oia, http://manuworldweb.blogspot.com/

rosina lamberti, on April 14, 2007, said:

wow :)

Alan Knox, on July 25, 2007, said:

Amazing collage of colours and architecture! :-)

Alan

Manu.World, on July 26, 2007, said:

thks, the pic it's NOT mine.

Franco-Italy, on July 27, 2007, said:

Grandioso, forte..........ciao.

kristine hannon (www.traveltheglobe.be), on August 4, 2007, said:

Very nicely composed! Travel greetings

noemi ciriza, on March 5, 2008, said:

gran foto, muy curiosa. saludos

pekin platinel, on June 1, said:

Some similarities to this town may be found in the "White Towns of Andolusia" Spain. More information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_Andalusia

The nearest development in Britain is a village on the coast of North Wales called Portmeirion designed by Williams-Ellis and constructed between 1925 and 1975. More information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion

However, this is probably older and an organic development, but it seems to have a master planner , good planning law and enforcement rules and an artistic director in charge of every bits of colouring on building exteriors. I would like to know the real story of these buildings. Can anyone help?

rocky gadelha, on July 5, said:

My God!!! I remember Oia with only one street and no tourists. In a square, there was a monkey almost blue,like those of the famous fresco. Now I see, in the photo, a real city, built for tourists and for money. I hated it. The photo is very god, I mean, what happened to Oia. Rocky from Brazil

pekin platinel, on July 7, said:

We need to confront some very common mistakes in rocky gadelha's comment here [and his similar comment on http://www.panoramio.com/photo/162233 "Kamari was destroyed!"]:

The tourists, buildings and money seem to have been accused of the cause of destruction or disaster. Some tourists might behave badly, some buildings or urban design or planning law or its implementation might be inadequate or bad, money may buy vice but it is wrong to generalise as if all tourist, all buildings or all money are bad unless one could be able to prove otherwise.

Returning to this photograph I can not see what is wrong with these buildings.

rocky gadelha, on July 21, said:

Everything is wrong, everything, dear Pekin. These buildings didn't exist up to 20 years ago. Thira was greek, white, few people able to use the scarse resorts of the island. No discoes, no rock, no trouble, no noisy people, no swimming pools in an island without water, no destruction. I wouldn't blame "some tourists" but most of them are like ants. Just devore, take photoes, they even won't be able to distinguish later. Tourism attracts immigration, slums and criminality. Look at the ecological disaster tourists commited in Petaloudes, Rhodes. I can prove tourists are a real plague: I lived in Greece when there were a few tourists, and I saw the country's changement. Same happens now in the city I live, in South Brazil. Progress? Development? You should read newspapers and travel to see the consequences. For a tourist, L.A., Rio, Miami Beach, are the same as the blue Mediterranean. Then, why destroy a wonderful country like Greece, since you may have discoes, rock, noisy and nude beaches everywhere? Ther's no more place for blue monkeys in Oia, not even for the butterflies that attracted people to Petaloudes Rocky

pekin platinel, on July 21, said:

Dear Rocky Gadelha, your comments reflect your deep dedication to humanist and environmentalist values as well as carrying a lot of nostalgia. This world needs a lot of people like yourself, but we can't ignore some of the logical and technical errors in your previous statements.

I assume you were a "tourist" yourself and took the advantage of travelling freely when you had visited these islands in the past and you had respected the people and the nature and caused minimum or no damage to the environment. If we extend this freedom to others we should be prepared for the negative consequences of the "tourism", and I realise this is a complicated but not an impossible task.

If we spent much time on complaining about bad behaviours of "some" or most tourists on the island and not focusing enough on the responsibility of the local residents, local and national authorities, we may miss the point.

Responsibility of granting permission for building on an "area of natural beauty" or on "area of scientific interest" rests with the relevant authorities (local and national) and we know that, on many occasions local authorities had failed to protect these lands (therefore the interests of the local residents) but it seems wrong to blame a well intentional tourist for hiring a bedroom or eating in a local restaurant for what had gone wrong in the island.

kd.l, on August 18, said:

Dear Rocky, Oia has still only one main street and these are traditional buildings in this photo. Most of them weathered 2 massive earthquakes and some were partly destroyed or damaged by the huge one in 1956 and re-erected later, according to the original plans. Just take a look at Oia in 1929, that's a bit more than 20 years ago... ;-) http://www.artknowledgenews.com/files2008/BernardRudofskySantorini.jpg