We first reached Fira on foot from Katikies Garden near the top of town, walking down through its streets before eventually stopping for dinner and sunset. We returned later in the trip, but it was that first long afternoon and evening that gave us most of our impression of the town. Between those visits we saw it in bright daylight, through the late afternoon, at sunset and after dark.
That produced a different impression from what we’d have gotten just from arriving at one of the caldera viewpoints. Fira is built vertically. Streets run across the top of the town, buildings and restaurants descend the western slope, and staircases connect levels that can look surprisingly close together on a map.
Walking Through Fira
From Katikies Garden, we could walk straight into town. The route towards the western edge of town took us through a mixture of stone passages, narrow pedestrian streets, shops and small squares before the view began opening up towards the water.
Fira spreads down the western side of Santorini above the caldera.
Some of the older passages gave very little indication of the view waiting beyond them.
One of the stone passages running through Fira.
A narrow pedestrian lane through the center of Fira.
Blue doors and windows against one of Fira’s ochre-colored facades.
It wasn’t just about caldera views, old stone lanes and buildings.
Fira resident
A scooter parked along one of Fira’s narrow lanes.
Shops make use of almost every available space, with displays spilling into passages that are also carrying pedestrians through town.
One of Fira’s pedestrian shopping streets.
Above the Caldera
Eventually the buildings begin to separate and the geography becomes much easier to understand. Fira sits high above the water, with hotels and restaurants occupying successive levels below the main streets. Cruise ships in the caldera provide a useful sense of scale.
The caldera appears between the buildings as you move towards the western edge of Fira.
Walking down towards the caldera is easy enough; eventually you have to regain the height. There was also plenty that had nothing to do with finding the next viewpoint.
Bronze busts overlooking the caldera in Fira.
Fish-themed artwork inside one of Fira’s galleries.
Looking down from Fira towards a cruise ship in the caldera below.
Restaurants are built into the hillside at different levels, with terraces stacked above and below one another.
Restaurant terraces built into the caldera side of Fira.
By later afternoon, the light across the water had begun to change.
Looking across Fira and the caldera later in the afternoon.
Three Hours at Lithos
Eventually we stopped walking. We settled at Lithos early enough that sunset was still some way off and ended up staying at the same table for around three hours. We ordered drinks and then dinner while the light changed across the caldera.
Staying there for the evening worked particularly well. Cruise ships shifted position below us, the white buildings gradually picked up warmer colors and more people appeared along the caldera edge as sunset approached.
Settling in at Lithos, where we stayed at the same table for around three hours through sunset.
Dinner arrived as the sun began to drop beyond the islands opposite Fira.
On the path below us, many people seemed to treat the sunset as something to collect rather than experience. They would arrive, spend a few minutes taking photographs from the edge of the caldera and then move on in search of another viewpoint or another restaurant.
Staying at the same table produced almost the opposite experience. There wasn’t one sunset view to capture. The view kept changing, and we had three hours to watch it happen.
Sunset over the caldera from our table in Fira.
The last light through the orchid on our table at Lithos.
After Dark
By the time we left Lithos, the caldera itself was disappearing into darkness. Getting back to Katikies Garden meant climbing towards the top of Fira. The same vertical geography that had been so obvious in daylight now showed up differently, in illuminated staircases, restaurants, pools and buildings stacked above one another.
Climbing back through Fira after dark.
From higher up, individual streets became harder to distinguish and the whole town appeared as a collection of illuminated terraces running down the hillside.
Fira illuminated along the cliff after dark.
While We Were There
Fira is easy to reduce to the caldera. It is the view that dominates photographs of the town and, once you reach the western edge, it is difficult to look anywhere else. But much of what I remember happened between those viewpoints: the narrow passages, shops occupying unlikely spaces, cats, galleries, steep changes in level and eventually the decision to stop walking altogether.
We spent three hours at Lithos as afternoon became evening, then climbed back through Fira after dark with most of the view gone. By then the streets, staircases and buildings had become as much a part of our memory of Fira as the sunset.