Tinos, The Carnival at Falatados

The village of Falatados, renowned for its raki, is the largest village on the island of Tinos after Pyrgos, and features wonderful traditional architecture. At the entrance of the village, the visitor can see the Spiti of Skitso (House of Cartoons), a museum with satirical drawings of the Mitropoulos brothers (very famous Greek cartoonist). The village has numerous small artisanal wine producers and distilleries. Its wines are well-known and of good quality.

On the last Sunday of the Carnival in Falatados, a different theme for the celebration is chosen each year. Meze are served and the villagers dance to the tunes of the tsambuna (a Balkan bagpipe), violin, and guitar.

Tinos‘ traditional dishes are artichokes cooked in a variety of ways, sun-dried tomatoes with batter, froutalia, savore with molasses, fried fish with petimezi sauce, pork sausages, the saltsisi, and the louza of Tinos. Cheeses include the famed graviera and the kopanisti. As for sweets, famous are the amygdalota, xerotigana, karidota, pasteli, loukoumi, and various kinds of halva as well as the renowned thyme honey of Tinos.

Photo: tinostodaygr