Sifnos has the rare gift of feeling both chic and well lived-in. Set in the western Cyclades, it is an island of pretty villages, terraced hills, old footpaths, blue-domed chapels, dovecotes, dry-stone walls, and bays that shift from easy summer sand to clear, rocky coves.
Its history stretches back to the Cycladic world of the 3rd millennium BC, and in antiquity it was rich from gold and silver mines, quarries, and clay. That wealth left one of its finest traces at Delphi, where the marble Treasury of the Sifnians became one of the great Ionic monuments of the 6th century BC. Later centuries brought Byzantine churches, Venetian and Frankish rule, Ottoman administration, the fortified settlement of Kastro, and a local culture unusually strong in letters, religion, craft, and domestic life.
On a recent visit to Sifnos, I followed two of the island’s strongest threads, which reflect some of my own key passions – ceramics and gastronomy – meeting the locals behind the enticing potteries and restaurants, many of them enthusiastically carrying on their trade from the generations that preceded them. These are people who love, respect and honor their island’s heritage, and keep up traditions that are too easily forfeited or forgotten in our time.
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