS

The split peas remain in barrels for a year to mature. Producer Nikos Drosos collects it by hand and gives his entire crop to the island’s cooperative.

limited production and labor-intensive harvest make them an expensive delicacy, but the flavor is out of this world. Even though it is a naturally briny product, it is said that the best capers grow on the hills, not by the sea. The entire plant is edible, from the small buds to the leaves and shoots. Pickled, baked with vegetables or sprinkled over a dollop of pureed split peas, they offer an interesting, crunchy texture to any dish and act as a condiment that lends food a pleasantly sea-bitter taste. Now we come to the famous yellow split peas – the tastiest kind of which can only be found on Santorini – which have long been a staple in the islanders’ diet. Known locally as fava, the pulse actually has nothing to do with what is generally referred to as the fava bean. A rich source of protein, these split peas have been growing on Santorini since before the famous volcanic explosion,

that is around 3,500 years, according to historians. The seed is planted in December and once it grows, it is left to dry. Farmers collect it early in the day as the morning dew prevents the lightweight grains from scattering to the ground. These are taken to the open-air mill, where donkeys turn the grinding stone to help remove the outer skin. They are then stored in wooden barrels, covered in sand and set aside in a dry space to mature. The longer they rest, the easier they are to peel and crack, making cooking them easier. Production, however, is in constant decline and today the island produces just 150 tons on 180 hectares, which is why the peas are so pricey. Back in the day, it was prepared as gruel, boiled in three parts water, and spooned up with a petal of onion. When served to guests, it was ground into a velvety paste in a gesture of respect and consideration.

Every recipe recommends cooking it with onion, which is regarded as its perfect mate. The paste is known as “single” when the onion is added after cooking and “spoken for” when it’s cooked together. Likewise, fava is “engaged” when fried onions are added on top and “married” when it has been cooked a few days earlier and then tossed in a frying pan with sautéed onions. Whichever way it is prepared, it is nearly always served as a meze. Cherry tomatoes, wild capers, delicious golden fava and sweet white eggplant are the stars of Santorini’s cuisine. You can taste them in their traditional variations at tavernas across the island or seek out more sophisticated preparations at high-end restaurants. Before you leave the island, get a few jars or tins of these wonderful products so you can relive the flavor of Santorini at home.

Info Processed cherry tomatoes, capers and yellow split peas can be purchased at the shop of the Santo Wines Cooperative. • Pyrgos • Tel. (+30) 22860.280.58 • www.santowines.gr

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Arts de la Table At a destination that is constantly striving to live up to its reputation, inspired chefs are doing their bit to elevate its food profile. BY NENA DIMITRIOU S T Y L I N G : T I N A W E B B - P H O T OS : G E O R G E D R A K O P O U L O S ARTWORK: ANGELIKI VRETTOU

ooks young and old are boldly making inroads in the evolution of a new culinary culture that is redefining the island. A destination that is constantly striving to improve the quality of its services and to justify its growing popularity and reputation for excellence, Santorini is also giving due attention to its gastronomic profile, with chefs maximizing the advantages of its natural products, finding inspiration from its landscape and raising the bar of execution in quality signature dishes. Local ingredients are key: cherry tomatoes, white eggplants, split peas (known as fava, though not to be confused with the broad bean), white eggplants and wild capers – all of which grow only in limited quantities – are brought to your plate in all their flavorful glory. A Mediterranean temperament, an understanding of international trends and references to traditional rustic Greek cuisine are the pieces that complete the puzzle of Santorini’s new food profile. The island’s restaurants are embracing this new philosophy, drawing visitors’ attention from the caldera views to their plates, where the natural ingredients are allowed to shine. Chefs are producing dishes with attitude, foods that express a concept: fava becomes a falafel and tomatoes a souffle or a sweet preserve. While presentation may be over-the-top at times, you can’t miss the message that innovative things are happening.

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Michalis Nourloglou | Abovo (Athens) Santorini Falafel

Inspired by a street food staple and by the local cuisine, the chef brings us a falafel with a Santorini twist: chickpea fritters are replaced by traditional tomato fritters. The hummus spread on the Arabic pita is skipped in favor of smooth, onion-infused fava paste, offering a similar earthy and robust flavor, and the crispy salad element is presented in the form of cucumber ribbons. The most interesting thing about this recipe is that, while it is a faithful reproduction of the original Greek marriage of tomato, bread, salad, pulse and onion, it is a conceptual dish that brings together the cuisine of the Middle East with that of the Cyclades.

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Thodoris Papanikolaou | Selene GLORIOUS SANTORINI SALAD

Chef Papanikolaou has put his faith in natural ingredients and brings out their essence with a minimum-intervention philosophy. His salad is a symphony of different textures and flavors: sweetness from vibrant Santorini cherry tomatoes and watermelon; acidity and sea brine from wild caper leaves; earthy tones from olives and barley rusks made with carob powder; and the freshness of the Cycladic herb garden with fragrant oregano and parsley. The star is, of course, the olive oil, while a generous helping of chloro â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a mild, fresh goat cheese â&#x20AC;&#x201C; brings it all together and sets its apart from the usual Greek salad.

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Spyros Agious | Santoro (Grace Hotel) GRILLED SARDINES, ORANGE-INFUSED FAVA AND SPICY SANTORINI ONION CHUTNEY

Split peas and onions are best of friends in the preparation of Santoriniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic fava, but in this recipe they are not cooked and pureed together. Instead, the onions are served on top as chutney, caramelized and crunchy to create a contrast of textures. The pulse is flavored with fresh orange to give it a sweet and sour quality, while the heavily seasoned chutney provides acidic and spicy notes. Ingredients that go so well together in traditional cuisine swap roles here to pull off a game of contrasts. The lightly grilled sardine, a humble fish with a magnificent flavor, is not the protagonist but the costar in a dish that puts the Mediterranean on a plate.

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Gikas Xenakis | The Red Bicycle SANTORINI MELiTINI WITH MASTIC, CHERRY TOMATOES SPOON SWEET AND LEMON CREAM

Melitini is a traditional Santorini dessert that is customarily served at Easter or on special occasions such as engagements or wedding parties. Back in the day when locals made their own cheese, they would use the leftover whey to produce fresh anthotyro cheese, the key ingredient in melitini. Here, it is given a burst of aroma with the addition of mastic gum, a sweet note with cherry tomato spoon sweet preserve and a refreshing acid kick from dollops of lemon cream. The chef transforms a traditional sweet into a modern and elegant dessert, while keeping its identity intact.

