Where to stay

Five Star Greece With hotel accommodation on Tinos being rather limited, it is well worth considering a villa. Five Star Greece manages a portfolio of unique properties on the island, and works with clients to help them find the perfect one to meet all their needs, be that easy beach access for a clutch of teens or a historic village mansion promising blissful seclusion and easy access to a host of authentic seafood tavernas. Our pick of the bunch is perched above the pretty village of Kardiani, with its whitewashed lanes and flush of red geraniums. Sleeping 6-9, and shaded by fig, eucalyptus and olive trees, it offers light, contemporary and spacious rooms, plus a lovely pool, mere steps away from the sandy shore. Villas from £5,910 per week. 020 8422 4884, fivestargreece.com

Lithos Luxury Suites Centrally located collection of comfortable, modern suites just a short walk from Panagia Evangelistra (Church of the Virgin Mary) and the sights, shops and amenities of Tinos Town, plus the ferry. Expect friendly, helpful staff, a small outdoor pool and hearty breakfasts consisting of local produce and dishes. Suites from £60. Paragerria, Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 26659, lithos-luxury-suites.allcycladeshotels.com

Marathia Small, unpretentious nine-apartment hotel, just metres from the longest sandy beach in Tinos. Owner Marinos Souranis provides excellent breakfasts in Marathia restaurant, across the road, and sunbeds for after your morning swim. Island-produced yoghurt, cheeses, jams, honey, meats, crusty bread and eggs are complemented by a range of seasonal daily specials. Closed in December. Apartments from £51. Aghios Fokas, near Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 23249, marathiatinos.gr

Xinara House British couple Peter and Sue Marston, architect and artist respectively, have, with the help of local marble craftsmen, restored this lovely 18th-century bishop’s house, near the entrance to the eponymous village of two churches and a few dozen houses. Steep, layered terraces planted with vegetables, vines and almond and peach trees lead up to a rocky hillside and provide fresh produce aplenty. If required, local cooks will prepare traditional island meals for guests in the well-appointed kitchen, and the many nooks and crannies in the stylish, art-packed rooms offer a peaceful space in which to relax. Blacksmiths’ annexe from £86 (sleeps 2-3); Main house from £235 (sleeps 8-10). Three-night minimum. Xinara, xinarahouse.com

Travel Information

Tinos is the third largest island in the Cylcades, a group of islands in the Greek Aegean. Currency is the euro (EUR), and time is two hours ahead of GMT. Flights from the UK to Athens take 3 hours and 40 minutes. From Athens, Tinos is 3 hours and 45 minutes by ferry from the port of Rafina, a 30-minute drive from Athens airport and 40 minutes by bus. Tinos is also linked by ferry to the islands of Mykonos, Andros, Naxos and Syros.

In April the average high is 18C and the average low, 11C.

GETTING THERE
Aegean Airlines offers daily flights from London Heathrow to Athens International Airport. en.aegeanair.com
easyJet flies from London Gatwick to Athens. easyjet.com

GETTING AROUND

Explore the island’s backroads, wineries, tavernas and beaches with your own transport. Apergis car hire will arrange to have a car waiting for you at the ferry terminal on arrival. Bike rentals, too. apergis-rentacar.gr

RESOURCES
Tinos Secret is a guide offering information on Tinos, including the island’s produce, food festivals, history, architecture, and beaches. tinosecret.gr

Tinos Trails, meanwhile, has detailed information on island walks
and hiking, including maps. tinostrails.gr

Where to eat

Prices are per person for three courses, with half a carafe of wine, unless otherwise stated

Agkyra The menu depends on the weather in this traditional fish taverna (whose name means ‘anchor’) close to the waterfront. When available, try the pan-fried barbouni (red mullet) or sardelles (sardines) and Tinos-grown salads. The short, inexpensive wine list has plenty of local flavour, including decent barrel wine. Reservations recommended at busy times. From £22. Plateia Pallada, Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 23016

Agnánti Mezedopoleio (meze taverna) in a small, old grocery store in the centre of a car-free village. Good, home-cooked dishes include stifado (slow-cooked rabbit or beef stew with small onions and spices), oven-baked seasonal vegetables, small pies and daily specials alongside regional wines and Nissos beers. Breakfast on the 15-seat terrace on louza (local air-dried ham), omelette, honey and yoghurt. Reservations recommended. Breakfast from £7; lunch and dinner from £15. Ktikados, 00 30 69796 75109

