Symi

Symi is a rocky island, with a rugged nature and a jagged coast; as soon as you arrive on this island you feel enveloped by the multitude of colors of the houses which, starting from the mountains, reach the pier of the port, where numerous yachts are docked in the summer.

The island is characterized by a neoclassical architecture due to the fact that until the eighteenth century ships were built for the fleets of the great powers of the Aegean Sea. So in the 17th and 18th centuries the island was teeming with traders, captains and shipowners who decided to take up residence there and had luxurious houses built in the neoclassical style.

Another activity that made the island rich and famous in the past was fishing and the marketing of sponges, but around the end of the nineteenth century the crisis began to affect both vital sectors of the island's economy and many islanders began to abandon the island by emigrating to Australia.

The first tourists arrived on the island around the seventies, but it is only in recent years that it is developing, albeit respecting the area and above all without building large hotels or tourist villages, but with the development of a typically familiar hospitality with rooms and apartments for rent or small guest houses.

One of the most famous and lively places on the island of Symi is undoubtedly the small port of Gialos where most of the clubs, taverns, restaurants and discos are concentrated and where it is possible to do some social life; while for those who love tranquility, a visit to Chorio, located in the upper part of the island, reachable only after tackling 500 stone steps!

The sea that laps the coasts of this island is really very beautiful, the beaches are mostly pebbles and some such as those of Emborio, Agiamarina, Agios Nikolaus and Nanou can only be reached by taking one of the many boats that make their way every day shuttle from the port.

Do not miss two unmissable excursions: take a boat and reach the bay of Agios Georgios, a mixed pebble and sand beach, with a crescent shape surrounded all around by the cliff, but without even a small shaded area!; and rent a moped to take a trip to the charming Panormitis monastery in the southern area of ​​the island, a very suggestive place.