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Nikos Pouliasis | Koukoumavlos TOMATO FRITTER SOUFFLE WITH CHLORO CHEESE SAUCE

The tomato fritter has always been a go-to for Santorini’s household cooks, as they can prepare a snack or a component of lunch or dinner with just a few cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs and a handful of flour. Here, the chef redefines the classic tomatokefte by making it into a sturdy souffle with the addition of eggs. His sauce of fresh, soft goat cheese (chloro) adds a refreshing note to a dish that brings French techniques together with a local staple, transforming humble into chic. G R E E C E IS

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A veritable living monument of global cultural heritage, Santorini’s vineyards are the world’s oldest, with a root system that can be traced back four centuries.

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fl agship variet y

Assyrtiko’s astonishing RISE The efforts of Santorini’s vintners to showcase this endemic variety are being rewarded by the international wine world. BY YIANNIS PAR ASK E VOPOULOS *

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fl agship variet y

here have been many exciting moments during my 27-year career in the service of Greek wine, but two in particular stand out as really exhilarating, and both feature Santorini’s Assyrtiko variety. The second and most recent of these took place just a couple of years ago, when Jancis Robinson presented her new book, Wine Grapes, on the Daily Meal website (www.thedailymeal.com/ jancis-robinson-wine-grapes). For those not in the know, Master of Wine Jancis Robinson is widely regarded as the preeminent authority today on all matters relating to vine and wine. To put it simply, when the British expert speaks, we, the people of the wine world, sit up and listen. In the book, Robinson provides an in-depth description of no less than 1,368 wine grapes, ranging from widely popular varieties to several that are almost universally unknown. Towards the end of her presentation, she was asked to single out one variety from the 1,368. Just one. Hearing the question and familiar with the idiosyncrasies of British reserve, I expected Robinson to be evasive, diplomatic. How wrong I was! She did not hesitate for an instant, naming a variety, which, in her own words, “makes the most stunning white wine,” Santorini’s Assyrtiko. Readers without a profound knowledge of the world of wine may not appreciate the gravity of this statement. To a soccer fan, it would be like hearing Pep Guardiola say Greece will win the World Cup. My first exhilarating experience was

1. The so-called kouloura technique involves training the vines low on the ground and protecting the grapes in a wreath of stems and leaves. 2. The combination of an arid climate and strong winds has resulted in grapes that are true survivors. 3. In other parts of the world, Assyrtiko yields pleasant whites that appeal to many palates. In Santorini, you either hate the Assyrtiko wines at once, or love them forever.

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a few years earlier, at the change of the millennium. I was at the home of Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona, the doyenne of Greek wine and savior of the Greek vineyard, together with about a dozen oenologists. We opened a bottle of Assyrtiko from 1847. Imagine our astonishment when we realized that what we had before us was in fact a “new” wine that was 153 years old. And at that precise moment, we became aware that we were dealing with a variety like no other, a variety that was almost completely unknown, begging for attention and a new approach. Let us go back about a quarter of a century. It is 1986-87 and vintner Yiannis Boutaris discovers both the potential of Santorini as a vine-growing region and its endemic Assyrtiko variety. He immediately embarks on the construction of a state-of-the-art winery and strives to convince us of something he has only just realized, namely that Santorini’s Assyrtiko is an amazing grape capable of yielding excellent wines. At the time, of course, we could only trust in Boutaris’ intuition, as the wines being produced by the island’s smattering of wineries were, by current standards, anything but great. A great deal has changed since then. A handful of oenologists and vintners threw themselves into the task of pro-

The rare wines that emerge from Santorini’s volcanic soil are much like the island’s people: voluptuous and over-the-top.

quite confident that we will soon find it throughout the vine-growing world (it is already present in Australia). Outside Santorini, it yields lovely, aromatic and refreshing whites that appeal even to the uninitiated palate. This, however, is not the case in Assyrtiko’s birthplace. The rare wines that emerge from Santorini’s volcanic soil are much like the island’s people: voluptuous and over-the-top in manner, with a character which you either dislike instantly or adore forever. Wines that are whites but have the attitude of a red. Wines that are rich in flavor with sharp and unexpected acidity levels, and a long, briny finish – qualities that allow myriad bold combinations with Greek and international cuisines, wines that challenge all stereotypes. These are the ultimate food wines. They may be difficult, even hostile at times, but they are also wonderful, rare and, why not, majestic. If you think you know Santorini Assyrtiko, think again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, PhD in Oenology from the University of Bordeaux II, is the cofounder of Gaia Wines.

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ducing and promoting Assyrtiko on the international stage, ultimately leading to Jancis Robinson’s astonishing statement. The efforts of winemakers on Santorini, myself included, were focused in the early 1990s on applying established state-of-the-art techniques. More recently, we have gone on to fine-tune these techniques to develop the individual personality – style, if you will – of each of Santorini’s 14 wineries. On the cultivation front, our interventions for Assyrtiko were minimal, and there is good reason for this. In contrast to other wine-growing regions in Greece, where evolving cultivation methods was the key to improving quality, on Santorini the methods were more or less predetermined centuries before, leaving little room for maneuvering. In effect, all we had to do was respect the age-old system of Assyrtiko cultivation, and that’s exactly what we did. Nowhere else in the world do we come across the rare combination of vine, earth and climate that is present on Santorini, a combination that includes volcanic, mineral-rich soil, a climate profile that is essentially arid (forcing the vine to send its roots deep into the earth to find life-giving water), and a white variety – Assyrtiko – that is so perfectly adapted to such extreme conditions of survival. To this, we must also add a singular cultivation technique that the island’s vine growers have been developing for centuries. It is a painstaking system that results in vines that look more like works of sculpture than products of nature (visitors will often walk right past one without knowing what it is), yet one which allows the vines to emerge victorious from the incessant battle against strong winds and the searing sun. The result is a veritable living monument of global cultural heritage, the world’s oldest self-rooted vineyards with a root system that can be traced back four centuries and which yield impressive dry whites and the amazing sweet Vinsanto. Today, Assyrtiko is grown in every corner of Greece, more or less, and I am

WINE TOUR

LEARNING FROM THE PROS Earn your oenophile stripes in a fun way. BY Nena Dimitriou

e’ve just arrived at the vineyard; it’s only 9 a.m. The van that brought us all here has stopped at the side of the road. We get out and, with oenologist Iliana Sidiropoulou as our guide, we start walking among the vines. The light soil that covers the entire island like a powdery ash is still cool. The morning dew has left dull marks on the grape clusters. Iliana stoops to pick up what appear to be two stones. “Andesitic rock and pumice stone, the main volcanic rocks found not only in the vineyards but all over the island for the past 3,500 years,” explains this enthusiastic professional who, with 20 years’ experience in the wine industry under her belt, began her involvement in food and wine tours just three years ago. As Santorini became more widely recognized in the wine world, with high ratings from prestigious publications casting a spotlight on the particularity of its vineyards, wine tourism gained ground. This presented a new challenge. Local vintners had always known how to make high-quality wine, but they weren’t familiar with guided tours, and they lacked the infrastruc-

Iliana Sidiropoulou manages to attract the group’s attention from the amazing view of the caldera, which lays beneath the Venetsanos Winery.