Dio Choria Chef Vaggelis Rouggeris changes his menus seasonally: grilled and oven-baked meats (goat and small game in winter), oyster mushrooms, anise-flavoured sausages, fava (yellow split pea purée), chickpeas and spinach. Pies, dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves) and artichoke specials quickly disappear, so an early booking is recommended. The wine list includes island, Italian and French bins. Leave time to explore the 900-year old village above, with its many steps and slim alleyways. Open during the summer (week before Easter – early October), winter weekends and public holidays. From £24. Dio Choria, 00 30 22830 41091

Itan Ena Mikro Karavi In a peaceful, colourful courtyard that was once a cinema, chef Andonis Psaltis serves traditional flavours – fava with grilled squid, trachanas (soured milk-soaked dried wheat) and salsitsi (air-dried pork sausage) in modern dishes. Try the rabbit-filled ravioli and mastic ice cream. The wine list includes organically-produced T-Oinos, Volacus and Domaine de Kalathas bottles, and some from other Cycladic islands. Reservations recommended during busy travel times. From £29. Trion Lerarchon, Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 22818, mikrokaravi.gr

Marathia The concept of filoxenia (‘love of strangers’) is behind this elegant, enjoyable beachside restaurant. Owner Marinos Souranis sources fine ingredients – cheeses, capers, herbs – from Tinian small producers, perfect pastries are made by Kiriaki Papa, and seasonal fish – lavraki (sea bass) with okra, charcoal-grilled rophos (grouper) – or home-preserved – tonnos (tuna with bay leaves). Strong drinks offering including quality Tinos and Greek wines such as Tselepos Estate (Peloponnese). Reservations recommended, especially for early-evening (sunset) bookings. From £24. Aghios Fokas, near Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 23249, marathiatinos.gr

Tarsanás Mezes of marinated island artichokes, taramosalata, cheese and spinach pies precede a feast of grilled, baked or pan-fried ‘catch of the day’ – sardelles (sardines), astakos (lobster), vlachos (stone bass), synagrida (dentex), soupia (cuttlefish) – rice with herbs, seasonal vegetables and salads, in chef Antonis Ghion’s busy restaurant along from the harbour. If the winds are being kind, sit by the water. Thoughtful wine list, plus Nissos and other beers. From £26. Kazanova 5, Bintsi, Tinos Town, 00 30 22830 24667

To Thalassaki Take the steep, narrow road down to a jetty on a small bay (or anchor your boat) to enjoy chef and co-owner Antonia Zarpa’s innovative seasonal menus of Tinian products. Try artichoke salad with orange, wheat and onion; mixed pulses with codfish; layered grilled aubergine, courgettes and peppers with tomato sauce and raisins; or roast octopus with chickpeas. Good Tinos wines available and a solid cocktail list. Open from the beginning of Lent to the end of October. Reservations recommended. From £38. Ormos Ysternia, 00 30 22830 31366

Food Glossary

Aghinaroryzo

Rice pilaf with artichokes

Castellano

Cheese flavoured with mastic

Fourtalia

Omelette made in a pan with sausages and potatoes; non-meat fillings, too

Galaktoboureko

Orange-honey, syrup-soaked sweet filo pie filled with vanilla-flavouredsemolina custard

Kleftiko

Fish or meat baked in paper, witholive oil and herbs

Kopanisti

PDO (Cyclades) soft, spicy cow’s-milk cheese, made by draining the curds in a cloth, then kneading in salt; considered a luxury, as it takes 100kg of milk to make 8kg of cheese

Loukoumades

Small fried doughnuts dousedin honey, sesame seeds and cinnamon

Kourabiedes

Almond and butter cookies

Louza

Air-dried pork-back, baked, then covered with red wine, to cure

Pasteli

Sesame and honey sweet traditionally served on lemon leaves at festivals and weddings

Petimezi

Grape-must syrup

Pitsouni

Pigeon fried in breadcrumbs or in tomato sauce, served with rice and wine

Raki

Distilled from grapes still on the stem; drunk from small glasses

Salsitsi

Air-dried pork sausage flavoured with allspice and fennel

Stifado

Slow-cooked rabbit or beef, stewed with an equal quantity of small onions in olive oil, tomatoes, herbs and spices

Vissino

Sour cherry liqueur made with brandy, sugar and spices

Food and Travel Review

If local legend is to be believed, the huge ‘boulder-balls’ surrounding us on a windswept, 450m-high plateau in eastern Tinos are proof that we’re standing on a past battleground of the Titans and Giants. For the mythical Titans, descendants of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth), had no wish to lose this beautiful isle to their land-grabbing behemoth half-siblings.

