Tinos is tailor-made for walking: it is the birthplace of the Greek National Footpath Organization and has one of the most remarkable networks of traditional paths in the country. Rocky mule tracks cut through a landscape that seems made for mythological adventures, with verdant groves alive with the sound of spring water, hidden ravines, and giant, wind-sculpted boulders strewn on mountain slopes as if dropped by passing gods.
Coves bite into the coastline – providing in turn, sheltered mooring for pilgrims to the Temple of Poseidon in ancient times, pirates in the Dark Ages, and for wealthy medieval merchants exporting Tinos marble.
The simplest of buildings and water fountains are embellished with frost-white marble bas-reliefs; courtyards and paths are laid with pebble mosaics; the landscape is dotted with picture-book villages, churches with tiered, Italianate belltowers or coroneted domes, and – an island specialty – the fanciful miniature towers of a thousand or so pigeon houses.
In ancient times, Greek pilgrims flocked to the neighbouring, sacred island of Delos. Today they come to Tinos in a surge of national pride and religious fervour, to visit an icon whose miraculous discovery coincided with the 19th-century declaration of Greek independence. Twice a year, on 25 March and 15 August, thousands of people, from leading politicians to humble country folk, swell the island’s population of c. 8,000.
The island has prospered as a result; there are villages, gems of Cycladic architecture, that are smart, brightly painted, and well maintained. On the land around, though, abandoned terraces, which accentuate steeply contoured hills, cute but crumbling pigeon houses and windmills, are ghosts of a more prosperous rural past.
The island’s history and changing fortunes make for interesting and varied walking, and Tinos is relatively unknown to foreign tourists, so you are likely to have its ancient paths, villages, and valleys, to yourself.
Paros is the geometric centre of the Cycladic archipelago and a favorite tourist destination because of its many sandy beaches and lace-like coastline. However, it’s only by exploring well off the beaten track that you get a sense of its commanding location and special ambiance. To be on a path high on the flanks of the island’s central massif is like looking down from the ‘gods’ of an opera house to an elaborate stage set, a layered landscape of accentuated light and shade, form and colour.
On the north-west coast, a landscape of ravaged granite plunges to inaccessible shores, but the eye soars over the ocean to the island figures of Tinos and Mykonos, and an ancient sanctuary is orientated towards the sacred island of Delos. The eastern flanks of the central massif overlook a band of sea with the splendid mountains of Naxos filling the horizon. Outcrops of weathered granite (which served as handy lookouts and defensive positions), curvaceous bays, and coastal plains on the north coast appealed to Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers 3,000 and more years ago.
Inland are hidden valleys, many with isolated fort-like monasteries (an island specialty), and traditional villages with white-washed cubic houses and neo-classical buildings. Heading south, steep medieval paths, perfectly paved and preserved, traverse the hillsides leading to a sheltered, golden-sanded coastline, with views of island silhouettes in the open sea.
WALKING PLUS routes reveal the island’s rich cultural history (with moments of great prosperity), and the present-day blend of gentle beauty, impressive seascapes, farming life, and artistic tradition that dates back to when the island’s light-filled marble inspired the greatest sculptors of ancient Greece.