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WINE TOUR

One of our Australian companions points out that a wine tour is the best way – in terms of time, money and sheer pleasure – to explore the different versions of just one grape variety.

ture for receiving visitors. In fact, even today, most visits have a family feel about them, and are organized in a relaxed manner; it’s more like a day out with a friend. At the same time, a visit to a winery here may, in fact, mean that you will meet those directly responsible for production, which isn’t usually the case in popular wine-producing regions abroad. For most of the vintners, the aim is double-fold: to show why Santorini is a unique wine-growing region and to introduce visitors to that excellent ambassador for Greek wine, the Assyrtiko grape, here in its birthplace, along with the other 47 lesser-known varieties cultivated on the island, including Aidani, Athiri, Mavrotragano and Voudomato. Meanwhile, in our tour, we haven’t reached the wine stage yet. From the rocks that make up the soil, we now progress to the method of cultivation and to the vitally important kouloura, or “basket.” All the vines on the island are trained to grow directly on the ground, worked into the shape of a basket with no bottom, formed by the new shoots of the plant. The grape grows in the embrace of this kouloura, protected from the scorching sun, strong winds and lack of rainfall. According to local producers, this method was first developed due to the simple fact that the winegrowers had to set up their vineyards with very limited resources; they could not afford the cost of wire or other equipment to create a trellis system. During the period of winter dor148

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mancy, November to March, the branches twist and curl around one another. Whoever trains them must remember precisely how they first guided them – the vines are usually, but not always, trained in a clockwise direction – so that, if necessary, they can unravel the plant. Our acquaintance with the production process continues at the winery itself. We are sitting on the charming veranda of the Venetsanos Winery at Megalochori, captivated by a breathtaking view of the island and the caldera. Glasses stand on the table for the tasting experience, and the serving begins. The first wine of the day is a refreshing, crisp Assyrtiko, accompanied by cheese, rusks and olives. We clink our glasses. This is the moment when the adage “wine brings us closer together” seems less of a cliche. In the next glass, delicate aromas of white flowers and citrus fruits prevail. One of our Australian companions points out that a wine tour is the best way – in terms of time, money and sheer pleasure – to explore the different versions of just one grape variety and, in this case, to discover the different wines made from the splendid, majestic Assyrtiko! A young woman from Houston, Texas, joins in, saying that the reason she is on the tour is to try as many Vinsantos, the late-harvest dessert wines, as she can. The truth, however, is that you don’t have to be knowledgeable about wine to participate. The aim is to discover something interesting, to communicate and to try new tastes. These need not always be wine; there are other tours that include – in addition to the winery visit and wine tasting – cooking lessons and sightseeing related to gastronomy and food culture. Our group, however, is staying with wine. The next stop is the Estate Argyros winery at Episkopi Gonia, near Kamari. The routine is now familiar: a talk, followed by tasting. New glasses and different wines await. Everyone chats to each other and shares their reactions; there is a common point of reference. Of all the wines, the 20-yearold Vinsanto makes the greatest

impression. It is uncommon, complex and memorable. The endnote from the Vinsanto lingers until the next winery, Domaine Sigalas at Baxes, a 20-minute drive away. By now, all the tour participants have become “connoisseurs.” In the courtyard, in the cool shade of a pergola, we savor the tastiest chloro (fresh goat cheese), accompanied by a glass of the vineyard’s Santorini, a wine with a flavor that captures the quintessence of the island itself. It is sea breeze and vinicultural integrity in a glass. The tasting continues and with each new wine, our conversation gains greater life. The wines invigorate us as their strengths increase; more aromatic, heavier, more alcoholic. By now, we can recognize these changes and appreciate the differences that separate one taste experience from another. What is it that a wine tour can teach you? You’ll learn to recognize characteristics such as minerality, intensity and roundness. You’ll find out about production methods and traditions of winemaking. What can you expect to drink? Some amazing wines, of course, although the quantity of each tasting is quite small; after all, in most cases you will be trying more than 15 different wines. As your tour concludes, each of you will undoubtedly have found your wine of choice, your favorite winery. “A typical Santorini, a full-bodied Vinsanto, a lively Nychteri,” you’ll exclaim. In all likelihood, you will have also become both a connoisseur and an aficionado of Assyrtiko; so much so, that you will undoubtedly seek it out after returning home and share it with friends, giving them a taste of the Santorini magic you discovered.

1. Eleftheria welcomes us to the award-winning Argyros Estate. 2. Vladimir, a sommelier at Domaine Sigalas. 3. Andesitic rock and pumice stone, the secret “ingredients” of all that grows on Santorini.

WINE TOUR

Getting acquainted with the kouloura or basket, a type of curled vine found only on Santorini.

S a n t o r i n i W i n e T r a i l s Emborio • Tel. (+30) 22860.831.03, (+30) 697.900.0568 • www. santoriniwinetrails.gr The itineraries offered by Iliana Sidiropoulou are more gastronomically oriented and may include cooking and pairing lessons. They usually last about 4 hours. €90-150 per person, in groups of up to six but also individuals. Languages: English, French.

Santorini Wine A d v e n t u r e Messaria • Tel. (+30) 22860.341.23, (+30) 693.296.0062 • www. winetoursantorini.com Gastronomy, wine and culture are the main focus of the tours. You will need a half or full day for the tour and all that it includes. Each tour takes in up to three wineries. €85-150 per person, in groups of up to eight. Individual packages available. Language: English.

S a n t o r i n i W i n e T o u r Messaria • Tel. (+30) 22860.283.58, (+30) 693.708.4958 • www. santoriniwinetour.com Four different food and wine experiences are available, with tours and cooking classes as well, depending on the option that best suits you. Each tour may last up to five hours. €95-145 per person in groups of up to 10, but also available for individuals. Language: English.

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With its earliest contracts confirming its foundation in 1836, Canava Roussos is Santoriniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest winery.

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VINTNERS’ BOUTIQUES What Santorini’s wineries lack in size, they make up for in passion, quality and ambience. Every visit is an experience in its own right. BY NENA DIMITRIOU

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Vassaltis VINEYARDS The Newcomer

Opened in April 2016, the Vassaltis Vineyards is the newest arrival on the island’s wine scene and a true gem, designed by Evi Polychroniadou and the award-winning MOB architects firm who worked on the interior. The winery is built on three levels, the lowest of which is where the wine is matured in barrels before being bottled (wine store). The nerve center is on the middle floor, where vinification and bottling takes place. Adjacent is the laboratory, while on the ground floor there is a shop and an amazing tasting area, which is a delight for visitors. Although not a native of Santorini himself, the young owner Yannis Valambous left a career in banking and developed a 4-hectare vineyard that had been in his family for more than two decades. He joined forces with two young but experienced oenologists, Ilias Roussakis and Yiannis Papaeconomou, and today they are hoping to evolve traditions and appeal to an expanding wine-loving audience. The first bottles from the 2015 vintage received plaudits for their quality and superiority of flavor and now we await, with much anticipation, the 2016 vintage, which will be bottled on Vassalitis’ own premises.

