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Published: September 27th 2014
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Santorini.
It appears out of the Aegean Sea as mountainous islands that must be home to millions of seabirds…but what looks like a vastness of guano cascading down the cliff tops changes as the fast ferry powers closer into glistening white towns and villages.
It’s as if Weta Workshop was asked to create a magical island paradise – only CGI could conjure up the wedding cake houses, precariously perched hotels with their dinky pools in all shades of blue, cliffs dripping with restaurant terraces and draped with magenta bougainvillea.
Breathtakingly, gobsmackingly, eye-rubbingly beautiful, it’s a miracle Santorini exists at all and not just because of the locals’ vertiginous building habits. Regular earthquakes and devastating volcanic eruptions have plagued the Cycladic Islands since forever.
Santorini is in fact a volcano and the stunning views from our accommodation are attributable to the crater being inundated by the sea. The island in the centre of this caldera only appeared 400 years ago and is still active with hot springs.
Apparently the magma level is rising so Santorini may be due for another spectacular show of nature to rival the
constant wedding fireworks. It would be more than a shame if Santorini disappeared under the sea like the fabled Atlantis – which some say was a previous incarnation of the island’s civilization. The tsunami from the 17
th century cataclysmic eruption destroyed the Minoan centre on Crete, 60 miles south – so that’s another contender for the title of lost continent.
But it’s not just the risk of losing fascinating archaeological sites such as Ancient Thera or Akrotiri, hundreds of luxury hotels or unique vineyards producing the muscat-like Vinsanto…it would be more than a shame because Santorini seems to be one of the few places in Greece which is still cooking up a storm.
Yes, there are a few skeletal ruins of hotels that came a cropper when the recession hit but if you’re in the main town of Fira when a cruise ship - or two or four - dock and the narrow cobbled streets are jammed with frenzied shoppers, the GFC seems far away.
Our hotel was just west of Fira, in Firostefani which used to be a separate village but is now linked by a walking path lined with
hotels and gift shops.We chose it because Fira sounded ridiculously busy (it is) while only being 15 minutes gloriously scenic walk away. Well it should be only 15 minutes walk but it will take you much longer as round every corner is an achingly beautiful vista of sea, volcanic cliffs and stark white gorgeous Cycladic buildings that you just HAVE to take another photo of.
People love Oia at the northern tip of the island for its sunset views, but we’d booked a west facing caldera view to avoid the tourist bun-fight for a photo spot at Oia and have a sunset of our own. What we didn’t know was that we had the ‘penthouse’, so it was a fabulous bonus to follow George up several flights of stairs to emerge on the hotel rooftop, then turn the corner to see the huge expanse of Santorini caldera, Fira and Firostefani at our feet.
We couldn’t stop looking at it all day, rubbing our eyes and looking at it again. We invited fellow guests (mostly Aussies but they were quite nice really) that we met at the hotel pool to come up and share our
fabulous sunsets and ended up going out for dinner with them. The family run hotel held evening drinks for guests - it was a very social week.
However it wasn’t all lying by the pool in the 30+ degree heat, drinking ouzo and dining overlooking the glittering caldera each night. That was a large part of it I must admit, but we also hired a car and drove to the two significant ancient sites to get a handle on the many layers of history on the island and pick up some local wine and Donkey beer – the first brewery on the island.
Top of our list had been the walk to Oia on the 12km trail from Fira which ran past (actually through) our hotel, but each time we mentioned it people looked horrified. Either we looked too ancient to walk that far or they were thinking of the sweltering heat. Nearer the end of our week the temperature was down to a balmy 28 with a breeze, so we set off as soon as we could after breakfast, which at 8am was already 28.
It’s a spectacular walk, steep
in a couple of places and I was glad of my trusty hiking pole, but the scenery is so stunning, you hardly notice the kms passing. Oia is even more touristy than Fira if that’s possible, although smaller, so after making a pilgrimage to the famous sunset spot at Oia Castle we were glad to catch a bus back to the relative sanity of Firostefani – definitely the best place to stay on Santorini.
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Perfection!
Sounds as if you found the perfect place to stay! What a nightmare a town becomes when cruise ships arrive--how great you weren't in Firo and could avoid them. I went in March, so few tourists anywhere. It really is a magical place.