Best for:
Probably those who speak Greek, as the translation was challenging to read.
In a nutshell:
A history of the island of Amorgos in the Cyclades.
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I just spent four days there and wanted to know more.
Review:
Amorgos is a small island in the Cyclades area of Greece – other islands that are more well known are Santorini and Mykonos. In the guide books there isn’t much information or history about it. I saw this book at a local shop and picked it up.
The stated goal of the book is to serve as both a guide to and a history of the island, but unfortunately it doesn’t really succeed in either area. There not a lot of guide to it, and the history is challenging to read, I think primarily because of the translation.
That said, there was some really interesting bits of information I was able to get from the book. It’s so hard for me to picture places that have had such long histories. The island has 2,000 people on it now, but one can see in the hills how it used to be more populated, and how it was a center of trade and agriculture. It is still a place that grows items, and thankfully it isn’t a huge focus of tourism (even in October, the hoards of tourists who got off the ferry at Santorini compared to Amorgos was shocking). It’s a beautiful place with a long and interesting history; I just wish I’d been better able to read about it in the book.