Yiannis Papaeconomou, Ilias Roussakis, Yiannis Valambous

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Info Vourvoulos • Tel. (+30) 22860.222.11 W h y V I S I T: For the modern architecture that is so perfectly incorporated into the natural environment • To taste their first bottling.

WINE RIE S

Venetsanos

Industrial Pioneer

Its opening in 1949 as Santorini’s first industrial winery represented a major milestone in the history of winemaking on the island and in the life of its founder, oenologist Giorgos Venetsanos. At a time when Santorini still did not have a public electricity supply, the winery used a generator and pump – and gravity – to channel its wine from the winery to Athinios port below, where ships took it to market. Today, the refurbished winery is run by Nikos Zor-

zos, a nephew of the founder and the island’s mayor, and his brother Vangelis. The winery produces a 100 percent Assyrtiko, a Nychteri, a rosé from three varieties (Anagallis) and a red Mandilaria, as well as the incredibly sweet Liastos, all of which are produced in limited amounts. The 2015 vintage wines, as well as some older vintages, are available to purchase from the winery’s fashionable boutique.

Info Megalochori • Tel. (+30) 22860.211.00 • www.venetsanoswinery.com W h y g o : Amazing location with a beautiful view of the island.

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Gaia Wines

Dedicated to Assyrtiko Behold one of the island’s greatest examples of industrial architecture – an old stone tomato factory converted into a modern winery. It’s been almost 25 years since Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, who holds a PhD in oenology from the University of Bordeaux II, and agronomist Leon Karatsalos gave the space a second life by creating Gaia Wines. Its flagship Thalassitis label is one of the island’s most symbolic wines, so renowned that it has become synonymous in the minds of many with

Assyrtiko. The grapes used to make it come from low-yield vineyards in Episkopi, Akrotiri and Pyrgos. Gaia makes four wines as well as an excellent vinegar from Assyrtiko, which is aged in French oak barrels for at least five years. The winery’s tastings include four whites and four reds, as well as the vinegar, which is served at the end. Be sure to ask for Thalassitis, which is best served decanted so as to reveal its true character. Even though it is a white wine, it has similar behavior to a red.

Info Exo Gonia • Tel. (+30) 22860.341.86 • www.gaia-wines.gr W h y g o : Enjoy a complete tasting experience right in front of the Black Beach.

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DOMAINE SIGALAS

Driven by Experimentation

Thanks to the efforts of the mathematician Paris Sigalas, Domaine Sigalas now enjoys a prominent position internationally. Sigalas considered it his personal mission to salvage the Santorini vineyard and make it into a world heritage monument and he seems to have pulled it off. His vineyard stretches over 30 hectares, 10 of which are cultivated in a linear way, while the rest use the island’s traditional basket method. Aside from the Assyrtiko – which he considers as the prime Greek grape – and other white varieties such as Aidani, Athiri, Gaidouria and Platana, he has also invested in Mavrotragano, a red, with which the vineyard has experimented since 1997. A total of 10,000 bottles of 100 percent Mavrotragano are bottled annually, after spending 18 months in new French oak barrels. It is a rare wine with a unique character. Furthermore, the Nychteri is also worth sampling, produced by ma-

turing the free-run juice from freshly picked, overripe Assyrtiko grapes in aged French oak barrels for up to 30 months. The vineyard’s Santorini label includes perhaps the most typical features of the local wine, while the Kavalieros encompasses the true meaning of what Santorini vineyards are about.

Info Baxes, Oia • Tel. (+30) 22860.716.44 • www. sigalas-wine.gr • Open every day from April to November. Out of season by appointment. W h y g o : A vibrant vineyard that is at one with the horizon and its surroundings • Meticulously prepared Mediterranean cuisine at the winery’s restaurant.

Paris Sigalas

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Boutari

Konstantinos Boutaris

Greece’s First Winery

The name Boutari is synonymous with the Greek wine industry’s evolution. It was established in 1879, when the great- grandfather of the current owner took the unprecedented step of launching the first bottled Greek red wine. Today, the fourth generation of the family continues his work throughout Greece, holding firm to the motto that “every great wine should be produced in its natural place.” In the late 1980s, with the creation of a fresh, crisp and aromatic bottled label Santorini, Boutari transformed the wine landscape of the island, bringing it into an exciting new era. Since the launch of its innovative Kallisti wine, Boutari’s wines

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have maintained a consistent, terroir character. The most recent example is Oropedio, made with grapes from vineyards with low-yield gravelly soil, in the Mantinea region in Arcadia. The company’s Santorini vineyard is planted with Aidani, Assyrtiko, Athiri and Mavrotragano. Its winery in Santorini is also impressive from an architectural viewpoint, especially in the way it blends in effortlessly with its natural surroundings. Try the Kallisti and the Kallisti Reserve, which are produced using new methods that give the wine an exceptionally complex, unforgettable character.

Info Megalochori • Tel. (+30) 22860.810.11 • www.boutari-santorini.gr W h y g o : Wine tours and tastings with six different wines • Watch the exceptional video on the trail blazed by this Santorini winery in its spectacular Black Beach auditorium.

Spyros, Ioannis and Agape Roussos

Canava Roussos

Aged to Perfection

while the barrels stand on hollow bases that allow them to oscillate in the event of an earthquake. The windows enable the Meltemi northerly wind to pass through. The family’s philosophy is demonstrated by the fact that they do not bottle every year, preferring to wait until they believe the wine is absolutely ready. Across their privately owned 3 hectares, the family cultivates all the island’s varieties – Aidani, Athiri, Assyrtiko, Mandilaria and Mavrathyro – producing a total of nine labels. Be sure to try the Mavrathyro, which is made from red sun-dried grapes, as well as the Nychteri.

With its earliest contracts confirming its foundation in 1836, this is Santorini’s oldest winery and the epitome of a traditional canava, a cellar dug into the rock. Two siblings, Agape and Spyros, are the vineyard’s fifth generation of winemakers. Under the guidance of their father Yiannis Roussos, who still oversees the entire operation, they have been given a wealth of winemaking knowledge and tradition. A tour of the winery is like embarking on a journey of discovery about what is necessary to ensure the smooth operation of a canava. Robust wicker baskets are used to carry the grapes,

Info Episkopi Gonias • Tel. (+30) 22860.313.49 • www.canavaroussos.gr W h y g o : For the family atmosphere in the refreshingly cool courtyard space • To try the same remarkable wine at various stages of maturation.

