A Santorini photo tour pairs visitors with a photographer for pictures among the white houses, blue domes and cliffs of the island. The tour is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other Santorini tours.
This post covers early photography, the oldest frescoes, white and blue houses, cave houses, volcanic stone, captains’ mansions, Venetian castles, windmills, steps and paths, films, weddings, drone rules, festivals, image rights, the best months and common questions.
What is a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour is a trip around the island with a camera in hand. The main subjects are the cliff towns, the caldera and the outer islands. Each place also has a story told in numbers. That story helps explain every shot.
On a Santorini photo tour, Fira stands out for its height. It is built on the brow of the caldera, at about 255 metres above sea level. Fira had 2,113 residents at the 2001 census.
Oia is known as a town that looks like a picture. It gets crowded in summer. The Oia community counted 838 residents at the 2021 census. Its municipal unit covers 19.449 square kilometres of land.
On a Santorini photo tour, Therasia tells a story through its population counts. The island counted 233 residents in 1991, 268 in 2001 and 319 in 2011.
The Thira municipal unit counted 14,393 residents at the 2021 census. Older counts go back much further. In 1821, Santorini had 13,235 inhabitants. Within a year, the number rose to 15,428.
On a Santorini photo tour, space photos add a new angle. Expedition 17 astronauts photographed Santorini from the International Space Station on 19 April 2008. They used a digital camera and an 800 mm lens.
The 2008 space photo also shows Thera’s airport. That is a sign of how popular the island is with tourists. From space, the cliff towns look like white stipple patterns because of their whitewash paint.
On a Santorini photo tour, the caldera is a key subject. An Expedition 48 crew member photographed it on 3 September 2016. That shot was taken with a digital camera and an 800 mm lens.
Santorini’s airport first operated in 1972. In 1994, it handled 401,048 passengers in the whole year. By 2019, yearly traffic had grown to 2,300,408 passengers. In 2020, traffic fell by 75.1 percent, to 572,963 passengers.
- Year 2022: The airport handled 2,744,650 passengers, and 1,683,290 of them were international travellers.
- Year 2023: The airport handled 2,775,805 passengers, which was a rise of 1.1 percent.
- Passenger mix: In 2023, the island’s airport counted 1,259,564 domestic and 1,516,241 international passengers.
- Dark and light: Recent lava flows on the island look dark in astronaut photos of Santorini.
In the same astronaut photos, the older outer islands of Santorini look lighter than the recent lava flows.
How did photography first capture Santorini?
A Santorini photo tour follows a long history of island pictures. Early prints and science books recorded the 1866 eruption. Fred Boissonnas and Nelly’s later photographed the villages, cliffs and rocks. Their work shows the island as it looked before the 1956 earthquake.
On a Santorini photo tour, the old pictures of the volcano add depth to each view. Albumen prints of steaming volcanoes from the late 1860s include one of Nea Kameni, Santorini, in 1866.
On 7 April 1866, an American weekly printed an artist’s view of the eruption. The town of Thera stood behind it. Its 28 April issue showed Santorini and its submarine volcano in a panoramic view.
On a Santorini photo tour, early field work adds context. In 1866, Wilhelm Reiss worked there with Alphons Stübel and Karl von Fritsch. Their study of the Kaimeni islands came out in English in 1867.
Ferdinand Fouqué’s 1879 book Santorin et ses éruptions runs to 440 pages with 61 plates. He based it on stays during and after the eruption, plus more than ten years of study.
On a Santorini photo tour, Swiss photographer Fred Boissonnas is a key name. He made a number of trips to Greece between 1903 and 1933. Over his career, he took seven thousand shots in Greece.
In 1919, Boissonnas and Daniel Baud-Bovy published the book Des Cyclades en Crète au gré du vent. One plate shows Oia under its old name, “Le Bourg d’Epanomèria à Santorin”.
On a Santorini photo tour, the photographer Nelly’s is another name to know. She first visited the island in the summer of 1928. Her sister and the sister’s Santorinian husband urged her to go.
She made about 200 glass negatives on regular summer visits to the island from 1928 to 1932. Her family stayed in Pyrgos, and from there she toured Santorini with her camera.
- Skaros Rock: A photo by Nelly’s of Skaros Rock in Imerovigli shows the vertical layers of the rock.
- Placed figures: Her Santorini photos rarely show people, and the old women and children were placed on purpose.
- Nelly’s archive: Nelly’s gave over 50,000 negatives and 20,000 original prints to the Benaki Museum Photographic Archives.
