The last full day in Santorini was spent at Fira, the central metropolitan area of Santorini where one can find the post offices, banks, museums, and only a short walk up more famous steps, another breathtaking view of the sea from the white balconied cliff-edges. We visted the Museum of Prehistoric Thira and the Archaeological Museum which house Santorini's relics from the times of the Early Minoan site of Akrotiri to Dorian, Hellenic occupation beginning around 1200BC. After the volcano erupted it took several hundred years for the island to be habitable. The first claim-staker thereafter was a Dorian colonist named Theras, thus the island is still referred to as "Thira" after the people who settled here under his leadership. The pagan Hellenic culture did very well for themselves here for centuries but were subsumed during subsequent Venetian occupation for which Santorini bears it's current name, given after Saint Irene (Irini in Greek).
We celebrated our retreat coming to a close in the evening at a taverna back at Kamari with our favorite "skelakis" (little dogs) running around outside of the taverna's indoor restaurant, where they had live music that we were not to hard to be cajoled to dance to.
I feel grateful to everyone who came to share this remarkable first trip I have led to Greece. I am definitely looking forward to making it a tradition!
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