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George and Vangelis Gavalas

Gavalas

Spotlight on Indigenous Varieties

Those lucky enough to be on the island in late August can take part in a great celebration at Gavalas Winery, the pressing of the grapes which are used to make Vinsanto. A traditional winery, Gavalas adheres, almost ceremoniously, to many of the older production methods. Winemaker Giorgos Gavalas – a fourth-generation vintner – along with his son Vangelis, produce nine versions of island’s native varieties, in collaboration with grape producers in Megalochori, Emporio and Akrotiri. The winery’s annual production totals 70,000 bottles, 60 percent of which are exported to the US, Japan, Belgium, France and the UK. While Assyrtiko takes the leading role in terms of culti-

vation and vinification, Giorgos and his winery have gained much respect and plaudits for the smaller, lesser known local varieties such as Voudomato and Katsano. The Voudomato rosé, for example, has an extremely fresh taste, a result of the production process whereby the pomace remains in the pressed grape juice for around six to seven hours. No more than 3,000 bottles of this wine are produced annually, so it is well worth sampling. The winery has also created a nursery to experiment with Voudomato and Gaidouria, as well as some other varieties that the winemakers are keeping secret as they hope to use them to make their next best label in 10 years’ time.

Info Megalochori • Tel. (+30) 22860.825.52 • www.gavalaswines.gr W h y g o : Taste rare wine varieties in a traditional winery.

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WINE RIE S

Matthew Argyros

Estate Argyros

Investing in Vines

Established in 1903, the vineyard is now in the care of the fourth generation, with Matthew Argyros at the helm of the continuing success story. The family have the largest single vineyard on Santorini, stretching over 40 hectares, with Aidani, Athiri, Assyrtiko and Mavrotragano vines, some of which are more than 150 years old, grown using the traditional methods. The largest section of the vineyard with the oldest Assyrtiko vines is located close to the winery in Episkopi. Its wines have won many awards in Greece and abroad; Wine & Spirits ranked Estate Argyros among the top 100 in the world in 2005, 2006, 2013 and 2014. The estate also achieved the highest ever rating received by a Greek wine from leading wine critic Robert Parker, who gave its 20-year-old Vinsanto a score of 97/100. Visitors may enjoy the great aged Vinsanto for themselves, albeit in the fourand 12-year-old versions, at a winery tasting. The privately owned estate hopes to open a new winery for visitors soon.

Info Episkopi Gonias • Tel. (+30) 22860.314.89 • www.estate-argyros.com W h y g o : For a complete, integrated wine-tasting experience in a traditional environment • To buy a bottle of the star of the vineyard, the rare and exceptional 20-year-old Vinsanto.

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Haridimos Hatzidakis

Hatzidakis

A Humble Producer with Character

A man who keeps a low profile but is extremely active, and has a deep understanding and knowledge of wine, Haridimos Hatzidakis came to work in Santorini in 1990 as an oenologist. In the end, production won him over. A fan of working with smaller vines, Hatzidakis uses indigenous yeasts in the winemaking process to highlight the terroir. The grapes are organically grown over an area of 12 hectares which are planted with Aidani, Assyrtiko, Mandilaria, Mavrotragano and Voudomato – yielding around 120,000 bottles per year, half of which are exported to the US, Canada and the UK. The new winery is a towering structure built into the rock, giving it a constant

indoor temperature of 16C due to the insulation provided by the natural soil. In fact, the storage area follows the tradition of having a north-facing window for better ventilation. It’s worth asking to try the Assyrtiko de Louros, a 100 percent Assyrtiko from a special vineyard that is rich in minerals from the volcanic rock. A very sophisticated wine, it is matured for two years in oak barrels and produced in a limited amount of just 1,000 bottles annually. All the company’s wines bear the distinct character of the winemaker, so even if you are not a wine specialist, the second time you have a Hatzidakis, you’ll recognize it.

Info Pyrgos Kallistis • Tel. (+30) 22860.324.66 • www.hatzidakiswines.gr/en/ T I P : The new winery, slated for completion in June 2016, is well worth a visit.

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The raki flows, the tasty food comes out in huge portions, the atmosphere is friendly... You will lose track of time and look forward to visiting our two shaded courtyards again and again.

* Greek for “Between us” Exo Gonia, Santorini • Tel. (+30) 22860.313.23 www.santorini-metaximas.gr • email: info@santorini-metaximas.gr

WINE RIE S

Avantis Estate

Wine Without Borders

A Winemaker’s Passion

Artemis Karamolegos

Giorgos Koutsoyannopoulos

With a great family tradition in wine, Apostolos Mountrichas has managed to produce some excellent wines over his two decades in the business. And since winemaking is not tied to a particular region, he decided to try his hand at cultivating Assyrtiko in Santorini. Currently the manager of the 200-year-old canava in the basement of the 19th century Argyros Mansion, which has been restored and is open to the public, Mountrichas uses the traditional cellar to mature his wines in barrels. With grapes from a 4-hectare vineyard in nearby Pyrgos, he produces three varieties, which are sent to the winery of his friend Giorgos Gavalas for vinification. His popular Dolphins Santorini, which consists of 100 percent Assyrtiko, is aged for eight months in large barrels called tuns. He also produces a rosé from Mandilaria called Grace. You can find Dolphins Santorini throughout Greece and in Japan, while the other two wines are currently only available in Santorini.

A young man with a huge passion for wine, Artemis Karamolegos has put all of his energy into the creation of a series of remarkable wines. While he says he inherited the wine gene from his grandfather of the same name, he has taken his namesake’s ideas even further, planting new vines, making sure to maintain older ones as well as preserving the indigenous varieties. Today, his winery – which is now in its 12th year – cultivates Aidani, Assyrtiko, Mandilaria, Mavrotragano and Voudomato, in a state-of-the-art facility. Located next to the winery, the Aroma Avlis restaurant serves excellent Mediterranean Greek cuisine. Wine tastings take place in the restaurant, which overlooks the valley and whose courtyard is filled with the wonderful aroma of herbs. The rosé, which is a blend of Assyrtiko and Mandilaria, is a must-try, as is the Vinsanto from sundried grapes, which is also aged for 60 months in a cask before bottling.

Although it could be said that the decision by Giorgos Koutsoyannopoulos’ ancestors to establish a winery on the island was by chance – the winds are said to have pushed them and their ship towards Santorini by mistake – the family’s fortunes and what they have brought to the Greek wine landscape is definitely no accident. Dedicated to producing fine wine for decades, the family has managed to create a unique, underground wine museum in a cave. Located 8 meters below the surface, the labyrinth measures 300 meters in total and contains authentic and rare artifacts dating from 1660 to more recent times. Not to be missed is the Kamaritis, a wine of six indigenous varieties, which is aged for 10 years in oak barrels before bottling. Made according to a secret recipe handed down by Giorgos’ great-grandfather, only 4,500 bottles are produced each year. They are available only at the winery.