- Thera panorama: Doreen Canaday’s 1927 panoramic photo of Thera, made from four pictures, is now held in Athens.
A large part of what is known about Santorini’s look before the 1956 earthquake comes from Nelly’s photographs.
Which frescoes show the oldest images of Santorini?
A Santorini photo tour gains depth from the frescoes of Thera. Among them are the Spring Fresco, the Fisherman, the Ship fresco and the Boxers. Plant studies suggest the nature scenes show real Theran life, with streams hidden in reeds, waterfowl and fish.
On a Santorini photo tour, the Spring Fresco is a good start. It shows lilies at every stage, from bud to full bloom, among colourful volcanic rocks. These lilies are painted red.
The Fisherman fresco comes from the north-east corner of Room 5 in the West House. It was found standing, though detached from the wall. So was the Lady from the House of the Ladies.
On a Santorini photo tour, the fish in this scene are small mahi-mahi, held on two strings. A second Fisherman fresco shows a nude man holding one string of fish with two hands.
Both fishermen walk toward the room’s north-west corner, where archaeologists found an offering table. Scholars link the Akrotiri fishermen with rites of passage and with young men offering fish to the gods.
On a Santorini photo tour, the Ship fresco shows eight large ships and three smaller boats. Oarsmen move them all. Flowers, butterflies and swallows decorate the painted ships, which points to a religious festival.
The Flotilla miniature frieze ran around all four walls of its room. It showed a major sea voyage. The next room repeats one motif eight times: the cabin at the stern of the ships.
On a Santorini photo tour, the Boxers fresco comes from Room B1 of Building Beta. Antelopes filled the other three walls. The museum in Athens thinks one artist painted the Boxers and the Antelopes.
Before painting, walls got mud and straw, then thin lime plaster, then layers of fine plaster. Painters used blue as dark grey for birds, fish scales and the shaven heads of young figures.
- Size: The two boxers are slightly over life-size, at roughly 5 feet 10 inches tall.
- Jewellery: The boy on the left wears a necklace, an arm bracelet and an ankle bracelet.
- Reconstruction: Smooth texture marks the large parts of the Boxers fresco that are modern reconstruction.
- Ladies fresco: The Museum of Prehistoric Thera keeps this fresco of a starry sky above two women.
In Athens, the Thera Room of the National Archaeological Museum shows the Spring Fresco. It also shows the Boxing Children and the Antelope Fresco.
Why are the houses white and blue on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour finds white and blue houses; one reason dates to 1936. Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas decided the Cyclades must be painted white and blue. White was meant to stand for Aegean wave foam, blue for the Greek sky.
On a Santorini photo tour, white walls hide an older story. At first, island houses kept the colour of their building materials, with no plaster or whitewash. This natural look protected them from pirates.
Another story about the white walls comes from Oia. It says Oia painted its houses white in defiance. The reason was that Greeks under Ottoman rule were not allowed to fly their flag.
On a Santorini photo tour, the blue shades are worth a close look. The Greek flag’s blue has ranged from light to dark. Dark blue has been used more since the late 1960s.
Colour stories need care, and the flag shows why. In 1934, the Great Greek Encyclopedia wrote about the Greek flag’s design. It said the large number of explanations for it had no historical merit.
On a Santorini photo tour, the basics of lime are worth knowing. Lime is made by burning limestone at about 900 °C. After that, water is added to it, a step called slaking.
In Greek, slaked lime is also called choryi. Burnt lime is left soaking in pits before it is used. Lime plaster made home-built cisterns watertight in lands where summer rain is scarce.
On a Santorini photo tour, lime and rain have a curious link. Pure lime slowly dissolves when it meets rain. Yet the dissolved lime can then flow into cracks and seal them again.
Blue and white also meet in the history of laundry. Laundry blue works because a trace of blue cancels the yellow cast of old white cloth. So the cloth looks whiter to the eye.
- Loulaki: This Greek word means laundry blue and comes through Arabic from the Persian word līlak.
- Stone blue: Before modern blues appeared, people used lumps of indigo and starch to blue their washing.
- Synthetic ultramarine: This blue appeared in 1826, after a French society offered a prize for it.
- Lime-proof blue: Synthetic ultramarine keeps its colour when exposed to light and when it touches lime.
Goethe saw blue deposits on lime-kiln walls near Palermo around 1787. That sighting was an early step on the way to synthetic ultramarine.
How were the cave houses built on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour of the old cave houses looks at homes cut straight into the earth. The basic room, called a canava, is a vault lit by small openings in a built front wall. Today, underground homes still dominate five Santorini settlements.
