Paraportiani, Hora, Mykonos. (Wikipedia/Bernard Gagnon)
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MYKONOS,
Greece: Mykonos is nobody’s secret – for almost half a century the
Greek island has been honing its cosmopolitan welcome, luring
celebrities, tour groups, families and backpackers alike to its warm but
refreshingly breezy shores.Yet, while thronged annually by a million tourists of every ilk, this 85-square-kilometer arid granite rock in the Aegean Sea is overlaid with a quaint, undisturbed charm.
Blue-trimmed, whitewashed buildings restricted from rising higher than two-stories stud hillsides divided into plots by dry stone walls. Narrow country roads twist across the landscape before winding down to sheltered coves. Small white churches, some 900 of them, scattered across the terrain speak of homey, island traditions.