Info Mesaria • Tel. (+30) 22860.302.42 • www.avantiswines.gr W h y g o : To see an exceptionally preserved, 200-year-old canava.

Info Exo Gonia • Tel. (+30) 22860.333.95 • www.artemiskaramolegos-winery.com W h y g o : For a complete wine tasting experience in beautiful surroundings.

Info Vothonas • Tel. (+30) 22860.313.22 • www.volcanwines.gr W h y g o : For the priceless exhibits that can be enjoyed via audio tour in 14 languages.

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A Living Museum

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Gavalas Winery Four generations of winemakers Seven excellent varieties 14 international awards

“The only thing I can say against this wine is that it’s so good, I didn’t want food to interfere with the flavors.” - Washington Post on Gavalas Winery’s Katsano, 2011

Megalochori, Santorini • Tel. (+30) 22860.825.52 • www.gavalaswines.gr O p e n : May-October, 10:00-20:00 • F r e e t o u r s - s a m p l i n g s from €0.80 per glass

WINE RIE S

SANTO WINES

Much More than a Winery

This thriving cooperative boasts more than 1,000 members, who proudly cultivate and harvest the Assyrtiko grape as well as other lesser-known varieties. Apart from being a modern winery, Santo Wines can look back at a history of almost 70 years of actively supporting the island’s economy. Not only does it produce, process and standardize wine, but it also does the same for some other native, emblematic products of the island, distributing them to markets around the world. Established in 1991, the cooperative’s winery is located in one of Santorini’s most beautiful 164

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Art Space In a building that dates back to 1861, Art Space today is a museum and modern winery created by Antonis Argyros. Apart from artifacts from the traditional winery, the museum showcases the equipment used to produce tomato paste up to the 1920s. The gallery exhibits contemporary works by young Greek and foreign artists, in a quaint space in the basement. The new winery is housed in an adjacent canava. Current annual production is limited to 7,000-10,000 bottles, produced from 1.3 hectares of Assyrtiko and Mavrotragano. Exo Gonia • Tel. (+30) 22860.327.74 • www.artspace-santorini.com

spots, while its recently renovated tomato processing plant is the only one on the island. The surrounding area is extremely well maintained, making it an ideal spot for all kinds of special events, even weddings. Over 400,000 visitors have already enjoyed tasting the cooperative’s selection of between 6, 12 or 18 different wines accompanied by delicious local snacks on the winery’s Sunset Terrace. If your main interest is vino, there are wine tours on offer, plus an interesting documentary about the island’s great history and winemaking tradition.

The gift shop sells all the cooperative’s products, from their renowned canned Santorini tomatoes to sauces, purees and pastes, to sun-dried tomatoes or cherry tomatoes with olive oil, capers and summer savory, ready to be eaten as a dip with a salad or bread. Other items on sale include yellow split-pea lentils (the main ingredient of the island’s famed fava), capers and other delightful products from small producers throughout the country, such as Cycladic honey, spoon sweets, loukoumia (the local version of Turkish Delight) and nuts.

Info Pyrgos • Tel. (+30) 22860.280.58 • www.santowines.gr W h y g o : To admire the breathtaking view from the amazing terrace while sipping on fine wine.

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Experience Abelis Located in the medieval village of Vothonas, this late-17th century winery reopened this year. Belis’ Canava, as it was known, consists of six smaller canavas that have remained intact. Its restoration was accomplished using natural materials and old techniques in order to emphasize the original character of the space. Visitors can see the area where the grape must is stored and the grapes are pressed, and can enjoy an audio-visual tour of traditional winemaking. Tastings are available at a venue that is also used for events to promote the island’s culture. Vothonas • www.abelis.gr

E AT & DRINK

FOR YOUR DINING PLEASURE Santorini is not all pretty sunsets and awe-inspiring landscapes; it’s also fast becoming a foodie’s dream as chefs keep getting more creative with the local products and cuisine.

The Cave of Nikolas

Akrotiri The Cave of Nikolas Nikolas Alifrangis started by expanding a small seaside caveto protect his boat and often sat there to enjoy a glass of wine accompanied by a meze, prepared by his wife, Efstathia. In 1967, when the archaeological digs began in Akrotiri, there were no restaurants around, so he began serving food in the cave, which fast became the meeting place for workers during their breaks from the digs. His clientele grew as the years passed. Now run by the third generation of the family, it specializes in local cuisine with a modern twist, 168

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offering an extensive menu, fresh fish and a terrace right on the beach. Try the moussaka made with white eggplant, homemade cheese and basil, and its famous fava dish, cooked in a seafood risotto. All the wine served comes from the family’s vineyards in Faros. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.823.03

Exo Gonia Aroma Avlis Located next to Artemis Karamolegos winery – you can easily combine a visit to both – this simple restaurant with a neat courtyard looks out towards the rural side of Santorini, in the east. Christos

Aroma Avlis

and Chrysostomos run the kitchen, using fine produce, some of which comes from their own vegetable garden. The tables in the courtyard are surrounded by pots containing the various herbs that they use in their cooking. Of note here is their own version of the classic dakos: dried barley rusks, served with xinotyri, a soft cheese, from the island of Ios. For the ideal meze to go with wine, try the kavourmas (a Greek meat confit) served with fried eggs. Highly recommended is a Karamolegos rosé, which goes well with most of the dishes served. Parking available. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.333.95

Metaxy mas You’re on the right track when you spot a big church with a parking lot at the front. Down the steps behind the church is Metaxy Mas, which, as its name (“Between us”) suggests, is a small taverna where the close proximity of its tables means people can get cozy. The menu is mostly classic Greek – with a touch of Crete – and the wine local. Meat is recommended, especially the lamb. Another great dish is white eggplant in tomato sauce with basil or feta wrapped in filo pastry and sesame. The portions are big, so order prudently. • Up to €25 • Τel. (+30) 22860.313.23

BY Nena DImItriou

Krinaki

E AT & DRINK

Ammoudi HARBOR

YALOS

Metaxy mas

The Bay of Foodies Picturesque Ammoudi, the small harbor of Oia, is perfect for enjoying fresh fish with a view of the sea. For an unforgettable made-in-Santorini gastronomic experience of seafood, local specialties and Santorini wines, check out the row of restaurants carved out of the red rocky cliffs.

