Sunset isle Santorini tries to ignore Greek debt crisis

Page last updated at 07:37 GMT, Thursday, May 3, 2012 - 12:37 EST

AFP:

Santorini was voted the world's best island by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2011

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Twenty euros ($26) for a pair of flip-flops, 10 euros for a five-minute taxi ride and store prices that send even locals to Athens. Welcome to Santorini, the island that forgot Greece's economic crisis.

Voted the world's best island by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2011, the Cyclades tourism powerhouse continues to live in an inflation bubble as the rest of the country sees salaries and pensions plummet by up to 40 percent.

The enduring boom is built on money spent by thousands of travellers who flock to Santorini by cruise ship, ferry and plane each day, drawn by the island's whitewashed villages, volcanic beaches and jaw-dropping sunset vistas.

The island was home to a technologically advanced Bronze Age civilisation that was destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption in the 17th century BCE.

The eruption collapsed part of the island, shaping a deep caldera basin and etching steep cliffs that are Santorini's main attractions today, in addition to the quality wines grown on the island's volcanic soil.

Read the whole story: AFP