Sun Beach Hotel

Naxos Island, Cyclades, Greece

Naxos Town is a delight to the eye, like a picture book, with an harmoniously curved harbor on the front cover and a gigantic marble portal, Portara, on the back. The portal inevitably creates mental images of Apollo, in honor of whom it was raised 2500 years ago. Perched on a little islet, Portara is via a causeway linked to Naxos Town, also called Hora, a white beauty crowned with Sanudo’s beige-colored castle.The ascent to the Castle takes you step by step through whitewashed narrowness, under balconies weighed down with age, nearly bumping into you. Bridges are actually houses built across the street. Marble door frames are quite common. Zinc buckets and plastic jars flourish with geraniums and hibiscus, roses and vines. The idyll belongs to the Greek part of town, Bourgos, soon succeeded by tall Venetian castle walls, the Kastro, an image of power and strength.