Perhaps no part of Greece is less recognizable these days than the narrow lanes of Santorini‘s villages. Even this early in the warm period – when other parts of the county would still be whitewashing walls and finishing up renovations in preparation for their first visitors – on Santorini the tourism season would already be in full swing.
And nowhere would this be more apparent than in the villages on the edge of its famed caldera as each day came to an end. Here visitors normally jostle for position, each with a smartphone in hand, seeking to beam images of one of the most most famous sunsets in the world to their followers on social media.
 
Now, of course, even the most popular viewing points are empty. But while the coronavirus pandemic may have kept visitors away so far this year, that still hasn’t stopped thousands of people from enjoying the spectacle, only now from afar. Like so many other things in these unprecedented times, the Santorini sunset has moved online.
On Facebook yesterday, Reuters broadcast the famed sunset live over a period of half an hour, attracting thousands of reactions and comments. You can watch the strangely soothing video below, the colorful buildings changing hue as the sun slowly sinks into the sea, the scene empty of human life, the only sound that of the wind: