Watch a film under the stars
Ancient Greeks loved to watch their favourite plays performed in open-air theatres. Modern Greeks prefer their al fresco cinemas, where you can grab a cone of popcorn and a bottle of Alfa beer and settle down beneath the stars to watch your favourite film. Follow them along gleaming cobbled alleys to Kamari’s secret cinema, where films are projected with top-notch digital Dolby 7.1 sound on a giant screen in a jasmine-scented garden surrounded by a jungle of trees and by exotic waving palm fronds, banana palms and bright bougainvillaea.
For more swanky Santorini-style viewing, make a beeline for Volkan on the Rocks. Teetering on the caldera’s rim in capital town, Fira, this swoon-worthy setting is the backdrop for nightly film fests followed by DJ nights under the caldera stars. And you don’t need to brush up on your Greek either – the movies are in English.
Spend the day with the island’s tomatoes
Once the island’s biggest export, Santorini’s flavour-packed cherry tomatoes are showcased in the fascinating Tomato Industrial Museum on the site of an ancient canning factory on the island’s southern tip in Vlychada. Winding roads that are now near-deserted were once packed with donkeys carrying tomatoes to be converted to rich red tomato paste that was sold around the world. Fascinating photos and videos give a close-up of 20th-century life on the island – you can even work a vintage canning machine. When you’ve had enough of red stuff, head next door to check out exhibits at the arts factory, and then enjoy sunset over Vlychada’s remote beach as you sip a Bloody Mary made with local tomatoes at the museum’s bijou bar.
