The distance that separates Oia from Fira is not over 10km. The small houses, carved into the rock, the mansions with their stairways and their neoclassical architecture, with white and ochra as their dominant colors, the walls decorated with small stones, the roads paved with flagstones, and the flowers, form a harmonious total of the impressive picture of the Oia village.

The Oia village square is a balcony looking at the caldera. The view of the volcano and the infinity of the sea take a different dimension when seen from here. The wealth of the villagers of the last century is exhibited in the Nautical museum of Oia. Oia's inhabitants were sailors, and became rich in the last century by working in the sea. They decorated their village with neoclassical buildings which today bear witness to an age that has passed.

Once the Oia had been officially listed as a protected traditional community, some sixty derelict houses, abandoned in the wake of the 1956 earthquake, were repaired and converted into hotels and rented rooms. Visitors looking for atmosphere and peace and quiet come to Oia, where they can find some of the most beautiful hotels on the island, perfectly integrated in the landscape.

As the sun descends to the horizon and the pink of the evening sky turns to mauve, the shutterbugs line the walls of the mediaeval castle, their lenses hungrily devouring the island's most famous sunset. When the last rays of the sun are gone, they pour into the tiny ethnic shops along the central street, in every respect the equal of the famous Gold Street in Fira. Here you will find Indian shawls and bedspreads, exquisitely carved silver jewellery, Venetian mirrors, antiques...

And when you have had enough of shopping you will dine to the sound of classical music and, before you return to your room or hotel, take a last stroll through the island's most enchanted village.