04 Volcano touring

Honeymooners love the Cycladic island of Santorini, where sugar-white villages and bubble-domed churches teeter on blackened cliffs, offering spine-tingling views over the fathomless caldera, formed in around 1620 BC in one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 10,000 years. Frescoes from the Late Bronze Age town of Akrotiri that were buried in ash following the eruption are on display at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera and are so charming you’ll wonder if Santorini really was Atlantis. To experience the volcano’s heat and sulphurous smell, sail across the caldera to Nea Kameni island, whose volcano last erupted in 1950. There’s also the island of Thirasia, where villages delightfully evoke pre-tourism Santorini. The real action, however, is underwater: the submerged volcano Kolumbo, the most active in the Aegean, is rumbling again. The Santorini Paradise Cave Houses in Oia (from £135, B&B) has the frisson-giving views. odysseus.culture.gr santorini-view.com santoriniparadise.com

Below: Nea Kameni Volcanic Park, Santorini