Naxos Island Things to Do

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Exiting the waterfront of Hora and after surviving the maze of alleys of Bourgos, lay the magnificent Kastro (Fort). Its origin is Venetian.

The houses here are starkingly whitewashed and as I meandered my way up on a hot afternoon, I found eeriely and hauntingly silent alley ways awaiting my arrival. If you stand really still, you can just imagine hearing a pin drop.

The scenery is therapeutic. Silence engulfed you, just hugging you but not suffocating you. A cat companied me part of the journey up before it yawned and slinked down a side alley. The entire place felt so abandoned and so much so, I almost jumped out of my skin in fright when a young couple exited from behind a seemingly crumbling door (presumably their home) and we startled each other.

At the top of the Kastro are 3 monuments.

The almost invisible Archaeological Museum is here (entry 3 Euros, circa Sep 2006), housed within the Kastro itself, in a former school, where you'll find Hellenistic, Roman and some early Cycladic figurines as well as weaponry and jewelries. The collection is quite substantial for such a small space though I found myself having difficulties concentrating on the exhibits as I was still perspiring aplenty (Note: There is no air-conditioning)

Step up to the roof top and you'll find colourful Roman mosaics on display.

Exiting the museum, I stumbled upon a very handsome Roman Catholic Cathedral, looking every bit beautiful with the trees around it in full bloom.

Walking down the stairs a little further and close by, lies the crumbling Della Rocca-Barozzi Venetian Museum where according to the signs on display, sunset concerts are held. Standing behind the fence ropes and looking at the concert venue, I could only imagine how awesome it is!

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A very old church, some parts are dated back in VII and VIII century, it is a wonder how it can still stand. The structure is heavy with wide stone made walls, decorated with arch where the bells hung.
When I visited there were some women selling their embroidery in order to make the money to keep up the place. I am not sure this was the truth, I guess yes, but the objects were nice and inexpensive so why not?

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Koronos is in the Northern part of the island, it is somehow similar to Apiranthos but, as it is hard to reach being in a remote part up by the side of a tall mountain, it is absolutely not touristic.
I counted one bar (closed) and two small taverna in the center.
Walk around is hard as everything is very steep with narrow paved street but it was so quiet, sleepy and real that it sure worth the visit.

I believe the people living here have some trouble with TV signal so they got pretty creative on antennas, take a look to the last picture of this tip to see what I mean.

From Naxos is easy to organize a day trip to Santorini, you can choose to take the normal ferry and than use the buses to visit but I found much more confortable, given the short time, to book a day tour in one of the many travel agency in town.

The boat left the port at 7.15, the trip last about 2 hours and if you look carefully you might get lucky as I did and see douphins swimming along the boat. Take your food if you want a morning snack, the boatìs bar will be of course expensive and with a small selection, btw the coffee was awful either.

The aproach by sea to Santorini is hard to describe, so impressive and dramatic that it would be worth the trip even if you would just turn around ang go back without visiting the villages.

At the port there were a private bus with a tour guide that took us easily to Oia Village and than to Thira village. They left us enaugh time to look around and have a refreshing drink and the guide gave us enaugh informations. They did not took us around the villages, just let us wonder on our own that I liked best.

We arrived back in Naxos at 8.30pm. The day trip was sure exhausting but gave us a pretty good idea about Santorini and made the experience much easyer than it would have been organizing a day like this on our own.

Be aware that due to the strong wind in all Cycladic island, the navigation with a small boat like those can get pretty rough. If you get sea sick bring your medication and take them even if at the port the sea seems to be calm. If the sea get strong with high waves, be very carefull on the boat, sit and try to hold on on something. I have seen people falling and hitting their head bad because they took the boat as a playgound and were jumping along with the waves.

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A Kuoros is an incomplete colossal statue, probably representing a hero or a warrior, those statues were never finished and abandoned in the quarry probably because of imperfections found in the stone they were being carved that would have not made them suitable for the place they were assigned.

In Naxos island there are some interesting examples.

Kuoros Ferio in Melanes
There are two of them, the first closest to the parking lot, more refinished and in a nice shady park, the second one is higher, walking up the trail and less refinished.

Kuoros Apollona
This one is much bigger,10 meters long and very refinished. Worth the long drive 50 km North of Naxos town.
Apollona Bay is close to it, but the beach is nothing special compared to the ones you are used in Naxos so go up there only if you really want to see the Kuoros.

If you drive to Apollonas make sure you fill your scooter tank at Angares, it is the last gas station in the North of the island.

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This village is a little gem, it is build on the side of a tall mountain overlooking the valley where there are olive trees and vineyards. It is known to be a Crete colony as lots of Cretan people moved here escaping the Deskaloisnnis Revolution in 1770 and stayed.
Its fully pedestrian streets are entirely paved with marbles, there are some caffe, tavernas and souvenir shops at the lower part of the villages, near the parking lot. If you take the time to walk uphill to the top you can find some really good antiques and crafts shops and artisan's workshop.
I met a old man who was working in his wookwork workshop and, after i kindly ask permission, he let me wonder in it.
The best spot for a refreshing drink or for a snack is on the way down from the top, on the right there are some bar under pergolas with a awesome view of the valley.

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I stopped in Filoti on my way to Aphirantos. The village is obviously not tourism related, it is clear that normal people live there all year round. Altough it is worth visiting.
It lay in an anphiteatrical shape on a steep hill surrounded by olive trees. The Tragea region is famous for olive groves and for byzantine churches and there are some nice examples in Filoti.
The day I was there was right after 15th August Catholic celebrations of the Assumption of Mary, and the main street was decorated with colorful flags.
I stopped in the main taverna for a refreshing Nescaffe frappe and watched the old men playing cards and having their greek coffee. I also went to a couple of bakeries to buy some spanakopita (a roll made of phillo paste stuffed with cheese and spinach) and a cheese pita, sorry forgot the greek name for it.... Those are my favourite beach snacks.
I really enjoyed strolling the steep streets and watching the white houses with colorful doors and windows and just look at the normal people doing their everyday jobs.

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Windmills are the symbol of the Cycladic Islands and one would expect to find them all over the place. Unfortunally there are not so many left in Naxos.
Driving along the island you will occasionally see them, sometimes they will have been restored and kept in very good shape, sometimes they will be almost ruins.
On the North Western side of the island there are some modern electricity generator windmill, they do not look as pretty as their ancestors but they help Greece to make clean energy so I forgive them for their uglyness.