Over The Top Of Tinos

Tinos isn’t a cheap island. It’s not painfully expensive or anything, but for food, beer and accommodation we are paying prices pretty similar to back home in the UK, which for Greek islands is expensive. Probably the result of the stream of Athenians, we guess. Only the local “village” wine is cheap.

It’s also relatively large for a Greek island, 26 kilometres end to end, which is why we’ve hired a car to explore as much as we can before we move on. So today is another road trip day, driving up over the mountains then down to the coast on the North East side of the island. 

Every single one of the mountain villages is so picturesque and so beautifully peaceful.  Well, peaceful apart from the Meltemi wind roaring through its alleys! Typically, you park on the narrow roadway which usually passes beneath the village on the mountainside, then climb steep whitewashed steps up into labyrinthine alley ways. Sometimes the village is so steep that you pass through tight tunnels beneath and between houses, bougainvillea and vines cascade down the white walls, jasmine scent fills the air.

One twist in an alley will then bring you to a miniature piazza, with maybe two or three cafes and an inviting tavern, mountain trails invitingly lead the way out of each village to the rocky terrain beyond. Many of the villages have a speciality trade; here is the village of marble sculptures, there the village of basket weaving. One of them – Dyo Choria, possibly the prettiest – is home to a natural spring where stone laundries from a bygone era are still in evidence.

Among these we visit the monastery of Virgin Mary Evangelistria. The monastery is beautiful, this blindingly white mass of buildings is like a miniature village,  a maze of tiny streets, tiny squares and pretty gardens, hidden chapels easily missed, some sparsely decorated, others impossibly ornate, the scent of candles and incense fills the air, nuns silently go about their daily jobs. This tranquil haven in the mountains even appears to have calmed the ferocity of the meltimi.

We land eventually at Kolymbithra, and take lunch at one of the two tavernas, including beef in a honey and thyme sauce, fabulous. Kolymbithra has two beaches which effectively form three distinct sections; a family beach with a gentle sea and amenities including the tavernas, then a second beach of two halves. The horseshoe bay leaves one half exposed to crashing waves (there are even surfboards for hire), the other calm clear sea with much finer sand, so tranquil compared to its neighbours.

Our last call is at Volax, a quaint village bizarrely surrounded by strange boulders of all sizes, worn almost spherical by the pounding of Meltemi.

Driving Tinos is an absolute pleasure. The mountain roads with their steep inclines and tight hairpins are enormous fun, but the views and the changing terrain as you climb, clear the top, and drop back down, are truly spectacular. You just have to keep stopping.

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