On a Santorini photo tour, the story of the cave homes starts deep in the past. Finds at Ftellos show that rooms were already dug into the ground on Santorini in the Bronze Age.
Researchers think the island’s planned pattern of underground homes formed in the sixth and seventh centuries AD. Nineteen houses from the thirteenth century, dug up in the east, already show the vaulted cave form.
On a Santorini photo tour, two simple reasons explain Oia’s cave homes. Locals dug their homes because Theraic earth was easy to dig on the caldera slopes. The hollows also kept out strong winds.
Santorini and Matera in Italy both grew vaulted underground homes, because their soft ground was easy to dig. In Pyrgos, the cave houses were cut into the Theraic earth with no foundations.
On a Santorini photo tour, vaults jut out two to three metres. Their flat tops serve as terraces and courtyards for homes above. Beside the main room, a narrow storage vault can be added.
Santorini builders used cylindrical, groined, spherical and barrel vaults. In Oia, the built parts of the cave homes are roofed with vaults or cross vaults. These vaults are cast in a kind of mould.
On a Santorini photo tour, the cave layout shows clever thinking. An inner wall copies the openings of the front wall. This way, the back bedroom gets light and air through the living room.
The bulk of Vothonas is dug into the walls of a ravine five kilometres long. It gives the village its name. The traveller Theodore Bent wrote that the torrent bed there formed the street.
- Kitchen: A small, low corner, as a rule under its own vault, opens onto the living room.
- Humidity: A 1997 study of two cave and two surface homes found high humidity the main problem.
- Walls: The bulk of the damp inside comes from moisture released by the porous rock walls.
- Heating: Extra heating in a cave home mainly serves to cut the damp.
Karterados is a traditional settlement built inside a ravine, and its homes are dug into the ground. Santorini’s architecture fascinated the architect Le Corbusier.
Which volcanic stones build the walls on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour frames walls, fences and domes built from volcanic stone. Builders used black andesite for walls and fences. Red hematite stone went into the lintels and the house fronts. Light pumice was the stone used to build the domes.
On a Santorini photo tour, Theraic earth is a sticky volcanic soil of ash, lava, pumice and scoria. Kourasani, a traditional mortar, mixed lime, sand, water, crushed tile, quartz sand and Theraic earth.
Floors were strengthened with Theraic earth, mortar and sand. They were commonly covered with tiles from Ios. Courtyards were paved with black stone or with patterns of volcanic stones and sea pebbles called hohlidia.
On a Santorini photo tour, the stone walls hide an old trick. Prehistoric builders on Santorini set wild olive branches between wall stones against earthquakes. Islanders still used this method in 1911.
Ancient Greek builders made a cement-like binder from slaked lime and volcanic earth from Thera or Nisyros. Ash from the great eruption was known as a good cement ingredient at least since Roman times.
On a Santorini photo tour, older pumice layers show low in the inner caldera wall. They were laid down about 100,000 and 60,000 years ago. Twentieth-century quarries now form major hollows in the landscape.
Ferdinand de Lesseps needed huge amounts of cement when he began building the Suez Canal. Thera was picked for its surface ash. Mixed with limestone, it was able to make cement hard and watertight enough.
On a Santorini photo tour, the ash pits for that cement lay in two key areas. The ash was dug mainly in southern Therasia and on the southwestern tip of the main island.
Digging down from the surface is hard, because the top layer is packed cobbles and boulders. Certain old ash quarry caves have stone walls at the entrance or inside. Others are lined with plaster.
- Doorways: Doors and windows were framed with chiselled red stone, and the wine cellars got arched doors.
- Symi: In the neoclassical era, Symi builders shipped in Theraic earth from Santorini for stone masonry.
- Akrotiri: The steel roof over the dig was planned with a Theraic earth cover to blend in.
- Fira: The former quarry zone for Thera earth and pumice lies in the community of Fira.
The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica called the rocks below Apanomeria the reddest on the island. Apanomeria was the village by the northern entrance.
Which captains’ mansions line a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour gains depth from the story of the island’s sea captains. Theodore Bent’s 1885 book The Cyclades describes Epanomeria, the northern town of Santorini. He called it a flourishing place, where the bulk of sea captains and pilots lived.
On a Santorini photo tour, Bent’s book adds background. He saw a large number of fine, large houses in Epanomeria. They were built of stones cut from the red local rock, set firmly in cement.
Little red stones were pressed into the cement as ornament. Bent also found Epanomeria more cheerful than other Santorini villages. His reason was that all its houses stood above the ground.
