7 Best Sights in The Cyclades, Greece

The Tinians built the splended Church of the Annunciate Virgin on this site in 1823 to commemorate finding a buried icon of the Annunciation in the foundations of an old Byzantine church that once stood here. Imposing and beautiful, framed in gleaming yellow and white, it stands atop the town's main hill ("hora"), which is linked to the harbor via Megalochari, a steeply inclined avenue lined with votive shops. Half Venetian, half Cypriot in style, the facade (illuminated at night) has a distinctive two-story arcade and bookend staircases. Lined with the most costly stones from Tinos, Paros, and Delos, the church's marble courtyards (note the green-veined Tinian stone) are paved with pebble mosaics and surrounded by offices, chapels, a health station, and seven museums. Inside the upper three-aisle church dozens of beeswax candles and precious tin- and silver-work votives—don't miss the golden orange tree near the door donated by a blind man who was granted sight—dazzle the eye. You must often wait in line to see the little icon, encrusted with jewels, which is said to have curative powers. To beseech the icon's aid, a sick person sends a young female relative or a mother brings her sick infant. As the pilgrim descends from the boat, she falls to her knees, with traffic indifferently whizzing about her, and crawls painfully up the faded red padded lane on the main street—1 km (½ mile)—to the church. In the church's courtyards, she and her family camp for several days, praying to the magical icon for a cure, which sometimes comes. This procedure is very similar to the ancient one observed in Tinos's temple of Poseidon. The lower church, called the Evresis, celebrates the finding of the icon; in one room a baptismal font is filled with silver and gold votives. The chapel to the left commemorates the torpedoing by the Italians, on Dormition Day, 1940, of the Greek ship Helle; in the early stages of the war, the roused Greeks amazingly overpowered the Italians.

Housed in an 18th-century house originally built for Captain Nikolaos Malouchos, this museum exhibits a bedroom furnished and decorated in the fashion of that period. On display are looms and lace-making devices, Cycladic costumes, old photographs, and Mykoniot musical instruments that are still played at festivals.

Chalki itself is a pretty town, known for its neoclassical houses in shades of pink, yellow, and gray, which are oddly juxtaposed with the plain but stately 17th-century Frangopoulos Tower. Like other towers erected by the Venetians on the island, it was primarily used in its heyday for defense purposes.

Built in the square in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral is a small museum that showcases the history of Naxos beginning with the Mycenean era. Displays include pottery, artifacts, and even a tomb from ancient times used to cover the graves of prosperous Naxians.

Standing on the highest point on Santorini, which rises to 1,856 feet at the summit, Santorini's largest monastery offers a cinematic vista: from here you can see the surrounding islands and, on a clear day, the mountains of Crete, more than 100 km (62 miles) away. You may also be able to spot ancient Thira on the peak below Profitis Ilias. Unfortunately, radio towers and a NATO radar installation provide an ugly backdrop for the monastery's wonderful bell tower.

Founded in 1711 by two monks from Pyrgos, Profitis Ilias is cherished by islanders because here, in a secret school, the Greek language and culture were taught during the dark centuries of the Turkish occupation. A museum in the monastery contains a model of the secret school in a monk's cell, another model of a traditional carpentry and blacksmith shop, and a display of ecclesiastical items.

This museum displays a 16th-century windmill, outdoor oven, waterwheel, wine press, and dovecote, with the intention of illustrating and preserving the traditional rural life of the island.

Close to the port you’ll find yourself walking into the pedestrian paths of Antiparos Town, lined with whitewashed shops, restaurants, and cafés. Farther up, the arched stonework entrance to the historical center, known as the camara, leads to the centuries-old Venetian kastro, or castle, of Antiparos. Like other Cycladic islands, this architecture reflects the construction of fortresses built between the 13th and 16th century when Venetian and Ottoman influences took over the islands. You can walk the whitewashed streets of this small village, where Antiparians still live in small homes built on top of each other as one continuous block construction within the stone walls. There are also four churches within the settlement.