Rome to Santorini paradise

To get to our hideaway house our host walked us through windy paths from the road, at one stage we rounded a corner to this view - just wow. But that was in the afternoon, our day started getting up at 6am for our early flight. Pleased we had sussed out Termini the night before it all went quite smoothly getting the train from central Rome out to the Airport. The airport on the other hand was actually organised chaos and unlike in NZ or the UK their scanners can see everything so no taking laptops or liquids out of bags, nor taking shoes off - so it all runs quite smoothly except when you have well trained Americans ahead of you who proactively removed everything and we had to wait for them to repack and put shoes / belts back on. 

Our trip to Santorini was with Aegean airlines and we had a 60 minute layover in Athens, luckily after being dropped by bus in the terminal our next gate was right there so we just joined a queue and carried on. My cold hasn't improved so I slept a fair bit on the flights, my gluten free meal consisted of fruit salad and a biscuit. Steve's was a ham roll and banana bread. 

Then we were here. Our driver racing us through the streets to Imerovigli where we were met by another man, the one who raced us to our hideaway house at a walking speed I had no hope of catching up. 

Our home for the next few days is a cave house, and it is fantastic, huge, well provisioned and with the best view in Santorini (more on that soon). 

First order of business was handwashing - Mum you be suitably unimpressed to see the photo bottom right here with all of our undies handwashed and outside on our deck to dry in the sunshine. 

After this we ventured out and were worried about getting lost in the labyrinth that runs all the way along these towns but we've sussed it now, if you get down too low on the hill just head up and you'll hit another path, if you get hot / tired / need the loo, go to one of the many bars for a drink / comfort stop. The labyrinth goes for tens of kilometers. 

Our first venture out however was to check out the start of the track to Oia, our plan was to get up early and walk it. On our way there (about 3km from our place) we discovered the various local supermarkets, the gyro places, found a couple of random money machines and looked at the views. Imerovigli is beautiful and perfect, everything (with one or two exceptions) is painted the same white and the paintwork is well maintained, we saw plenty of people out topping up their paint. The buildings are stacked up on the side of the volcano with amazing views of the caldera - the hollow, in this case the sea inside the volcano rim. 

To the right are scenes from our walk, Steve on the track to Oia bottom right. 

Left are other scenes from our walk too, in this set bottom right is a cruise ship below which appeared to sit in the harbour while little boats shuttled people to and from the ship. 

Bottom left is outside our hideaway house. You see since we have the most fantastic view every photographer in Santorini brings every wedding / family / couple / random person here to take photos. So we have been sitting on our deck, or in our spa watching said photos happening right in front of us - like less than 1m away from where we are sitting. It's really quite strange but at the same time it's been fascinating listening to the conversations - people watching. 

Post first walk we came back via the Gyro's shop and supermarket where bought ourselves the most amazing first dinner, and a bottle of prosecco. 

After dinner on the deck we had a spa then decided to venture to a bar to watch the sunset and have second dinner. Thing is we chose an expensive bar so this is the most expensive negroni you can imagine, great spot to watch the sunset and yummy calamari and edamame too.

The wind had come up and quite a haze came in surrounding the island so it got chilli enough for another layer. Walking around during the day tourists are all in summer clothing but the locals are in long sleeved tops, pants and men wearing sleeveless puffer jackets.

So far Santorini is one of those once in a lifetime places to visit so I am soooo lucky to be here a second time really. Below - My Gyros, the worlds most expensive Negroni and the layers and layers of houses spilling down the side of the volcano. Adio. 

Sunday 28th April 2024.