'Head to the Greek Islands for our holidays.
'And it's easy to see why.'
This is Greece.
Look at that.
'I have a strong affinity with the islands, my mum is Greek.
'But I've only holidayed here...'
Here we go.
'..Until now.
'So I'm going to explore their hidden side...'
There's nobody here.
Hello, everybody! You're good.
'..From their breath-taking natural wonders...'
Let me show you our real mother.
'..To the colourful customs and the architectural splendour.'
That is a miracle of loveliness.
It makes me proud to be just that little bit Greek.
This is a voyage of discovery, and I'm taking you with me.
I haven't been to Santorini since I was 17
and since then it's changed unimaginably.
It's become one of the most popular destinations in Europe
and one of the most famous in the world,
and this is why -
the impossibly scenic, gorgeous views.
Every year, nearly two million people are lured to Santorini,
not least for its spellbinding sunsets.
But my tip - it's well worth setting the alarm early
at least once so you can experience the total tranquillity
of a sunrise like this one.
And then you have it all to yourself.
Located southeast of mainland Greece in the Aegean Sea,
Santorini is the undisputed jewel
in the crown of the Cyclades.
Striking blue-domed churches
and whitewashed villages
populate this 76-square-kilometre island.
But Santorini owes its seductive looks
to one of the most catastrophic geological events
in recorded history.
About 3,500 years ago,
that volcano erupted...
...and the centre of the island collapsed.
Then the interior filled with the sea
and created this, the caldera.
Believed by some to have inspired the legend
of the Lost City of Atlantis,
one thing is certain,
it left behind one of the most spectacular landscapes
in all of Greece.
Only 60 years ago,
Santorini lacked even the most basic amenities.
But now with more than 50 five-star hotels and resorts,
it's become a playground for the rich and famous.
I'd better scrub up a bit.
I'm meeting the woman who kick-started the transformation,
opening Santorini's first luxury hotel in the '90s.
Today, Kalia's still catering
to its most discerning visitors
here at her newest hideaway.
And, yes, she does look a bit like a Greek Sandra Bullock.
You know this island very well. Yes.
So Santorini has gone from micro, from this,
it's exploded, hasn't it, over the decades?
Back in the '90s, Santorini was
a very simple, like, um...
not well- known island.
It was more a place for bed and breakfast, for camping.
If you then said Santorini was a luxury destination,
everybody would think, "Are you crazy?
"Who would go there for luxury?"
Local people never expected from no electricity in the '70s
to this kind of amazing, wow destination
that Santorini became today.
Once the rustic retreat of an eccentric widow
with connections to the Greek royal family,
and a passion for horses,
these clays her stables are luxurious suites
and the hotel has one of the most lnstagramable pools
I've ever seen.
Santorini has become so popular because of its natural beauty.
The Santorini selfie.
Exactly, the Santorini selfie.
And do you think there is still
a hidden, unexplored Santorini?
Oh, my God, absolutely.
If you stay here for a week,
I will take you to places that you never thought they exist.
Almost two thirds of Santorini are unexplored.
All in good time.
But there's no way I'm passing up the opportunity to take a dip
in THAT pool.
With as many as 18,000 tourists
descending on the island some days...
...it's hard to imagine finding peace and quiet
away from the crowds jostling for the best view.
But it's the hidden Santorini I'm after,
so I'm back in my hiking boots and on its trail.
I don't think when you mention
the island of Santorini to people
that the first thing that pops into their head is walking and hiking.
Well, neither was I thinking about walking in Santorini
before I moved here.
My guide is fellow walking fan Nico,
who first fell in love with the island 20 years ago...
and probably knows how to get off the beaten track here
better than anyone.
During the first season, I actually got overwhelmed
with the tourism
and I started walking the paths realising that
nobody is walking on them any more.
So it was very satisfying to discover
that there's about 65 to 70km
of paths all over the island.
Nice. Around landscape like this
where it's so quiet.
It is nice to be able to escape like this.
Yes. And to share all of this beauty.
Absolutely.
Today, we're following an ancient track linking villages
which still bear the sign of a time when the island was ruled by Italy.
Let's have a look behind us.
0h!
So what's that village called?
This is Emporio. Emporio.
Meaning "commerce". One of the biggest villages of the island.
Built around one of the five castles the Venetians built
in the 1200s and 1300s.
So you don't think of castles when you think of Santorini.
You've got five of them.
Five of them. Quite greedy!
It's not us, it's the Venetians.
There we go.
Up here, it's easy to see Santorini's spectacular coastline
isn't the only legacy of that explosive chapter in its history.
