Milos

Milos is a mysterious and charming island raised from the depths of the sea goddess Tethys, a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and wife of the Titan Oceanus. It is a natural laboratory with veins of rare ores and metals and numerous small coves offering boat shelters carved directly into the rock.

Milos’s shore embraces a tranquil interior whose rich soil composition yields few, but very special, products. Sea water and the proliferation of thorny Burnett (Sacropoterium spinosa), a plant known since antiquity, transforms the land into a series of small, fertile meadows. Milos’s sponge-like recess-filled rocks look like a heater that gently warms the land, helping it produce fine wines, sweet figs, delicious melons, squash, and watermelons.

The wine was traditionally fermented in casks, while local game, fresh fish, delectable limpets, and a species of tough-shelled salty mussels were part of the traditional diet. Today, you sample delicacies like squash and almond preserves; a cool and juicy slice of watermelon pie, skordolazana, tomato sauce, and Milos ‘olive oil cheese’ or ladotiri, savoury pumpkin and cheese pie made with goat’s milk butter, pork roast in a sauce of red wine, tomato paste, and thyme, and delicious pitarakia. Pickled rock samphire sits in jars on windowsills, ready to be made into small savoury pies or boiled and eaten with a little olive oil.