Today, this spectacular landscape is home to T-Oinos winery’s nine organic hectares of two Cycladic grape varietals, assyrtiko and mavrotragano, planted in trim, north-south rows around the boulders and ancient ruins. Winemaker Thanos Georgilas appreciates this dramatic scene for a different reason. ‘The bugs are blown away by the meltemi winds just at the right moment, at harvest time,’ he says. A layer of fertile, sandy soil conceals granite rock, and, until two centuries ago, vines covered the area. Then, the grapes were turned into juice in stegasta – covered, stone presses – and donkeys carried it down to the villages.

‘Before we plant, we grow barley for three years, to recover the land from long disuse,’ says Thanos. ‘At first, we brought assyrtiko vines from nearby Santorini, but now, 17 years later, we can plant our own grafted vines. These have deep roots and rarely require irrigation, so we can produce grapes full of the soil’s character.’

Medieval Tinos was a major wine producer for the occupying Venetians (1207-1715). The wealth this generated created today’s topography of windmills, castles and monasteries, and villages of whitewashed, cubist houses and twisting, narrow alleys originally built to deter both invaders and winds. They built dovecotes, too, to attract pigeons for meat and fertiliser. Their elaborate designs became symbols of economic power, and many of the 800 that remain resemble mini-mansions. With the arrival of the conquering, teetotal Ottomans in the early 18th century, agriculture replaced vines on the island’s stone terraces, built along the contours of its rocky hillsides. As recently as the 1970s, farmers tilled most of this exposed, rugged island of slate and marble. Then, many left for the city and the goats found plenty of food to enjoy. Now, a wild beauty and clean, richly worked – and goat-fertilised – soil have attracted a new generation of producers and chefs.

Beekeeper Nikos Karagiorgis was a marble sculptor until 30 years ago, when he realised his lifelong passion for bees. He, too, is grateful for the August meltemi winds. ‘They clean the air,’ he says. Spring brings rain, and Tinos is covered in wild flowers and flowering herbs – marjoram, fennel, sage, ladanas (rock rose). ‘My 30,000 bees (up to 60,000 in a good year) make honeycomb from them. I only collect honey later,’ continues Nikos. In summer, Nikos’s bees produce thyme honey from the herbs covering the hills around scenic, traditional, marble-rich Pyrgos (‘The Tower’) village, in western Tinos. In autumn, he collects heather honey from his 400 brightly painted hives on the hillsides near isolated Livada Bay (eastern Tinos). ‘Bees usually only live 45 days as they work so hard, but some of mine live longer,’ he says. ‘I bring them to my house in winter, to feed them and protect them from the cold.’

‘Medieval Tinos was a major wine producer for the occupying Venetians. The wealth this generated created today’s topography of windmills, castles and monasteries, and villages of whitewashed houses and twisting alleys originally built to deter both invaders and winds. They built dovecotes, too, to attract pigeons for meat’

‘Tinos’s thyme honey is rich and sweet. Try it with our kariki (‘gourd’) cheese,’ says Euripides Apostolides, chef in beachside Marathia restaurant, a few kilometres east of Chora, the local name for Tinos Town. ‘It’s made from raw cow’s milk and matures in a [previously emptied] sealed gourd for several months; it becomes dry, crumbly and extremely pungent.’ Euripides also introduces us to petroma. ‘Tinos whey-cheese; the curds are pressed between stones (petra) or marble slabs for a couple of days,’ he says. ‘We love it anytime, fresh and unsalted, and use 60-day old petroma for pies. At 90 days, it’s a fine complement to raki and figs.’ We also savour village-made katsiki freska [fresh goat’s cheese] and mellow, 22-month-aged cow’s-milk graviera.

