TOP REASONS TO VISIT:

1. The villages:

The island is ideal for a springtime tour by car of the traditional villages, each of which have their own charms. Start with Pyrgos, the birthplace of Yannoulis Chalepas (the early 20th century sculptor who created the famous “Sleeping Woman”). Thanks in part to Chalepas’s legacy, the village has also been home to many other sculptors and painters.

Continue via Ysternia with its amazing view and head to Loutra which features a convent of Ursuline nuns. For an atmospheric walk surrounded by springtime flowers, visit the ruins of Monastiria, a village abandoned by its last inhabitants in the 1970s and now an intriguing ghost town.

Nearby Volakas (or Volax) is worth visiting for its curious landscape which is littered with enormous round granite rocks as if giants once used the land for a game of marbles. In Tripotamos, noted philosopher and psychoanalyst Kornelios Kastoriades (1922-1997) once had his home, while Komi is famous for its valley where artichokes are cultivated.

But those are just a few of Tinos’s villages; also worth a visit are Xinara, Krokos, Myrsini, Arnados, Falatados and Smardakito.

2. The dovecotes

These are stone-built, elaborate two-story structures for the breeding of pigeons, an activity that dates back to the Venetian period of the island’s history. The Venetians pioneered the use of the structures to attract and raise pigeons both for their meat and to collect their droppings which were known to be a potent crop fertilizer.

The dovecotes are important examples of folk architecture, featuring intricate designs and decorative motifs. While dovecotes are also found on other Cycladic islands, on Tinos they are both more numerous and sophisticated. You will see them in several locations on the island, but most are clustered in the Tarampados valley.