ykonos is now the most cosmopolitan island in the world, more famous than Capri, more fashionable than Hawaii. The question naturally arises: did this happen by chance, or does the island really deserve its fame?

o answer this, picture in your mind's eye a deep, blue sea, covered with white waves, and set in it a bare island bathed in sunlight. Add to this a fishing harbour with caiques of every colour and an all-white town rising up the hillside from the sea shore. The domes and crosses of the innumerable churches stand out among the dazzlingly white houses, which are like cubes. And at the top of the hill, imagine that there are picturesque windmills with the breeze in their white sails.

ll the alleyways of the town are paved and all the joints between the paving stones whitewashed. Every alley is a painting, every corner a revelation. On the right of the harbour the houses come down to the sea's edge. Everything is in contrast: the white houses and the blue sea, the multi-coloured window frames -a contrast in atmosphere which gleams with the freshness of the sea. This is the Venice of Greece...
e have tried here, in a few words, to give a picture of Mykonos, but any description, however hard we try to bring it life, lags far behind the reality. There is only one answer: to go there, to see it for yourself, to form your own opinion.

Photos and text taken from "Mykonos - Today and yesterday" (Toubis Editions)