[ Aug.2013 ] We joined a tour going inland of Santorini, away from Fira which was full of tourists.
First, we visited a village called Mesa Gonia where our guide lived in summer.
Here we learned the traditional semicircular houses are good for saving rainwater and cool in summer and warm in winter.
Also, she told us that there are more than 300 churches in Santorini, and about 250 of them are privately owned.
That is because one time in the history, there was a law that children could not inherit parents’ house without a church attached to it.
Ottoman Turkey ruled here for a long time, but they did not force people to convert to Muslims and they were happy with just taking taxes out of the island.
Mesa Gonia was really countrified, totally opposite of the stylish Fira.
This may be the original Santorini.