EXO YIALOS

Ammoudi Fish Tavern Ammoudi Fish Tavern Located at the entrance of the small bay, this taverna’s terrace overlooks the water and makes you feel as if you’re on a sailboat. With more than 40 years’ experience, the owners know how to make the best of the steady supply of fresh ingredients brought to the restaurant by fishermen as they return from the sea. There’s fresh fish, shellfish and crustaceans on the grill for those who prefer a pure and simple flavor. More creative dishes worth sampling include lobster orzotto and shrimp in an orange and ouzo sauce – the house specialty. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.722.98 • www.ammoudi-santorini.gr

Dimitris Just outside the restaurant, you might see the boat of the fisherman who supplies the fresh catch of the day. A garland of octopuses hung out to dry in the sun decorates the entrance. Try the grilled fish and seafood, lobster spaghetti and mussel saganaki. The wine list features local labels. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.716.06 • www.dimitris-ammoudi-restaurant.com Katina Shrimp or lobster spaghetti, taramosalata (fish roe salad) and tomato fritters are the most popular dishes here. Owner Katina has become a cult figure in Ammoudi bay. Customers particularly appreciate the fresh seafood from the open sea and the family atmosphere the restaurant is renowned for. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.712.80 170

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Sunset Ammoudi by Paraskevas With front-row sunset seats, everyone will be happy –seafood lovers, meat-eaters and vegetarians – as the menu includes casseroles, vegetable dishes and a variety of fresh fish and seafood. A good selection of wine from local wineries. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.716.14 • www.sunset-ammoudi.gr

YALOS GASTRONOMY BY THE SEA Anna cooks up local specialties with a gourmet touch in a tiny kitchen set up in a manmade cave on the beach. Try her fava and zucchini fritters, made with vegetables from the owners’ garden. The umbrella-covered tables are set up right on the sand, providing an idyllic setting. Local and international labels comprise the wine list. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.258.16

Finikia Krinaki Leave your car in the small parking lot at the entrance of the village and walk up a whitewashed, narrow street. You should see Krinaki right ahead. Tucked away in the densely built village, this taverna serves arguably the best meat on the island. The dishes are all cooked in clay pots, with succulent results. The lamb is local (or from the island of Amorgos to the northeast) as are the vegetables. The vegetarian options are excellent and include vegetables cooked with fresh tomato sauce and olive oil (ladera), okra and peas. They also serve what’s known as the swineherd salad, made from wild greens, boiled potatoes, olive oil and vinegar,

and plump tomato fritters, meat balls and a variety of Cycladic cheese. The house wine is from the local cooperative. A venue best enjoyed at sunset. • Up to €25 • Tel. (+30) 22860.719.93

Fira 1500 BC Come for the view of the sea and the specialty dish: fresh fish cooked in salt crust to keep it juicy. The menu consists mostly of seafood, though neither meat nor pasta is missing. The wine list includes Greek and foreign labels • Up to €60 • Tel. (+30) 22860-213.31 Argo Located on the road to the old harbor, Argo offers great views of the caldera, a friendly atmosphere and great service. The cuisine is Mediterranean, featuring some traditional local dishes with a modern take. The menu is fish-based, with some meat options and vegetarian choices such as pasta, risotto and pizza. The portions are generous, making for a very satisfying experience overall. More than 30 Greek wine choices and refreshing cocktails are available. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.225.94 Assyrtico If you enter from the caldera side, you’ll find yourself in

E AT & DRINK

Ambrosia

Heliotopos Wine Bar Koukoumavlos

a simple, long and narrow courtyard with tables and benches. But if you drop in from the entrance on the main square, you’ll land in the small paradise that is the back garden of this renovated mansion: there is a wine-tasting bar under the olive and pistachio trees. Assyrtico serves breakfast and brunch, lunch and dinner – all Mediterranean-inspired. A great lunchtime dish is fried zucchini balls with a glass of wine, or a Greek take on cheesecake, made with paximadi (barley rusks), katiki (a soft, yogurt-like cheese) and tomato jam. The dinner menu is more formal and recommendations include the roasted lamb shank with Santorini potato puree. Numbering more than 100 labels and with many by-the-glass options, the wine selection is impressive. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.224.63 CHARACTER The cuisine is Mediterranean and the ingredients are or-

ganic, prepared so that they retain all their fresh flavor. There is a large selection of wines and spirits, while the ambiance and view make it an ideal location for breakfast. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.218.16 Koukoumavlos A flight of steps leads to an old mansion with a simply decorated terrace – in contrast to the busy interior – where the view is the star. Inside, the look is more old palace than restaurant, with crystal, gold details, heavy frames and formal “art de la table”. An entire wall is taken up with the awards and distinctions earned by owner and chef Nikos Pouliasis, who opened Koukoumvalos in 1998 and still makes sure that it features in the top three food destinations on the island. An expert in composition, his dishes resemble works of art: balanced creations that bring together different materials, but never generate dissonance. Highly

recommended are the duck fillet with cranberry sauce, and new-age hummus with black beluga lentils and anise foam – a dish with intense aromas that strike a perfect balance. Also excellent is the lamb, slow-cooked sous vide, accompanied by a potato mousseline with jasmine, and two sauces: fig and cinnamon, and Greek coffee with cardamom. More than 150 Greek wine labels are available. • €60 and over • Tel. (+30) 22860.238.07

Imerovigli Heliotopos Wine Bar The Hotel Heliotopos Wine Bar is great for tasting sessions on the terrace with its caldera view. Choose from among a list of 100 Greek labels that emphasizes Santorini’s wine. The interior, a cave carved into the rock, was originally a wine cellar and dates back 400 years. Aside from cheese and coldcut platters to accompany the wine, you can also sample

some of the house dishes, prepared according to family recipes. Specialties include pork with sundried cherry tomatoes and haloumi cheese, or shrimp saganaki simmered in ouzo. The atmosphere is very friendly, but if you prefer a more romantic evening, book one of the two tables at the front of the terrace. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.236.70 • www.hotel. heliotopos.net ΟVAC This upscale dining venue, surrounded by the 13 suites of Cavo Tagoo Santorini, offers Mediterranean fusion cuisine in a spectacular setting. Relax or dine at one the beautiful swimming pools looking out onto the caldera at Imerovigli, with day beds on the water, a large list of champagnes, premium spirits, signature cocktails and a complete wine list that combines Santorini’s finest with international labels. • €60 and over • Tel. (+30) 22860 27.900

Megalochori Feggera Located in a big courtyard with beautiful flowers, the atmosphere at Feggera is like dining at a friend’s house. The decor has nothing of the white-and-blue typical of the Greek islands, but it is nevertheless genuinely Greek. The menu reflects a creative take on Mediter-

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a dessert wine, which wraps everything up quite nicely • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.718.96

Armeni

ranean food, unpretentious and made from the finest ingredients, with dishes that are original without being eccentric. Don’t rush to the main course as the meze are very interesting and be sure to sample the seafood dishes, too. Cooking classes, which are great fun, are also available. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.829.30