Marathia’s owner, Marinos Souranis, explains, ‘all the fish we serve are local and, because of the weather, sometimes not available to us, so I like to preserve what I can.’ We taste his delicious avgotaracho, the pressed, salted, sun-dried roe of grey mullet (kephalos). He adds slivers of mullet aged in its own broth to a fragrant, fresh herb salad and grills to perfection a magnificent, whole mullet just seven hours out of the water. ‘I appreciate the fishermen and producers, and work with them. They have always been part of my life. My family is “old Tinos” – my mother is Catholic, and Catholicism came here with the Venetians.’

Religion has played a big part in the story – and foods – of this small 194sq km island filled with 50 alluring villages, ten thousand inhabitants, considerably more goats and 700 churches. One of these, Panagia Evangelistra (Church of the Virgin Mary), in Chora, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Greece. The Orthodox faithful fasts for more than half the year; meat is avoided and even, some days, olive oil. Today, few fast, but centuries of obedience have created a cuisine of marvellous vegetable, pulse and (bloodless) seafood dishes. Celebratory sweetmeats, too, are part of Orthodox ritual, and pilgrims take home pasteli, loukoumi (known as Turkish delight elsewhere), lychnarakia (sweet, whey-cheese pies) and finikia (oval-shaped, honey cookies).

We find husband-and-wife Leonidis and Militsa Halaris in their zacharoplasteion (pastry shop) in Tripotamou, just north of Chora. ‘Nobody here used to record recipes, so I’ve discovered the traditional island sweets through word of mouth,’ explains Leonidis, as he lays out trays of mantolato (nougat, a favourite in medieval Byzantium), amigdolata (almond cookies), tsoureki (orange bread) and artos (anise-flavoured bread, for the church). We taste his sumptuous glyka tou koutaliou (spoon sweets) made with quince, figs, bitter-orange peel and cherries. ‘I use only Tinos-grown fruits and nuts, then I know that my sweetmeats are the best possible quality.’

Church holidays are not the only island excuse for sweets. Tinos sheltered ships during the mythical Trojan War, and routed pirates, crusaders and others throughout its long history. All such events are cause for celebrations, so Leonidis and Militsa are kept busy.

‘At Tarsanás, mezes of lightly marinated island artichokes, taramasalata, cheese and spinach pies precede a feast of grilled, baked or pan-fried catch of the day – sardelles (sardines), astakos (lobster), vlachos (stone bass), synagrida (dentex), soupia (cuttlefish) – rice with fresh herbs, seasonal vegetables and salads’

Chora, the small, buzzy main town and port of Tinos, is built around Panagia Evangelistra’s popularity, but it’s easy to escape the crowds in its narrow lanes of cafés and shops, or enjoy an evening stroll with them, along the wide pavements of the harbour-front. In Pallada, a small square by the port, we find farmer Iakovos Siotos setting up his daily stall in the laiki agora (people’s market). Chatting in the early-morning sunshine, he neatly stacks creamy-white aubergines next to fresh cucumbers and courgettes, their flowers still intact: ‘My wife, Evangelia, pickles the kritimo (sea fennel) I collect, and threads our sun-dried tomatoes on strings, to use in winter salads and casseroles’. Two-litre bottles of wine and raki are lined up behind his peppers, potatoes, onions and green beans, huge jars of vinegar-preserved capers in front.

Capers (Capparis spinosa), the unopened flower buds of the pretty, spreading caper bush, are native to the entire Cyclades. The island’s abundant stone walls and rocky cliffs provide the perfect growing conditions for this rutin-rich, antioxidant-loaded plant that, for centuries, has been considered anti-arthritic; a useful food here, with the heavy night mists and high winds.

Tinos is a walker’s paradise. Well-signed footpaths take you along old donkey tracks past smallholdings, shepherds’ huts and picturesque Venetian ruins, along beautiful, isolated beaches and through small, marble-paved, traffic-free villages, often precariously perched on steep hillsides. The air is perfumed with the abundantly growing marathon (wild fennel) and delightful two-storey dovecotes are scattered over the hills. For centuries, their elaborate stonework has inspired the island’s marble sculptors who have, in turn, transformed daily life here – doorways, windows, fountains along the hills’ spring lines – into works of art. ‘My father, Costas, has never left Tinos,’ Andonis Charikiopoulos informs us in Agnánti, a taverna whose name means ‘to see above the horizon’. On the small terrace overlooking the tree-shaded courtyard of a handsome church, we enjoy his fine, traditional dishes – slow-cooked beef in tomato sauce, kololithokeftedes (fried, fennel-aromatised courgette balls), gigantes (slow-baked giant lima beans with herbs) – and joyous island tastes of stroggilo tyraki (round cow-milk cheese from nearby Agapi village), louza (air-dried pork) and lightly pickled aghinares (artichokes) with capers, and the island firewater, raki.