On a Santorini photo tour, old sea customs help explain the captains’ world. A local captain told Bent about a new ship’s launch. It was called the benediction, and a priest led it.
The crowd watched the ship’s position as it slid into the water. This was read as an omen. An ox, a lamb or a dove was killed, matching the owner’s wealth and the ship’s size.
On a Santorini photo tour, the rite’s ending stands out. The animal’s blood marked a cross on deck. Then the captain jumped off the bow into the sea fully clothed. A banquet followed.
Bent ranked Santorini second only to Syros among the Cyclades for its number of well-to-do people. In Fira, he found the houses of the well-to-do large. They had a pleasing air of prosperity.
On a Santorini photo tour, Therasia also fits the story. The bulk of its landlords lived across the water in Epanomeria or Fira. Only their workers stayed on the island.
In 1852, ships sailing to Santorini brought mainly cotton and silk cloth, hardware, perfumes and colonial goods. That same year, 31 of Santorini’s merchant ships were larger than 200 tonnes.
- Shipowner and MP: Markos Nomikos was born on Santorini on 17 September 1898, the son of Petros Nomikos.
- Nomikos yacht: In 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy sailed the Greek islands as a guest on the Northwind.
- Island foundation: Peter M. Nomikos founded a non-profit foundation in 1969 to support Santorini’s culture, society and science.
- Fira, 1989: A conference centre named after Petros Nomikos opened, with a main hall for 220 guests.
Shipowner Aristeidis Alafouzos was the son of Ioannis Alafouzos, a ship captain. In 1964, he decided to carry on the family shipping tradition.
Which Venetian castles frame a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour is framed by castle sites at Akrotiri, Skaros, Oia, Emporio and Pyrgos. Their past includes dukes, barons, Jesuit monks and an attack by Turkish galleys. Bent and Jean-Paul Sartre are two visitors linked to these castle villages.
On a Santorini photo tour, Akrotiri’s fortress has a family story. In 1336, Duke Nicholas Sanudo gave it to the Gozzadini family. This family from Bologna held the castle long after the Ottoman conquest.
Akrotiri’s kasteli has another name, La Ponta, which means “The Peak”. Bent found Akrotiri a huge, overgrown Venetian fortress village of winding alleys. He slept at the top of the fort, once the governor’s home.
On a Santorini photo tour, Skaros castle has a story once carved in stone. Latin verses on a marble slab there recorded the 1457 eruption. The verses were addressed to baron Francesco Crispo.
In 1480, Domenico Pisani knelt before the duke at Skaros. He received the castle keys, a rod and a scroll of investiture. His wedding festivities with Fiorenza, the duke’s daughter, lasted an entire month.
On a Santorini photo tour, Skaros also tells of a takeover. When Duke Giacomo III Crispo died, his brother John III landed on Santorini. He occupied Skaros and pulled down the Pisani flag.
Venetian envoys came to win the island back. They retreated from Skaros under a heavy shower of stones. On 4 October 1486, Venice’s Senate let the Crispo dukes keep Santorini, after compensation to the Pisani.
On a Santorini photo tour, Oia’s castle of St Nicholas was held by the D’Argenta. They claimed descent from a Byzantine emperor. In 1577, ten Turkish galleys attacked them and carried them off to Syria.
At Emporio, local people still call the surviving entrance of the kasteli “the Porta”. Bent saw a medieval tower against the mountainside at the village entrance, with a tall palm beside it.
- Sanudo works: The Sanudo dukes encouraged cotton planting on the volcanic soil and strengthened the island’s fortifications.
- Skaros drawing: The only accurate picture of Skaros is a pencil drawing kept at the Benaki Museum.
- Jesuit reuse: Jesuit monks who settled on Santorini in 1642 used materials from the abandoned Skaros castle.
- Emporio play: Jean-Paul Sartre drew inspiration in Emporio for his play Les Mouches, or The Flies.
At Pyrgos, the square before the castle gate was once called Ypsilos Kafenes. The village aristocrats met there to talk.
Which windmills stand on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour takes place on an island where old windmills still stand. Oia has two windmills, and a small number of others stand east of the village of Finikia. More windmills stand at Emporio, and Megalochori has its own pair.
On a Santorini photo tour, the row of old Emporio windmills stands on Gavrilos hill. In the past, this hill was called Mount Platanimos. Byzantine ruins also lie on the hill, next to the windmills.
Gavrilos hill rises to 174 metres. A chapel of Profitis Ilias, called “the low” one, sits on its top. The Ministry of Culture listed the Emporio windmills as historic monuments on 3 August 1993.