Oia Ambrosia A balcony with a sunset view, vases of red roses on white tablecloths, soft lighting and gentle music make for a movielike setting and the perfect place for a romantic dinner or a wedding proposal. Cozy and elegant, Ambrosia specializes in creative Greek cuisine and has excellent service. The tables overlooking the caldera are usually reserved for couples. Inside, it is a bit of a squeeze, but there are different levels and additional seating upstairs. Reservations can be made via email (table@restaurant-am172

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brosia.com) but must be confirmed two days in advance. • €40-60 • Tel. (+30) 22860.714.13 Armeni To reach Armeni, which probably serves the most authentic Greek cuisine on the island, you need to descend a few hundred steps or take a 2-minute boat ride from Ammoudi. Located on a quaint pier, this little restaurant is very casual, serving fish that is prepared simply and tastes exceptional. Drop by in your bathing suit on your way from the beach and take a dip in the little harbor outside. Loungers are available, for before or after your meal. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.710.533 Roka With an airy courtyard decorated with flowers, Roka is also popular with locals. The menu is simple, featuring selections like saganaki fried cheese, meatballs and octopus with a delicious beetroot and walnut sauce. At the end of your meal, you’ll be offered

Sphinx Located in the neighborhood once inhabited by ship captains, this building started as a boarding school, became a raki distillery and then a sock factory, only to be abandoned for decades. After an extensive renovation, it has now been transformed into a gourmet restaurant. Its industrial character has been preserved, and the old water cistern turned into a wine cellar. The smart lighting adds an extra touch of elegance to the venue, where guests can follow the cooking action in the open kitchen. The dishes are Mediterranean, made from local island produce. Try the cod with spinach, mushrooms and butter sauce accompanied by a glass of Assyrtiko, or slow-roasted lamb shank with eggplant – a quintessential Mediterranean dish that requires a mature, barreled Assyrtiko. The wine list features more than 300 labels. The cellar contains some special vintages, while about 60 labels are available by the glass. • From €40-60 • Tel. (+30) 22860.238.23 Vineyart Walking along the cobbled streets of the Sidera district in Oia, you’ll find

Ta Dichtia

Vineyart’s courtyard, which is reminiscent of a hacienda. Painted in shades of ochre, the courtyard is the entrance to an old mansion. The restaurant’s four young owners have put in a lot of personal effort here, but the place is unpretentious, the service friendly and the atmosphere laid back. Up the stairs is a pleasant balcony, surrounded by pots of fresh herbs. The establishment offers breakfast, brunch, desserts and, of course, wine, with some excellent – albeit limited – options for lunch and dinner. Most ingredients are sourced locally and from the surrounding Cycladic islands, while some come from further afield in Greece – all from small producers. A wine tasting is necessary here, since the cellar contains more than 120 labels, all from the island’s wineries. On the first level is an old canava which acts as a display and gourmet products shop. • Up to €25 • Tel. (+30) 2286.0720.46

Perivolos Ta Dichtia A courtyard, trees, whiteand-blue checkered tablecloths and fishing boat-themed decor make this a typical Greek taverna. Located near the beach, it is ideal for families with young children who want a spot of

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Selene lunch after a swim. There are loungers, but we recommend eating in the courtyard, where it’s cooler. The owner is Michalis Troulakis, a retired fisherman, who has taken over in the kitchen and tasked two former colleagues with supplying the restaurant with fresh fish. His specialty is grouper (or any other fish of the day) poached in seawater and olive oil. Other dishes include fish fritters and fish pie, with vegetables in filo pastry. House and bottled wine, all from Santorini wineries, are available, as is free parking. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.828.18 Seaside by Notos A luxury version of the all-day bar-restaurant, this establishment serves ceviche and sushi even to diners sitting on the wide wooden lounge chairs of Perivolos beach. White awnings and straw umbrellas will protect you from the sun if you sit on the beach – owner Maria Christofidou has taken care of everything. Her chef and co-owner Tassos Bacharidis has created a varied menu, with a selection of international cuisine. Tuna tartare, oysters, lobster, as well as burgers with fresh fries are all very well presented and extremely tasty. There is also a sushi bar, a cocktail menu, a good wine list and many 174

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premium spirits. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.828.01

cheeses, some of which are not listed on the menu. More than 60 labels, all sourced locally, make up the wine list. Cooking classes, which include a visit to the nearby Santorini of the Past Museum, are also on offer. • Up to €40 • Tel. (+30) 22860.222.49

Pyrgos Selene Situated a stone’s throw from the main square in Pyrgos and with a great view of the valley below, Selene is perhaps the most historic eatery on the island. It is said this was the first restaurant to use Santorini’s local produce in gourmet dishes. But this place is, more than anything else, its people. For 30 years, under the direction of its owner Yiorgos Hatziyannakis and the care of manager and sommelier Georgia Tsara, it has served the best of the island’s ingredients, elegantly executed. Chef Thodoris Papanikolaou creates haute cuisine that, while inspired by contemporary and molecular cooking, is infused with the soul of traditional Greek food. He plays with textures, and every dish is an experience. We recommend the “Bomb,” comprising poached egg and rooster-and-truffle fritters in an egg-and-lemon sauce – a rustic yet light dish. We also recommend the “Cycladic Seascape” (mussel risotto with tomato confit), the bonito done almost rare, the bream tartare with lime, the sea urchin with an oil-lemon sauce, the prawn tartare with fava mayonnaise and the Trikali-

Selene Meze and Wine

nos bottarga, which the chef coats with buttered Greek coffee – a genius conception and a surprise on the palate. This difficult dish proves the chef’s mastery in the kitchen. Comprising around 300 vintage and new Greek wines, the wine list is golden. Overall, an unforgettable dining experience. • €60 and over • Tel. (+30) 22860.222.49 Selene Meze AND Wine Located downstairs from Selene, this bistro offers a simpler version of the cuisine found above. The dishes are Greek, but often executed with a foreign touch. Try the grilled octopus with white taramosalata fish roe paste, pickled cucumber and wild greens – a true summer dish – or the grilled sardines with crunchy bread, tomato confit and onion. Simple yet exquisite is the salad of boiled vegetables, smoked eel and autumn fruit vinaigrette. We also recommend the local

Vlychada To Psaraki On one side of the road, there is a big courtyard shaded by trees, and on the other a balcony, overlooking Vlychada harbor. At first glance, this is just another Greek taverna, but even a brief glance at the menu will show you that it is so much more. For the past seven years, Angeliki Synetou and Thanasis Sfougaris have been focusing their efforts on making the best of every part of fish – any fish. The menu depends on what the daily catch brings in. A freshly angled tuna is turned into carpaccio, fillet or souvlaki, while a cod can be steamed or made into soup. Try the bonito fillet wrapped in a spicy crust, a fish carpaccio or the fish of the day, which is always divinely prepared. The wine list – fully Santorinian – consists of both barreled and bottled options. • From €40-60 • Tel. (+30) 22860.827.83

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