The stepped lanes of Ano Syros

Ano Syros was founded by Venetians in the thirteenth century and is still the Catholic half of the island — a cone of houses wound around a hill, with no roads inside, only stairs. The lanes are a metre and a half wide, tunnelled under houses in places, and they climb continuously to the cathedral of Saint George on the summit.

This is the town's best walking sequence: whitewashed steps, arched passages that frame the sea at their far end, cats, and doorways painted in blue and green. From the terrace by the cathedral you get Ermoupoli spread below with the harbour and, on a clear day, Tinos and Delos behind it. The Capuchin monastery of Saint John, halfway up, gives a quieter courtyard for portraits.

Go late in the afternoon: the west-facing side is lit until the sun drops behind the ridge, and the climb is punishing in midday heat. It is twenty minutes of stairs from the bottom, or a short drive to the upper car park if that is too much. People live here — keep out of doorways, do not block the stairs, and expect to move aside for a delivery mule or a scooter on the lower lanes.