On a Santorini photo tour, the Emporio windmills stand as typical examples of the pre-industrial period. Six of these old mills have been handed over to the Municipality of Thira.
A study for the municipality plans for two of the six mills to work again as real windmills. The same study plans one other mill as a museum of windmills and millers’ tools.
On a Santorini photo tour, the Emporio row also holds a mill planned as a traditional café. The rest of the six mills are planned as shops that sell traditional products.
The Megalochori pair are typical Santorini windmills on the rim of the caldera. They stand just before the caldera path down to the Plaka baths. The path also reaches the church of the Virgin Mary.
On a Santorini photo tour, the two Megalochori windmills date from the 19th century. Santorini’s mills were built of volcanic stones, water, soil and lime. The mills reached a height of about six metres.
On Greek windmills, the upper floor held the shaft and the gears that passed on the motion. Grinding and grain storage took place down on the lower floor of the mill.
- Millstones: The stones are shaped to push ground flour out to their edges, where it is collected.
- Eight sails: Mediterranean tower mills carry eight sails as a rule, each one made of a draped cloth.
- No frame: In the Mediterranean design, no wooden frame stands behind the cloth of a sail.
- Power source: Tower mills were an important source of power in Europe from 1300 to 1900.
The use of windmills took hold in the Byzantine period. It then spread further under Frankish rule, mainly in the eastern Aegean Sea.
Which steps and donkey paths climb on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour can climb the Karavolades Stairs from the old port to Fira. These stairs are also known as the Donkey Trail. The streets of Imerovigli have a large number of steps. These steps can be hard for visitors with disabilities.
On a Santorini photo tour, the paved stairway to Fira climbs about 200 metres. This stairway winds up from the old port. It is narrow in parts, and it has only low walls.
The rim trail to Oia leaves Fira heading north from Agiou Mina Street. Signs reading “To Oia” mark the trail before it leaves Fira. Walking from Fira to Oia climbs more than 300 metres.
On a Santorini photo tour, the reverse walk from Oia to Fira is a bit easier. This route starts at Ammoudi Bay. It then follows the rim east through the village of Oia.
Motor vehicles are banned from Oia, so people get around on foot. Even the rubbish in Oia is taken away by donkeys. Visitors can hire donkeys on the staircase between Armeni Bay and Oia.
On a Santorini photo tour, the path to the Skaros castle ruins passes the chapel of Agios Ioannis. Its nickname is Katiforis, because it stands on the downhill stretch. It was rebuilt in 1966.
On 24 August 2018, two animal welfare charities held talks with Santorini’s mayor about working equines. He pledged a longer shelter at the top of the Fira Port steps to shade the equine taxis.
On a Santorini photo tour, Fira’s steps have working mules and donkeys. One of these charities reports a gradual fall in their number. It warns that inexperienced owners bring more riding horses for tourist photos.
The mayor also pledged a permanent, free-flowing water trough at the top of the Fira Port steps. For the bottom of the steps, a repaired, longer shelter and a permanent water trough were pledged.
- Feeding adults: Under a 2018 farm ministry circular, adult working equines must be fed at least twice daily.
- Feeding foals: Weaned foals older than six months are to be fed three times a day.
- Waiting stations: Shared waiting stations for equines need a roof and a constant supply of fresh drinking water.
- Sick animals: A sick or injured working animal goes back to work only on a vet’s advice.
Beyond these rules, the island’s code of practice for working equines was to be revised and simplified.
Which films were shot along a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour crosses an island seen in films, music videos and TV shows. Well-known titles include a Lara Croft film and Summer Lovers. Hindi, Italian and Greek films also link to Santorini. Two Eurovision videos were filmed on the island too.
On a Santorini photo tour, one film link is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life. This 2003 film opens on Santorini, where a strong earthquake uncovers the Luna Temple.
Angelina Jolie plays Lara Croft. She finds a glowing orb in the temple before two crime lords take it. Filming included six-day location shoots in Hong Kong, Santorini and Llyn Gwynant in North Wales.
On a Santorini photo tour, the island also links to the film Summer Lovers (1982). Basil Poledouris composed the original score of this film. Its ending theme is a power ballad by Chicago.
A song by the Pointer Sisters plays in the film as well. A newspaper report says actress Valérie Quennessen found pottery about 3,500 years old at Akrotiri during the filming.
On a Santorini photo tour, the island holds a casting story too. Dutch actor Hans van Tongeren was visiting Santorini as a tourist when Daryl Hannah spotted him. He joined the cast as Jan.