‘I use rosaki aspro, potamisi and mavro potamiso. They are all “old island” grape varietals, brought to me by villagers,’ nearby raki-distiller Ioannis Diamantopoulos declares, as he loads grapes into a metal trench in his popular rakizio, near Arnados. ‘After 15 days or so in small barrels, they become sludge.’ Ioannis boils this ‘must’ in a Heath Robinson-style still. The steam enters a tube submerged in a tank of cold water and eventually emerges as raki. ‘The first raki out is 55 per cent alcohol by volume, later it’s weaker. A good raki is 40 per cent.’ During the short, busy season (October), he fills his stills every two hours, and flavours much of his production with the sun-dried wild fennel stacked by the door.

The surrounding hills are blanketed in aromatic herbs, untouched by air pollution and well fertilised by the agile goats. We find herbs used to make teas – faskomilo (mountain sage), kamomili (chamomile), triantafyllo (linden) – and for the kitchen – throumbi (savoury), fliskouni (wild mint), rigani (wild oregano). In earlier days there was krokos (saffron), too. So much in fact that Krokos, a village in the central, fertile Komi Valley, is named for it. This lush region of bamboo, fig trees and pasture is now home to most of the island’s artichoke production. In their season (January-April), Tinian restaurants serve some 500 grilled, sautéed or gently simmered artichokes a day, and island cooks reveal that they know more than 30 ways to prepare the flower buds of this regal plant.

Farmers need to transport their produce and, even as recently as 40 years ago, this was a job for donkeys laden with huge baskets. For generations, the villagers of Volax, high on the stunning, lunar-like plateau east of Komi, have woven these baskets from the valley’s trees, reeds and grasses. ‘I cut ligaria (chaste tree) in winter, and itia (willow) in July and August one week either side of the full moon.’ Basket-weaver Sigalas Loudovikos clarifies, ‘because the little insects in the wood are most active then. Afterwards, the willow is less supple.’ When Sigalas was young, there were 16 basket-making families in this village of 35 residents. Today, only two brothers still practise the age-old skill.

In the fish market, near Chora’s pretty harbour-front, fishmonger Giorgos Souranis has a different problem: ‘Today, I’m not well-stocked. For local fishermen, this is a bad period. The fish are hiding, as it’s in-between good and bad weather. When the bad weather is over, the fish will come back.’ In his cheerful store, guarded outside by a large, grumpy pelican and, inside, by a stern, fish-hating cat, shelves display red mullet (barbouni), hake (bakaliaros), grouper (rophos) and squid (kalamari), ‘and I also make kakavia (fish soup) from scorpios (scorpion fish).’

When the weather is good, fishermen come into port and give away their small fish – the ones that don’t easily sell – to locals. This community spirit is everywhere among the producers and growers and ‘Tinos’ is a byword throughout Greece for artisanal products.

Along from the fishing boats, in Tarsanás (‘Shipyard’), chef Antonis Ghion prepares fish that would make Poseidon proud – sweet-fleshed scorpios, grilled and wrapped in paper, silk-textured sea bass (lavraki) and whole lobster (astakos), ktapothi (sun-dried octopus) – and fennel-scented tyropittes (cheese pies). Here, in this waterfront restaurant, watching the sunset light up Chora across the bay, it’s easy to understand why those Titans put up such a fight to defend their homeland.

Thank goodness they did. For according to ancient scribes, the Titan Prometheus first smuggled fire to earth, making this flame-licked seafood feast a possibility.

Food and Travel travelled to Tinos courtesy of the Greek National Tourist Organisation. visitgreece.gr

Words by Rosemary Barron

Photography by Gary Latham

This feature was taken from the April 2020 issue of Food and Travel.

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