5 Best Sights in Fira, The Cyclades

Newly renovated, the museum contains artifacts from the island's millennia of history, which includes pottery, statues, and grave artifacts found mostly at excavations in ancient Thira and Akrotiri, from the Minoan through the Byzantine periods. Should you have time or inclination for only one museum visit on Santorini, however, the Museum of Prehistoric Thera is more instructive.

This is the treasure house that displays frescoes and other artifacts from the famed excavations at Akrotiri. Many of the finds have been sent off to the Archaeological Museum in Athens, but the most charming fresco remains here: a colorful depiction of women in dresses, gathering saffron from the stamens of crocuses. Also in this small collection are fresco fragments with the famous painted swallows, the island's favorite design motif, that still flock to Santorini to roost on the cliffs. The fossilized leaves from 60,000 BC prove the olive tree to be indigenous.

To peer into a live, sometimes smoldering volcano, join one of the popular excursions to Nea Kameni, the larger of the two Burnt Isles. After disembarking, there's a 130-meter (430-foot) hike to the top and a walk around the edge of the crater, and wondering if the volcano is ready for its fifth eruption during the last 100 years—after all, the last was in 1956. Some tours continue on to the island of Thirasia, often described as how Santorini was 50 years ago.

The modern Greek Orthodox cathedral is a major landmark. It's worth a look inside for a view of the frescoes by local artist Christoforos Asimis. You will quickly note how the local priests, with somber faces, long beards, and black robes, look strangely out of place in summertime tourist-jammed Fira.

A cliff-side house built after the 1956 earthquake has been cleverly repurposed as a contemporary art space. A permanent collection of installations is joined by seasonal exhibitions and events from international artists. The views across the caldera are some of the finest, while Gary's bar a couple of streets away serves up a cocktail menu devised by the visiting creators.