The villa used as the young couple’s home was bought in 1987 and turned into a gift shop. Years later came the Hindi film Bang Bang! (2014), starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif.
On a Santorini photo tour, Hindi cinema is also part of the island’s screen story. The Bang Bang! song “Meherbaan” was shot on Santorini in July 2013. Ahmed Khan choreographed this song sequence.
Parts of Wanted, Prabhu Deva’s 2009 Hindi action film, were shot on Rhodes, Santorini and Paros. Giovanni Veronesi’s 2004 Italian film follows three friends from Rome holidaying on Santorini after final school exams.
- Early cinema: The 1948 Greek film Marinos Kontaras, directed by George Tzavellas, was filmed on Paros and Santorini.
- Eurovision 2004: Greece’s “Shake It” video by Sakis Rouvas, shot on Santorini, shows him singing in the water.
- Moldova, Eurovision 2018: The song by DoReDoS has a video filmed in Santorini, released on 12 March 2018.
- Volcano film: Oleksiy-Nestor Naumenko’s 2018 documentary Year of Volcanoes was filmed on Vesuvius, Etna, Teide and Santorini.
A British TV archaeology series aired “Santorini – the First Pompeii” on 8 June 1979. The episode covered the eruption that buried Akrotiri.
How do weddings and proposals shape a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour crosses an island where about a thousand weddings take place each year. The island itself is home to just 15,000 inhabitants. Wedding laws, church rituals and caldera photo spots all shape the scenes that travellers see along the way.
On a Santorini photo tour, travellers move through one of Europe’s top destination-wedding places. Lake Como, Tuscany and Paris share that rank with Santorini. About 90% of the island’s weddings involve visitors from abroad.
More than 60% of these weddings involve couples from the UK. A majority of couples bring 50 to 150 guests. Local officials say couples who take wedding photos home advertise the island even more.
On a Santorini photo tour, scenic spots host hundreds of informal ceremonies. These add to the official City Hall weddings. Chinese and Japanese couples already married at home come with a tour operator.
These couples come to say their wedding vows and be photographed overlooking the caldera. The municipality says 10 or 18 Chinese newlywed couples can be seen waiting on the steps. They wait to be photographed.
On a Santorini photo tour, it helps to know how a Greek civil wedding works. It takes place at the town hall and is led by the mayor or a deputy mayor.
Two witnesses are present at this short civil ceremony. It includes a reading from the Civil Code. It also includes the couple’s declaration of consent and the signing of the marriage record.
On a Santorini photo tour, town hall weddings have a camera side too. By arrangement, the town hall can let couples decorate the space. It can also let the ceremony be photographed or filmed.
An Orthodox wedding has two main parts: the betrothal, or engagement, and the crowning, or marriage. In the betrothal, the couple exchange rings, which are placed on the ring finger of the right hand.
- Koumbaros: A sponsor called the koumbaros stands with the couple at an Orthodox wedding.
- Stefana: Greek couples wear wedding crowns called stefana, a word that literally means wreaths.
- Licence: Greek law requires a mayor’s licence, but in practice the Church issues licences for church weddings.
- Paperwork: Every non-Greek partner needs a Certificate of No Impediment for church and town-hall weddings.
A 2017 thesis came from the Technological Educational Institute of Crete. It found couples from China, America and Europe choosing Greek islands for their weddings.
Which drone rules apply on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour with a drone falls under the EU open category. It has three subcategories: A1 for flights over people, A2 close to people, and A3 far from people. Outside yellow and magenta zones, flights following its rules need no special approval.
On a Santorini photo tour, a C1 drone weighs under 900 g and flies in subcategory A1. It is not expected to fly over uninvolved people. Any such overflight must stay as short as possible.
With its low-speed function on, a C2 drone can come as close as 5 m to uninvolved people. Class C3 and C4 drones weigh under 25 kg and fly only in subcategory A3.
On a Santorini photo tour, a drone without a class label has a date limit. It can fly in the open category only if put on the market before 31 December 2023.
A class-labelled drone shows its class mark on its body. It also comes with an EU Declaration of Conformity. With limited exceptions, every drone in the open category needs a remote identification system.
On a Santorini photo tour, a pilot must not fly under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive substances. The same ban applies when the pilot is unfit through injury, fatigue, medication or sickness.
Pilots keep drones in visual line of sight, except in follow-me mode or with an observer’s help. A hilltop flight can go higher than 120 m above the valley floor and stay legal.
On a Santorini photo tour, flying over ports, hospitals, or military and government installations needs prior HCAA authorisation. The Drone Aware Greece platform is run by the Hellenic Aviation Service Provider, known as HASP.