The rich, volcanic soil makes this a forager's paradise.
Fig trees.
Just the random fig tree on your walking path.
Capers growing wild everywhere.
Capers.
One of the hardest plants to cultivate.
You don't get this in the Lake District
or the Yorkshire Dales or the Peaks.
THEY CHUCKLE
Fantastic.
Winding through a landscape of vineyards,
every bend of the path reveals more of the island's
unexpected edible delights.
What's this?
It's a weed, essentially,
so you can cut some and just rub it.
What is it?
That's wild fennel, if I'm not mistaken.
Mmm. Oh, that is a really zingy aniseed smell.
Goes right up the nostrils.
Especially when your nostrils are as big as mine. Lovely.
It hasn't escaped my attention
that we're heading ever upwards on our hike.
In fact, our destination
is the highest point in Santorini
and the former capital Pyrgos.
A labyrinth of traditional houses
built around one of those fortresses
left behind by the Venetians.
The alleyways were designed to be deliberately
misleading and confusing, weren't they?
Yes, to confuse the pirates who were trying to find
the only entrance of the castle.
Certainly worked. It confuses me.
Nico is promising me
we'll be rewarded for our efforts.
We're in search of a secret sunset spot.
Is this it?
There is no way I'd be able to
track this down without him.
Is that not our viewing platform there?
No, not quite yet.
It was pretty lovely.
I've got something more special for you.
And to your right.
Let's turn left here. OK.
In here. Oh, good Lord.
In through the door?
Up the steps. Oh, up the steps.
It's a proper magical mystery tour, this.
0h!
Now this is a special spot.
Efharisto poli! Parakalo.
Oh, thank you. My pleasure.
That is a miracle of loveliness.
Where would most people go for the sunsets?
I would think here, the northwestern tip,
the most famous spot for watching the sunset.
Not as special as this spot?
See, I bring you to all the best places.
Well, Nico does!
In the memory bank.
The blue dome,
the two crosses, the sun setting over the sea.
I'll remember this.
I'm on Santorini,
known today as the supermodel
of the Greek Islands.
More Gisele than Kate Moss, I'd say.
But for years, Santorini was considered
one of the Aegean's poorest places to live.
This island has very little rainfall,
but because of its fertile, volcanic soil,
everything that grows here is rich in flavour,
including an old peasant dish
that's still a Santorini speciality
and one of my faves.
I'm heading to a local cafe
in the village of Pyrgos to try the fava beans.
Lovely to see you.
Antonis owns Cafe Brusco
where his fava beans are prepared in the same way
they would have been generations ago.
So, this is the old-school way, traditional way.
Basically, the stone grinder...
OK. ..Is taking off the shells.
And you're left with the favas.
Wherever you go in Greece, you'll be served fava beans,
but the Santorini favas
are unique to this island,
and they've been granted special status.
They're dried for a year before they're ready for grinding.
Will you hire me? Do I have a job?
Yes?
Once the bean has been ground out of the husk,
they need to be separated.
As you swirl them, you can see the casings
rising to the top.
Then, kind of...
And then... Yes.
There they are.
So this is for the chickens. Yes.
And these are for us. Yes.
Very nice.
JULIA LAUGHS
In our family,
we are a little bit partial to the old fava bean paste.
It's similar to houmous in texture,
but the taste is sweeter.
It's just delicious.
Far from its peasant roots,
the Santorini product is now an expensive, gourmet product
harvested by farmers on the island.
The locals here like to enjoy it as a dip
gently cooked into a smooth paste.
It's the moment of truth.
Yasou.
From Santorini, sweet wine.
Ah, Efharisto poli.
I have a feeling
that this is going to be the best fava bean paste I've ever tasted.
Mmm.
Such a delicate flavour.
They mix the fava beans for a long, long time. They heat them.
They add olive oil,
they add onion, they keep mixing,
they scoop off the top of the surface.
And they end up with this.
This is Santorini
in a little dish.
It's just a demonstration of
the deliciousness
of the fruit and vegetables on this very, very fertile volcanic island.
Not even 11 and I'm drinking wine. Whoop-whoop. Winning.
I've had a taste of the old Santorini,
but these clays, it's hard to escape the signs
of the island's recent reinvention
catering to the massive influx of tourists.
Sadly, one of the biggest downsides is what they leave behind.
While laws are being introduced to ban single-use plastic,
a huge amount still ends up in the sea every day.
But I'm meeting someone who's doing something about it.
Yasou.
Hello, hello.
I'm Julia.
