Call it cosmopolitan and you will be right. Call it famous in the Aegean, “birthplace” of water sports, gathering place for the young, favourite place of poet Seferis, and you will be right once again. Paros ignites people’s imagination since the pre-Historic times. Due to its abundant marble of high quality, it inspires artists. Due to the important religious monuments, with the most significant one being the pilgrimage of Panagia Ekatontapyliani, it attracts Christians like a magnet. As it used to attract the wanderers for six whole centuries, as well as the Venetians, the pirates and the Turks, today it attracts visitors from Greece and the whole world who enjoy its beaches, water sports with windsurf and kitesurf leading the list, the cafés, the bars and the restaurants, the Cycladic architecture which welcomed the influences of Neoclassicism with the aim of harmonic composition. Do not settle for these only. You should wander, walk and drive in Paros order to let it unfold its charms and secrets. Besides, since the 13th century this is known to the Europeans who wandered on the island mapping every corner, recording the habits of the islanders.
Parikia, Naroussa, Marpissa, Venetian castles, ruined or still active monasteries, chapels with admirable architecture, old icons and fine iconostases, trails and fertile valleys, just like the one of the butterflies, ancient quarries… The enumeration, no matter how big it may be, is not enough: the journey to Paros and neighbouring Antiparos is a wonderful experience.
