I just returned home to Mykonos after three storied days on
its sister Cycladic island of Thira.
That’s its official name but it’s known to most as Santorini. I can see your heads nodding in sympathy for
what I must endure to practice my craft.
Santorini is said to have inspired the legend of the lost
island of Atlantis. I can’t say whether
or not that’s true, but I can say Santorini’s inspired me to place my 2016 Andreas
Kaldis mystery there, and that, dear readers, requires a lot of research.
Admittedly I’m a little late for catching the Atlantis show,
as it stopped playing more than thirty-six centuries ago when one of the
largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history devastated the island, sending
forth a mammoth tsunami toward Crete ultimately contributing to the destruction of the
Minoan civilization.
But that’s all in the past. Or so we hope.
Today the only tsunami in the area of Santorini is tourism. Santorini and Mykonos rank as the two most
popular tourist islands in Europe (their tourism boards can argue over which
ranks #1 this year :)).
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| Tourists in Fira |
The unique call of Santorini is undoubtedly the breathtaking
views from the northern part of the island, looking out from the rim of the
caldera (crater) across the sapphire blue lagoon formed within the crater. It
is a view truly worthy of a wonder of the world.
Santorini is a place for staring hypnotically off into the
middle-distance for hours while you contemplate the meaning of life. Mykonos is more about the beauty of its old
town, its fabled beaches, and 24/7 nightlife.
In other words, you come to Mykonos to find the person you want to spend
time with on Santorini.
But enough words. Let
me show you Santorini in photographs, courtesy of my faithful photographer
Barbara Zilly. We stayed north of the
island’s capital city of Fira, just before now famous Oia—the town on the
western tip of Santorini featured in virtually every Santorini advertisement.
First, I have to say about our hotel (Csky) that it’s hard
to imagine more spectacular views anywhere on the island, sitting as it does on
the crest of the narrow caldera rim, with the lagoon in front and the broad
blue Aegean to the rear.
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| Csky Hotel, Imerovigli, Santorini |
Our View
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| The Promised Land |
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| My photographer on break |
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| Proprietor of Atlantis Bookstore |
Jeff—Saturday
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