CYCLADES
44 FEBRUARY 2017L
IFE ON SANTORINI STOPS IN
its tracks an hour or so before
dusk. Beaches are abandoned,
guided tours are ditched, kids
are bundled away from hotel
pools, drives are hurriedly completed. It is
an unspoken rule that the sole focus of any
activity from this point until nightfall is
finding an elevated and comfortable spot
from which to watch the sun sink slowly
and gloriously into the Aegean.
Most head to Oia, a town at the northern
end of Santorini, the view from which may
have been photographed more than any
other in Greece. Fira offers a slightly less- Santorini
Bring your trip to an end on an island famed for its
sunsets – and unearth a surprise or two before you leave
frenetic perch for sunset musings. Like Oia,
its white buildings and domed churches
spill down the cliff-side, seeming to cling
to the rock in defiance of all known laws of
gravity and engineering.
As the sky starts to fade to violet, through
various shades of gold, amber and mauve,
couples find a quiet step on which to share
a bottle of wine, the conversation from the
wedding parties in full swing on restaurant
terraces dies down, and the speedboats and
yachts on the water spin to face west. All
eyes fix on the sunset, and stay fixed until
the first stars and a sliver of silver moon
appear in the darkening sky. Then cocktailsare ordered, the chatter resumes and the
important business of holiday carousing
begins again in earnest.
Santorini’s high position on the list of the
world’s best sunset locations owes much to
geology: the island, and the islets off-shore,
are all that remain of a volcano that erupted
over 3,500 years ago. Its towns, the essential
foreground in any memorable Santorini
sunset shot, are built into the caldera’s
edge. The ash from the explosion has been
instrumental in its modern-day survival too,
creating fertile plains which sustained the
island’s most unlikely hero: the tomato.
At a factory in the southern plains, Antonis
Valvis cranks up a steel engine the size of a
combine harvester. Belts whirr, cogs grind
and wheels clank. The factory, closed in
1981, once shipped canned tomatoes and
tomato paste all over the region, providing44 FEBRUARY 2017