Symi: an excursion out of town

The pretty port of Gialos, the heart of Symi, can be visited in half a day, and if you want to see it in all its facets, at dawn, with the light of sunset, illuminated in the evening, you can opt, as we did, to arrive and depart with the last ferry in the afternoon from and to Rhodes. When you have finished going up and down the narrow streets of the port, you just have to take a bus and make an excursion of a few hours to the Panormitis monastery.

Panormitis is one of the most important monasteries of the Dodecanese, and its peculiarity is the fact that it overlooks a pier in front of the sea. Coming from the winding mountain road, you can see this sparkling white complex against the backdrop of the arid coast.

Two buses in the morning, at 7:30 and 10:30, and one in the afternoon, at 14:00, reach this monastery, and you should book your seat by calling from the hotel where you are staying directly to the company that organizes the transport. Places are limited, this is a minibus that makes stops on request depending on the reservations received the day before.

A 30-minutes stop is all it takes to visit the monastery. Much of the monastery is actually closed, and many monks' cells are now inhabited. The only part of the monastery that can be visited is the main cloister that develops around the church, whose frescoed interiors are very suggestive.

There is not much more to see or do, and if you take the mini bus at 10:30, you may just return with the first bus in the afternoon that leaves at 12:00. We have chosen to stop and take the second return trip, at 15:20, spending a few hours on the tiny beach beyond the pier. The bay is lapped by really inviting blue waters, but being almost completely closed, the water moves very little and the bottom is slightly muddy. It is still a quiet and isolated place to relax under the sun or in the shade of a pine tree for a couple of hours, in the company of some local inhabitants.

The trip from Gialos to Panormitis takes about 45 minutes and the cost of the ticket is 6 € a/r.