Amorgos
Overview
Amorgos lies at the eastern edge of the Cyclades, a long way from anywhere. The ferry from Piraeus takes at least eight hours, and the easier route is through Naxos. Because of that distance fewer travellers make the trip, and those who do tend to come back.
The island’s best-known sight is the Hozoviotissa monastery, a whitewashed eight-storey wall built straight into a sheer cliff 300 metres above the sea on the southern coast. The present building dates to 1088. By tradition, the few monks who keep it welcome visitors with psimeni raki, a sweet herbal version of the spirit made only on this island, and a small piece of loukoumi. The climb up from the road is steep. Cover knees and shoulders.
The sea here is unusually deep and unusually clear. That is why Luc Besson chose the cliffs of Agios Pavlos for the underwater scenes of his film Le Grand Bleu in 1988. The film made the island briefly famous in France and introduced it again to the rest of Europe. The wreck of the Olympia, which appears at the start of the film, is still visible on the rocks of the eastern coast.
There are two settlements. The hilltop Chora is a tightly packed cascade of whitewashed houses, crowned by the remains of a Venetian kastro, or castle. Katapola is the working port, set in the curve of a deep bay. Hiking trails connect them and continue to the smaller villages of the interior. Three nights is the minimum that makes the long journey worthwhile, and four is better. Come in May, June or September.
House Notes
Arrival
Amorgos has no airport. The way in is through Naxos: fly from Athens, then take the ferry on to Katapola. The Seajets fast service crosses from Naxos in about 1 hour 10 minutes, and the slower Blue Star Naxos in roughly 1 hour 25 minutes. The direct ferry from Piraeus takes 5 hours 40 minutes on the fastest summer sailing, and longer by way of the Small Cyclades.
Aegialis Hotel & Spa
Aegialis Hotel & Spa is the only 5-star hotel on the island, above Aegiali bay on the northern coast. Its Lalon Idor spa is the largest thalassotherapy centre, for treatments with sea water, in the Cyclades: an indoor seawater pool, hammam, sauna and jacuzzi. The cliffside rooms face the whole northern bay. The hotel opens from April to October.
The kitchens
Liotrivi in Chora is built of stone on the hillside, with views of the windmills and the Venetian kastro, or castle. It is the dinner to choose in the upper village, and the owner distils his own raki. Vitsentzos at Xylokeratidi serves fish by the sea below Katapola, and its house dish is fisherman’s spaghetti. Kastani in Chora fills a 500-year-old building and has been a taverna since 1962: goat with rosemary, pork with thyme, grilled octopus with Amorgian fava.
Hozoviotissa, in detail
The Monastery of Hozoviotissa rises eight storeys up the cliff, 300 metres above the bay of Agia Anna, on the central east coast below Chora. Its icon is held to have arrived from Palestine in the 9th century. The present building dates to 1088, under Alexios I Komnenos. The climb from the road is 271 steps. It opens from 8am to 1pm and from 5pm to 7pm. Long sleeves and long skirts are required, and rental robes hang at the entrance.
Le Grand Bleu, ashore
Luc Besson’s 1988 film Le Grand Bleu was shot on Amorgos. The childhood scenes are at Agia Anna, the rocky beach directly below the Hozoviotissa monastery. The Olympia, a freighter that ran aground in February 1980 in Liveros bay near Kalotaritissa, on the south-western corner, still rests on the rocks. The wreck appears in many scenes of the film and is now a regular dive. Kalotaritissa bay was also a filming location.
The beaches
Three beaches are quieter than Agia Anna. Mouros, on the southern coast 15 kilometres south-east of Chora and 3 kilometres from Kamari, is pebbled, with sea caves cut into the cliffs at the back of the cove and a short steep walk down from the parking. Levrosos, on Aegiali bay in the north, is sandy and a 20-minute walk from the harbour. Kalotaritissa, at the south-western tip, is sheltered, with the day boat to the Gramvousa islet.
The Palia Strata
The Palia Strata is route 1 in the island’s numbered network. It is the old kalderimi, a stone donkey path, from Chora down to Hozoviotissa and then north through Kapsala and Asfontylitis to Aegiali. People and goods moved along it before the asphalt road. It runs about 20 kilometres, 4 hours one way, and can be walked in sections. If the full route is too much, the Melania loop in the north (route 4, from Aegiali through Langada and Stroumbos to Tholaria) makes a good half day.
Amorgion
The island’s spirit is psimeni raki: raki boiled with honey and a handful of Amorgian herbs, sweet and amber. Amorgion, on the road from Katapola to Chora, patented its psimeni and its rakomelo in 2003, and turned rakomelo into a wider trend. Its distillery and winery open for guided tastings through the season. The honey, the loukoumia and the wines come from the same house.
Katapola and Aegiali
The island’s two ports sit at its two ends. Katapola, the main port, lies in the deep central bay, 5.5 kilometres from Chora, and is the closer base for Hozoviotissa. Aegiali, the second port, lies 16 kilometres north along the road. Aegialis Hotel stands above its bay, and the freediving centre is on the beach below. Most guests choose one base and cross no more than once.
The window
Stay three nights at least, and four if possible. Come in May, June or September, when boats run reliably, the heat is reasonable and the Naxos connection runs daily. Aegialis Hotel opens from April to October. In winter the Piraeus ferry drops to two or three sailings a week, and December and January are the silent months.
Anchorage Notes
Katapola
Katapola is the main port of Amorgos: three hamlets, Katapola, Rachidi and Xylokeratidi, around a central bay whose waterfront is lined with cafés, tavernas and moorings for fishing boats and visiting sailing boats. A yacht lies below the excavations of ancient Minoa on the hill above. It is the island’s principal harbour, and the nearer of the two to the monastery country.
Aegiali
Aegiali is the northern bay: the port village of Ormos below the mountain villages of Potamos, Langada and Tholaria, with moorings on its waterfront for fishing boats and visiting sailing boats. A long sandy beach runs from the quay, and the bath-boats (day boats that carry swimmers) leave the harbour for the coves along the coast. It is the second port and the quieter one, a short sail up the eastern shore from Katapola.
Nikouria
Nikouria is the uninhabited islet off the north coast, close to Agios Pavlos and about 5 kilometres from Aegiali, with three sandy beaches and a single beach bar. It is the largest of the satellite islets in the Amorgos municipality. Small transfer boats cross from Agios Pavlos every half hour through the season, and for a chartered tender it is a short hop to an island kept for the day and left at dusk.
Maltezi
Maltezi is the sandy beach inside the bay of Katapola, reached by the transfer boat from the port or by a half-hour walk over the headland. A beach bar keeps the shade and the sunbeds, and little else disturbs it. It is the day anchorage a yacht moves to from the main harbour, for a swim and lunch a tender’s length from where it lies at Katapola.