To count as involved, a person must give explicit consent and get the pilot’s emergency safety instructions. A note on an event ticket about a drone flight does not count as consent from those attending.
- Distance in A2: The gap to the nearest uninvolved person is meant to equal the drone’s flying height.
- Dangerous goods: Open category drones must not carry dangerous goods or drop any material during flight.
- Emergency areas: Drones must stay away from active emergency response areas unless the emergency services give permission.
- Drone zones: An EU drone zone can admit only drones fitted with remote identification or geo-awareness.
Near airports, the HCAA checks each request first, then forwards it to HASP and the Hellenic Air Force.
Which festivals light up a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour finds strong scenes in the island’s festivals of fire, light and faith. The yearly festival Ifestia fills the night above the volcano with light. Church dates in the villages bring processions, fires in lamps and shared food.
On a Santorini photo tour, Ifestia stands out as the yearly volcano festival of the island. It has been held since 1991. The Municipality of Thira stages it together with two local bodies.
The Ifestia eruption show begins after sunset. It can be seen from different points of the island. The festival programme opened with a drone light show above the volcano, visible from the Fira caldera.
On a Santorini photo tour, Good Friday night in Pyrgos gives a scene full of flames. Fires burn in tin lamps across the whole village. This happens during the Epitaphios procession of that night.
The village of Pyrgos has a second date to note. On 14 August, an epitaph of the Virgin leaves its Eisodia church. This church keeps an icon of her Dormition.
On a Santorini photo tour, Panagia Episkopi is a church to know. It has been the central sanctuary of Santorini since 1931. On 14 August, the feast eve, a bishop leads a Great Vespers there.
An Artoklasia is held too. A panigyri follows at the church, with fava, beans and Nychteri wine handed out. A prayer service and an all-night veneration by the faithful close the eve.
On a Santorini photo tour, 2 February brings the feast of Panagia Marouliani. It ranks among the finest and biggest panigyria of Oia. Refugees from Asia Minor built the church at Foinikia around 1840.
A Greek farmer found the Marouliani icon in Smyrna in 1800. It lay buried in his field, under lettuce roots. The Glykofilousa icon of Panagia Episkopi once joined processions on the walls of Constantinople.
- Thirasia: Agia Irini holds its panigyri on 5 July, and Potamos celebrates Panagia Giatrissa on 21 September.
- Holy Belt: Each 10 October, Santorini marks the 1830 finding of the Virgin’s Holy Belt on the island.
- Wine saint: On the island of Santorini, Osios Averkios is seen as the patron saint of wine.
- Emporio: Every year on 22 October, the village holds a big panigyri for Osios Averkios.
The village of Emporio also holds a panigyri on 6 August, at its Church of the Transfiguration.
Which image rights apply on a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour falls under Greek law and EU data protection law. Greek law covers taking photos, their commercial use and photo rights deals. The GDPR exempts purely personal or household activity. Court rulings and heritage law add more rules.
On a Santorini photo tour, Article 57 of the Greek Civil Code applies. Under it, taking a person’s photo can be an illegal act. This holds even if the picture is never published.
Greek law treats consent as silently given when the pictured person was paid for the photo session. In Greece, commercial use of a person’s published picture in a public space requires their consent.
On a Santorini photo tour, Article 9 of the Greek Constitution calls every person’s home a sanctuary. Private and family life is inviolable. Article 9A gives everyone data protection rights, guarded by an independent authority.
In Reklos and Davourlis v. Greece, the European Court of Human Rights found a breach. A photographer took new-born photos without the parents’ consent. The key point was keeping them without consent, harmless or not.
On a Santorini photo tour, the GDPR does not cover purely personal or household activity. EU data regulators give an example. A tourist films a holiday and shows it only to friends and family.
In 2003, the EU Court of Justice looked at personal data posted online. It ruled that posting such data for an indefinite number of people is not a private activity.
On a Santorini photo tour, Greek data protection law allows artistic use of personal data. One case is when the person has given explicit consent. Another covers data the person has clearly made public themselves.
A third case is when free expression outweighs privacy. This applies especially to matters of general interest or public figures. The European Court of Human Rights calls a person’s image a chief attribute of personality.
- GDPR biometrics: Photos count as sensitive biometric data only when technical processing can uniquely identify a person.
- Consent withdrawal: The GDPR lets a person withdraw consent at any time, as easily as giving it.
- Copyright deals: Under Greek copyright law, a deal transferring or licensing photo rights is void unless in writing.
