Paros & Antiparos.
One day across two islands, from the first ferry to the stars. Keep scrolling and we’ll draw it for you.
The first ferry
The ramp comes down
At Pounta the little car ferry lowers its ramp, and we roll aboard before the island wakes.
First light
Seven minutes of sea
The channel is only about a kilometre and a half wide. Halfway across, the sun climbs out of Paros behind us.
Early morning
The houses are the wall
Around 1440 the Venetians ringed a courtyard with houses whose blind outer walls were the defence. There was one gate.
Morning
Down into the cave
While the morning is still cool, we take the steps down, more than a hundred metres deep, between the stalactites.
Deeper still
Christmas, 1673
That year the Marquis de Nointel, France’s ambassador, held Christmas mass down here on a stalagmite still called the Holy Table.
Mid-morning
Apollo’s islet
Across the water lies Despotiko, empty now. In the sixth century BC the Parians built a sanctuary to Apollo there.
Late morning
Somewhere to swim
We stop where the water goes still and let you swim. Nobody is in a hurry to get back in the van.
Noon
Back across
The little ferry again, seven minutes back to Pounta, and the rest of the day belongs to Paros.
Lunchtime
Whose boat is whose
Alyki is a small fishing harbour in the south-west, kaikia at the quay. Lunch is by the water, if you’d like.
After lunch
Valley of the Butterflies
A spring keeps this valley green and cool. From late June into September, Jersey tiger moths, the butterflies of its name, rest here on the trees and show red wings when they fly.
Early afternoon
Underneath the white
The whitewash is only the top coat. Near Marathi, tunnels lead into the hill where the ancients quarried marble.
Underground
The lamp-stone
They cut the finest of it by oil light, and named it lychnites, from lychnos, a lamp. Light passes through it.
Afternoon
Built inland, on purpose
Lefkes was built inland in the 17th century, out of sight of pirates. Above its roofs rise two marble bell towers.
Mid-afternoon
Downhill, on marble
From Lefkes the old Byzantine path, paved in marble, runs down through the olives to Prodromos. The van waits at the end.
Above Marpissa
A hill that held out
Above Marpissa’s windmills, the monastery of Agios Antonios sits inside the ruins of a Venetian castle. In 1537, so the story goes, its defenders held out against Barbarossa until the gunpowder ran out.
Late afternoon
The wind has opinions
In summer the meltemi blows from the north. At Golden Beach it fills windsurf sails, and the shallow bay stays fairly flat.
Towards evening
Still a fishing harbour
In Naoussa a Venetian fortress stands partly in the sea at the harbour mouth. On the quay, octopus dries in the sun.
Golden hour
Everything turns gold
At Kolymbithres the wind and the sea have rounded the granite into smooth boulders, with pools between them to swim in.
Before sunset
The last of the gold
Known since the 1500s, the chapel of Agios Ioannis Detis sits on the rocks at the mouth of Naoussa bay. As the gold fades, a path leads on to the Korakas lighthouse.
In Parikia
Count to ninety-nine
Count the doors of the Ekatontapyliani in Parikia as they appear. Legend says the hundredth has never been found.
Sunset
Everyone faces west
In 1260 the Venetians built the Kastro from the stones of ancient temples. You can still see columns in the wall.
Evening
Nobody goes home early
The harbour windmill stopped grinding long ago. Now it watches the quay fill up and the lights come on.
Night
Then, the stars
After dark the pen runs dry. The rest is better lived than read.
When the day is done, we bring you home, wherever you are staying on Paros or Antiparos.