Friday, April 6, 2012

The serene island of Sifnos found its way to National Geographic’s Top Ten Islands. In its luxury edition Journeys of a lifetime-500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, the leading nature and travel magazine, gives Sifnos the 9th spot in the Islands Under the Sun category, with the note "if you find yourselves there, you’ll know there’s no other place of equal beauty in the whole world."

With dazzling beaches, exemplary Cycladic architecture and low-impact tourism, Sifnos is the archetypically idyllic island and a true hidden treasure of the Aegean.

Although popular, especially among Greeks, the island has remained unspoiled by mass tourism and retained its traditional way of life. The island boasts a rich culinary tradition. Legendary chef and guru of Modern Greek cuisine Nikolaos Tselementes, whose name is synonymous to "cookbook" in Greek, was born and raised in Sifnos. The island’s restaurants and tavernas carry on Tselementes’ legacy, with emphasis on local ingredients and age old recipes that have brought Sifnos the unofficial title of the island with the best food in the Cyclades.

Endowed with rich argil deposits and Cycladic inspiration, Sifnos hosts a pottery tradition that passes from generation to generation for centuries. The knack and artistry of local potters can be witnessed at any of the island’s tsikalaria (pottery workshops), where red-handed potters create the island’s signature ceramics, but also on the roofs, gardens and balconies of the white-washed houses, as locals traditionally decorate their homes with their pottery.