Greece - Korina Miller [311]
Princess of Mykonos ( 22890 23806; www.princessofmykonos.gr; s €200, d €220-280, tr €245-320 incl breakfast; ) Sea-view rooms are the most expensive at this swish hotel, which merges traditional island style with Art Deco touches. The hotel is above the often busy Agios Stefanos beach.
EATING
Christos ( 22890 26850; Agios Ioannis Beach; mains €6-18) Fisherman, chef and sculptor Christos runs his beachside eatery with unassuming style. It’s right on the ‘Shirley Valentine’ shoreline, but Christos really is authentic Mykonos, where the best fish and seafood, not least unbeatable astakos (crawfish or spiny lobster), is prepared with skill.
Tasos Trattoria ( 22890 23002; Paraga Beach; mains €9-19) Central to Paraga Beach, this popular taverna does terrific fish, chicken, pork and veal dishes and a great mix of vegie options.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cavo Paradiso ( 22890 27205; www.cavoparadiso.gr) When dawn gleams just over the horizon, hard-core bar-hopper s move from Hora (Mykonos) to Cavo Paradiso, the megaclub that’s been blasting at Paradise Beach since 1993 and has featured top international DJs ever since, including house legends David Morales and Louie Vega.
Ano Mera Αω Μέρα
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The village of Ano Mera, 7km east of Hora, is the island’s only inland settlement and is worth a passing visit as an antidote to Hora and the beaches. It’s a fairly unassuming place with a big central square flanked on three sides by tavernas offering standard fare. There’s a big car park adjoining the main square.
The 6th-century Moni Panagias Tourlianis ( 22890 71249; 9am-1pm & 2-7.30pm) has a fine, multistage, marble bell tower with elegant carvings and 16th-century icons painted by members of the Cretan School, but pride of place goes to an exquisite wooden iconostasis carved in Florence in the late 1700s.
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DELOS ΔΗΛΟΣ
The Cyclades fulfil their collective name (kyklos) by encircling the sacred island of Delos ( 22890 22259; museum & sites adult/concession €5/3; 8.30am-3pm Tue-Sun), but Mykonos clutches the island jealously to its heart. Delos has no permanent population and is a soothing contrast to the relentless liveliness of modern Mykonos, although in high summer you share it all with fellow visitors. The island is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece and the most important in the Cyclades. It lies a few kilometres off the west coast of Mykonos.
Delos still hides its secrets and every now and then fresh discoveries are made. In recent years a gold workshop was uncovered alongside the Street of the Lions.
History
Delos won early acclaim as the mythical birthplace of the twins Apollo and Artemis and was first inhabited in the 3rd millennium BC. From the 8th century BC it became a shrine to Apollo, and the oldest temples on the island date from this era. The dominant Athenians had full control of Delos – and thus the Aegean – by the 5th century BC.
In 478 BC Athens established an alliance known as the Delian League, which kept its treasury on Delos. A cynical decree ensured that no one could be born or die on Delos, thus strengthening Athens’ control over the island by expelling the native population.
Delos reached the height of its power in Hellenistic times, becoming one of the three most important religious centres in Greece and a flourishing centre of commerce. Many of its inhabitants were wealthy merchants, mariners and bankers from as far away as Egypt and Syria. They built temples to their homeland gods, but Apollo remained the principal deity.
The Romans made Delos a free port in 167 BC. This brought even greater prosperity, due largely to a lucrative slave market that sold up to 10,000 people a day. During the following century, as ancient religions lost relevance and trade routes shifted, Delos began a long, painful decline. By the 3rd century AD there was only a small Christian settlement on the island,