Destinations
Destinations
From here there are many places you could go beyond the beautiful trails on the island of Tinos . The nearby islands are also magical and with a small boat you could pass by the nearby -and not only- Cycladic islands ( Andros , Syros , Mykonos . Kea , Kythnos , Delos )
Trails
You travel to the lairs of art, you walk on streets \"paved\" with marbledust, history and artistic tradition. You wander around marble-built villages and you recognize the \"carving\" of nature, wind and rain at the harsh landscape of the Tinian north. At Exo Meria.
- Ysternia
In the \"ysterna\" (SW) of Tinos, ten minutes away by car from Kardiani, the village of the marble sculptors comes into view. It seems like a balcony that looks towards Syros as it is built amphitheatrically on the hillside of Meroviglia mountain, in an altitude of 300-340m over the port of Ysternia.
- Kardiani
The first settlement in Exo Meria in the SW part of the island will \"demand\" tenths of photographic clicks. Has the privilege of enjoying everyday Syros and the sea at the opposite side from an altitude of 240m, embraced by intense vegetation and get freshed by many springs which descend from the mountain. Proud of its architectural centerpieces, the beautiful arcades and paved alleys but also of the people, catholics and orthodoxes, who coexist in harmony.
- Plateia-Venardados
Right before you get to the largest village of Tinos, Pyrgos, you will pass from Plateia, the tiny settlement in the northern side of the island. Its sights include the church of Holy Mary\'s Birthday, the monument of the fallen people of Panormos during the Balkan Wars and the museum of ecclesiastical artifacts.
Venardaros is the next stop, amphitheatrically built, of few traditional houses and Aghios Ioannis Theologos church with the remarkable marble temple and hagiographies of Nikos Gaitis. Its secret is the chapel of Aghios Fanourios which is hidden among the trees of its ravine.
- Pyrgos
The cradle of sculpture and painting, the homeland of Chalepas, Nikiforos Lytras and Giannis Gaitis. If you walk in the centric pebble road (Giannoulis Chalepas Str.), you will immediately realize why this marble village is considered one of the most beautiful settlements in Cyclades. Blazons, \"portosies\", doorsteps, fountains, inscriptions, busts, alleys, carved tables, everything is made of marble sculptured with great prowess by the local sculptors.
The walk goes on to the centric, marble paved square (of the Heroes of 1821) with the shady plane, the monumental fountains and the coffee-pastry shops where Alexandra\'s galaktompoureko (custard filled pastry) gives a sweet \"battle\" with melachrino.
A visit to Tinian Artists\' museum is a must, and also to the newly founded Museum of Marble Crafts of the Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Association which demonstrates the course of the mineral from the mining to its final shape. Since 1956, right next to the modern building, there is the School of Fine Arts of Panormos.
- Marla – Mamados
Rocks like beasts, stones “wounded” by the wind and old quarries in the entrails of the earth, in Exo Meria. In the most northwest part of Tinos, where nature shows its wildest face, everything speaks the language of marble.
You will trek from Marla path to Profitis Ilias at the second highest top of the island which after half an hour of trekking, offers you the best view in Tinos, from Panormos – Planitis, Mesa Meri, and the entire Exo Meria until Andros and the neighboring islands Syros, Giouria, Andros and to the east –if the weather is good- until Ikaria, Samos and Chios. You will walk the paths until the quarries of green marble in Machaira and Achinoi, the quarries of white marble in Kastri and Skala and to the chisels of slate slabs in the general area of Steno.