- Monuments: Greek heritage law 3028/2002 covers archaeological sites and also modern monuments built after 1830.
A filming permit request lists the crew, the equipment and the filming dates for each monument.
Which months suit a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour finds August the least cloudy month over Oia, at 9.01% daytime cloud cover. NASA’s sky clearness index for Oia peaks at 0.69 in July. It then falls to 0.46 in December, with 65.6% daytime cloud cover.
On a Santorini photo tour, April brings 47.53% average daytime cloud cover over Oia, per NASA satellite data. April days at the HNMS Santorini weather station have logged up to 12.7 hours of sunshine.
On 1 April, the sun sets at Oia at 19:40. Civil twilight ends at 20:06. Haze from tiny airborne particles is measured as aerosol optical depth. Over Oia, it peaks in April at 0.33.
On a Santorini photo tour, sunset at Oia comes at 20:06 as the month after April begins. Civil twilight lasts until 20:34. In that month, days at the station average 9.9 hours of sunshine.
Daytime cloud cover over Oia drops to 36.04% in the month after April. In June, it drops again to 17.64%. July days at the Santorini station have logged up to 13.5 hours of sunshine.
On a Santorini photo tour, the sun sets at Oia at 20:25 on 1 August. Civil twilight ends at 20:53. Across 25 years of NASA data, Oia logged 459 clear-sky days in August.
On 23 September, the sun sets at Oia at 19:15. Civil twilight then ends at 19:40. For the month as a whole, daytime cloud cover over Oia rises again, this time to 20.78%.
On a Santorini photo tour, the sun sets at Oia at 19:03 on 1 October. After that, civil twilight ends at 19:28. Over Oia, the month of October brings daytime cloud cover of 39.18%.
Over the same 25 years of NASA data, Oia logged only 20 clear-sky days in November. Aerosol optical depth, the haze measure, drops to 0.19 over Oia in July, November and December.
- Saharan dust: In spring, dust crossing the Mediterranean gives a mean dust optical depth of up to 0.1.
- Dust height: Raised Saharan dust plumes appear all year, at heights between 2 and 6 km.
- How far north: These raised Saharan dust plumes reach as far north as latitude 40° N.
- Dust by region: Across the Mediterranean, intense desert dust episodes grow rarer and weaker from south to north.
Through the year, sunset times, cloud cover, clear-sky days and haze over Oia shift from month to month.
What do visitors ask about a Santorini photo tour?
A Santorini photo tour brings up questions about sun, wind and keeping photo files safe. Visitors also ask about low sun angles at Oia and rules for children. Steps down to Ammoudi Bay and Tourist Police contacts come up as well.
Why can sunburn happen on a windy Santorini photo tour?
So-called windburn is sunburn from cool or cloudy days, wrongly blamed on the wind. Cooling wind dulls the feeling of heat. People then seek shade less and stay in the sun longer. UV radiation is not linked to temperature. Cool, windy summer days have a UV index similar to warmer days.
How can files from a Santorini photo tour be backed up?
The 3-2-1 backup rule asks for 3 copies of the data on 2 types of storage. One copy is kept off-site, such as in cloud storage. An off-site copy protects files against fire, theft, floods and earthquakes. Camera raw files are commonly 2 to 6 times larger than JPEG files.
When is the sun low over Oia for a Santorini photo tour?
On 21 June at Oia, the sun stands 10.1 degrees high at 19:40. It sinks to 1.3 degrees by 20:30. That morning, it climbs from 1.2 degrees at 06:10 to 10.0 degrees at 07:00. On 20 March there, the sun drops from 11.2 degrees at 17:30 to 1.5 degrees at 18:20.
What do parents ask about children on a Santorini photo tour?
Under the GDPR, a child under 16 needs verifiable consent from a parent or custodian. Greece’s GDPR law, Law 4624/2019, sets the age limit for parental consent to online services at 15. Slings and soft front carriers commonly carry babies who cannot yet sit up or hold their head up.
How can Ammoudi Bay be reached during a Santorini photo tour?
Ammoudi Bay below Oia can be reached on 214 steps that start below the castle. An asphalt road also leads down to the bay. Oia village stands about 128 m above sea level. The bay sits only 5 m above sea level, about 17 km by road northwest of Fira.
What do visitors ask about police help on a Santorini photo tour?
In Greece, the phone numbering plan lists 171 as a Tourist Police number. Certain police precincts in very touristic towns and islands have their own Tourist Police Office. Presidential Decree 7/2017 created Tourist Police stations and units in a number of Greek prefectures. These stations and units sit within police directorates.