Secrets cannot be kept forever, and journalists, publishers, and many celebrities have besieged Tinos in recent years by land, air, and sea. They wrote about Tinos and revealed its beauty beyond the pilgrimage to the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Evangelistria.
They wrote about the beaches and the villages—the 32 authentic jewels of Tinos—and its endless network of trails, wines, and gastronomy. Rightfully so. Tinos has these and much more—so many that two or three trips are not enough to discover them.
Even if Tinos is being modernised more and more every year, even if it doesn't look as much like the authentic island we knew and loved 20 years ago, you still get to experience the generous experiences it offers.
Volax with its alien-like granites, Xoburgos with its ruined Frankish castle, the windswept landscape of Livada with its lighthouse, the Ursuline monastery-school and the Jesuit Catholic monastery, and all the small and large marble-paved villages with shady squares, fountains, and beautiful houses of Cycladic architecture make Tinos unforgettable.
You can admire some of the 600 pigeon houses with elaborate stone carvings; the chapels whitewashed on the slopes, and the old threshing floors—the beaches with the blue-green waters.
Talk to the hospitable inhabitants of the villages who will greet you with the phrase "Yiasou/Hello".
Look around you: miracles of nature and people continue to occur in Tinos. Many unite, trying to preserve their authentic identity - not another borrowed from the neighbouring party island, Mykonos.
If you go there as a traveller and not as a tourist, the eyes of the soul open, and the island will reveal itself to you.
Then you will know why Tinos is the only one. And the island deserves to be protected so that it does not turn into another Mykonos.
READ MORE: The wild natural beauty of Lasithi - Plateaus, caves and palm trees.
