Sightseeing in Mykonos

There are two things to see on Mykonos, and they contradict each other. The first is the island itself: Chora with its whitewashed maze, the Kato Mili windmills on the hill above the harbour, and the church of Panagia Paraportiani, five chapels of different centuries fused into one white rock. A half-day tour joins the town to the interior: Ano Mera with the Tourliani monastery, empty hills, granite boulders lying about as if someone had left them there.

The second is Delos, no longer a resort but an excavated ancient city half an hour away. Myth has Apollo and Artemis born here, which made the island sacred: nobody was allowed to be born or to die on it, and the whole population was evacuated when the Persians threatened. Today there are terraces of houses with mosaic floors, sanctuaries, a market street and a row of marble lions facing the dried-up sacred lake. Living on Delos is still forbidden, and the last boat leaves before dark.

The third line runs to neighbouring Tinos, a full day out. The island is arranged as the exact opposite of Mykonos: the pilgrimage church of Panagia Evangelistria, which some approach on their knees, villages of stonemasons, hundreds of Venetian-built dovecotes. The sea part supplies the rest — the south coast, with bays easier to reach by water than by road.