It was our third day of traveling in Greece. Today was our random day. A day in which we were randomly returning or going to places that we found interesting. We chose the sites of Ancient Thira, Imerogivli, and Oia.

Ancient Thira was an easy choice for random day. It was on top of Mesa Vuono and right next to our hotel (actually, 3 km). For Imerogivli and Oia, we were thinking that we could start at Firostefani and eventually work our way towards Oia. All of those places were on the western coast of Santorini. It sounded like a good plan.

The choice of transportation.

One of the decisions that we made, not knowing whether it was good or bad, was renting an all terrain vehicle (atv) for our random day. There was a rental shop right next to the hotel. We reserved one the day before and it was ready when we picked it up the next day.

It turned out to be a white-knuckle, slow-crawl driving up the zigzag uphill road of Mesa Vuono. We had a big sigh of relief when we finally parked at the end of the road. Our relief was short-lived however upon finding out that there was still a half kilometer walk to the higher elevation of Ancient Thira. The start of our random day was starting to look bleak. Useful tip: always use a comfortable pair of shoes.

Ancient Thira.

The ancient christian church of St. Stephen was the first structure that we encountered. The church was built with rocks piled on top of each other with a domed roof. It was looking quite small and cordoned off with a rope. A peek inside the church would have interesting. Further up the trail, there were more stone structures that were looking like a pile of rubble until we reached the main site. It was the ruins of a well organized community. Stone foundations of rectangular structures were on both sides of a road that was also laid with stones. There were postings of signs that described the purpose of some structures. The whole community was sitting on a mountaintop. The periphery of Ancient Thira was overlooking vast areas surrounding it thus making its location strategic. We stayed just long enough to appreciate Ancient Thira and catch our breath. We then slowly made our way down Mesa Vuono and were throttling for Imerogivli once we hit the main roads.

The drive to Imerogivli.

It felt nerve-racking driving the first few kilometers going to Imerovigli. I couldn’t push the atv past 60 kph for fear that I will overturn it when cornering. It was loud and we were feeling the heat of the engine on our legs. Cars were tailgating us and I didn’t want a raging driver behind me. Luckily, there was no road rage except for few honks of the horn. Useful tip: not a good idea to be driving an atv around Santorini. Better drive a small car.

We found a small cafe at Imerogivli to cool down and to calm our nerves. The atv driving was starting to bother us.

We started exploring Imerovigli by walking the hiking trail along the coast. The Aegean sea was visible from this vantage point as well as the prominent Skaros rock.

The three bells of Fira.

We were planning to walk the to Firostefani to look for the Three Bells of Fira. However, the trail was not marked and confusing. We didn’t want to risk losing our way and wasting time wandering around. Instead, we went back to the atv and drove to Firostefani Central Square. It was a short uphill walk from the square to the spot where we viewed the famous blue dome and three bells of the Catholic Church of the Dormition.

The castle of Agios Nikolaos.

Oia was not too bad to end random day. The first time we were there, the crowd was so thick that we were not able to explore all the nooks of the area. This time, we took our time exploring Oia all the way to the castle of Agios Nikolaos. We spent the whole day exploring and concluded it with another view of the Santorini sunset.