Ahh ... San-to-rini. Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it Santorini, which in German means a whale's .... but no I was just trying to impress you. Scholars maintain the translation was lost hundreds of years ago" (Ron Burgundy - Anchorman). Ok so no more movie quotes and I can tell you that Santorini is in fact named after Saint Irini, although the Greeks call the island Thira. Whichever name you use it is a superb island and perhaps one of the most stunning places I have ever visited. The island used to be much larger but it had the centre destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1650 BC, leaving a ring of islands around a huge caldera. Lonely Planet reckons it was "probably the biggest volcanic eruption ever" and that the caldera it
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