Nice to meet you, Julia. Xanthe?
Xanthe. Hi, nice to meet you, Lefteris.
How are you, Lefteris? I'm fine, thank you.
Xanthe, the same name as one of my daughters,
is the skipper of this boat
and she's taking us along the south coast of Santorini
past the famous white beach.
That's pretty incredible, isn't it?
It's like a huge iceberg.
Born into a family of five generations of fishermen,
Lefteris is determined to bring Santorini's waters
back to their former glory.
What's the project called?
The name of the project is Enaleia.
Which in Greek means "together with the fishermen."
I saw that together with the nets
the fishermen were collecting a lot of plastic.
And I saw a can of Coca-Cola.
It had a weird colour
so I saw the expiration date
and it expired in 1987.
And you realised how long all the rubbish stays down there.
Yes.
The biggest shock was when the fisherman took it from my hand
and threw it back in the sea.
He told me that's the problem we have.
And then he threw it back? Yes!
So how are you and this project going to get over that?
So we give them now bins to put the plastic there.
Then they bring it up in seven ports, currently in Greece,
where we store it and then we recycle and upcycle it.
And these are made from plastic
that's been collected by the fishermen?
Exactly. Specifically, this one is made from net.
They are turned into socks.
So you're upcycling and recycling.
Yes, and we are just getting started.
So hopefully we are able to clean
maybe four or five tonnes of marine plastic per week.
Now our fishermen, they are so proud.
They are really, really inspired and talking to other fishermen
because they see that in the areas that we do the project,
the sea is becoming cleaner.
And the fish are more again.
This is a subject that I'm really passionate about.
This story and the people behind this story
are genuinely inspiring.
This is one of the problems that we're all living with.
And these guys want to do something about it.
I've been told if I want to see what life on Santorini was like
before tourism took hold...
...all I need to do is take a short boat ride.
Thank you.
This is Thirasia, baby Santorini.
You can see Mama Santorini over there about ten minutes away.
This is how it used to be
about 60 years ago.
What a contrast.
It may share the same dramatic landscape as its glitzy neighbour,
but Thirasia really is like stepping back in time.
This is the Greece always described to me by my mum.
Just three and a half miles square,
much of its sparse, mountainous landscape is uninhabited.
Calling this place sleepy is an understatement.
There are signs that tourism is starting
to spread across the water from Santorini,
but the visitors who come here rarely venture beyond the harbour.
Maybe it's the steep climb that puts people off exploring.
But, fortunately,
I've bagged the island's only taxi to take me to the top.
I think this is my ride.
And I'm definitely travelling in style.
It's the Popemobile!
Hi. Hello! Yasou.
Thank you.
Lovely carpet.
SHE SPEAKS GREEK
Efharisto.
It's a far cry from the black cabs.
The old kitchen cupboard door is a bit rickety.
A bit wobbly.
It's definitely unspoilt, this island, isn't it?
Couldn't be more different to Santorini.
It's quite mad, really,
to go from all that glamour
and pulsating tourism...
...to this sleepy little island.
An island that didn't even have electricity until 1980.
I'm gonna get out here, wherever here is.
Efharisto, Manoli.
There we go.
Thank you.
I've come to the capital, Manolas,
but it's little more than a village.
Strolling through its almost deserted lanes
feels a world away from anything.
The hub is the church of Saint Constantine
built over 100 years ago.
That's where I'm meeting Papa Loukas,
the village priest of nearly 30 years.
What a beautiful church.
Behind us, this is very beautiful. I haven't seen...
This is Grandfather.
Your grandfather made this? Yes.
Shipwrecks?
That's why it's so unique.
How many people live on the island?
And what do you think of Santorini, which is... so big?
What is so special about Thirasia, the island,
what is so "orea" about Thirasia?
So they're all wrong.
This is the place to come for the best sunsets, not Santorini.
We're all wrong.
Thirasia is the most untouched island I've been to so far.
It's like stepping back in time.
And even though it's so close to the glamourous energy of Santorini,
it's a different world.
I wonder how long it'll stay like this?
Returning to Santorini after so many years
really has been full of contrast,
from 21st century luxuries
to rustic, undiscovered charm.
I certainly won't be leaving it so long before I come back again.
'Next time, my Greek odyssey takes me to the Sporades -
'the paradise islands.'
There's nobody here.
'Visiting Skiathos and Skopolos,
'I'll be discovering colourful local traditions...'
I feel very Greek and very hot.
'..And taking in the blockbusting scenery
'of the Mamma Mia island.'
That is just amazing.
This is Greece. Look at that.
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