Europe Secret Travel Destination: Amorgo Island, Greece
While the iconic and easily recognizable Greek islands of santorini, Rhodes and Mykonos throb and thump ‘til dawn under the tourist hoards, where there Is seldom room at any multinational inn. Amorgos is still as quiet as a Byzantine tomb. Known as the island of The Big Blue for its comparatively remote location in the Cyclades, Amorgos’ palette milks the colour spectrum for all its worth: pink and orange skies, red, purple and and yellow flowers, green herbs and cacti, silver sea navy fishing boats and window frames, and of course the purest Greek white, sending dazzled visitors scuttling into shady squares.
Amorgos was, until quite recently, lit only by gas lamps and the sun, and donkeys and tractors were the only means of transport across the island. Now there’s a road skirts the craggy, soaring coastline, dipping into the tiny whitewashed clusters of villages that ilk the two mai” ports, Convenient as the road is, the locals often choose to weave across their poppy and daisy-strewn fields, following their goats or in the merry wake of chanting priests carrying saintly icons between the blue-domed churches.
Nudging out rusting tractors, a few cars have made the break from the Mainland, but they mainly shelter from the Mediterranean heat and light under creaking vines and old olives. Meanwhile, the donkeys do as they have always done, carrying their owner side-saddle as they skitter along paths bordered by ancient rubble walls held together by armies of prickly pear.
Tiny population of Amorgos – less than 2000 – is a tightly-knit community where many of the cool, dark homes have been occupied by the same families for centuries and from where the younger generation can’t wait to escape … and nostalgically return to. ‘isitors to Amorgos amaze with tales of life beyond the Aegean, of the incomprehensible bustle of Athens.
The farmer, the cobbler, the ironmonger, the carpenter and the basket weaver, the lace makers and the bakers still work as they have done for centuries, but there is always a reason or an excuse to down tools and celebrate – and then village squares erupt with music and song. Women gather to make the food – potatoes (braised goat with potatoes) fava (split peas), and the delicious pastels (sesame seeds and nuts with honey, served on lemon leaves’ Ancient men play jigs on their Battered violins, and sing the rhyming improvised couplets called the matinada, as young and old link hands across the cobbles to do traditional Greek dances.
Amorgo’s Fact File
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