Delos

You can see Delos from the party beaches of Mykonos, a low brown hump across a strip of bright water, and the contrast is the whole point. One island is dedicated to bottle service; the other, two and a half kilometres away, is dedicated to Apollo and has been essentially empty of permanent residents for centuries. Crossing between them by boat takes about half an hour and feels like crossing about three thousand years.

A holy island, ruled by rules

In antiquity Delos was one of the most sacred sites in the Greek world, revered as the birthplace of Apollo and his sister Artemis. The ancients took this so seriously that they eventually decreed no one could be born or die on the island, to keep it ritually pure; the dying and the pregnant were ferried off to a neighbouring islet. I find that detail unbearably human, this committee-meeting solution to the messiness of mortality.

Today the entire island is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage listing, and almost nobody stays overnight. You arrive, you wander a city frozen mid-sentence, and you leave on the afternoon boat. The famous Terrace of the Lions, marble beasts that once snarled toward the sacred lake, are weathered into something between guardian and ghost. Lia, not usually one for ruins, stood among them in total silence, which I have learned to recognise as her highest compliment.

Walking a dead metropolis

What surprised me most is how much of a real, lived-in city Delos was. This was not only a sanctuary but a thriving cosmopolitan port, and the residential quarter still has houses with intact mosaic floors, the famous House of the Dolphins and House of Masks among them. You walk actual streets, past the remains of shops and cisterns and a theatre, and the imaginative leap to a crowded, shouting, trading town is almost effortless. Climb Mount Kynthos, the modest peak at the centre, and the entire Cyclades unfurl around you, ring upon ring of islands, with Mykonos winking smugly to the east.

Bring a hat, water, and sturdy shoes, because there is essentially no shade and the marble throws the heat straight back at you. We made the mistake of going at midday in July and spent the last half hour moving from one column’s shadow to the next like a pair of overheated lizards.

How to actually do it

Boats run from Mykonos old port, usually in the morning, and the schedule is unforgiving: the island closes and the last boat leaves in mid-afternoon, so do not dawdle over your second frappé. The site entrance fee is separate from the boat ticket. Give yourself at least three hours on the ground, hire a guide or download a decent one, and treat the day as the deliberate, sun-struck counterweight to whatever Mykonos has planned for your evening.