Ano Mera Village, Panagia Tourliani Monastery (1542) and Paleokastro

Eight kilometres east of Mykonos Town in the flat agricultural heart of the island (15 minutes by hourly KTEL bus from the Old Port station or by car on the way to Kalafatis, Lia and Fokos beaches) lies Ano Mera, the only historic inland village on Mykonos. While the rest of the island lives in scattered whitewashed farmsteads (chorio), Ano Mera gathers around a wide, car-free marble village square ringed by traditional family tavernas where Mykonians gather year-round for slow-roasted lamb and local wine.

1. The Monastery of Panagia Tourliani (Founded 1542)

Standing directly on the eastern side of the Ano Mera village square, the Monastery of Panagia Tourliani was founded in 1542 by two monks from Paros on the site of an earlier chapel of the Presentation of the Virgin, and restored to its current gleaming whitewashed grandeur in 1767. Step through the arched gate (small museum fee; modest dress required) into the blinding-white marble courtyard:

• The Carved Florentine Marble Bell Tower & Fountain: rising above the western entrance is one of the most ornate bell towers in the Cyclades, sculpted entirely from white marble with relief carvings of double-headed eagles, cypress trees and angels, paired in the courtyard with a 1767 sculpted marble ablution fountain.
• The 1775 Florentine Baroque Woodcarved Iconostasis (Templon): inside the main church (katholikon), the entire altar screen, carved in Florence, Italy in 1775 and shipped to Mykonos by wealthy island captains, is gilded in gold leaf and painted in green and crimson with tiny baroque angels, flowers and the miraculous 16th-century icon of the Virgin Mary (found floating in the sea off Tourlos and carried in procession to Chora every year during Lent).

2. Paleokastro Monastery, Gyzi Castle Ruins & Village Tavernas

One kilometre north of Ano Mera on a green conical hill rises Paleokastro, the site of the ancient northern town of Mykonos and a ruined 13th-century Venetian fortress (Gyzi Castle). At the foot of the hill stands the peaceful 18th-century women's Monastery of Paleokastro alongside a prehistoric granite megalithic tomb monument. Afterwards, sit down under the pergolas of Ano Mera Square (at long-running local institutions like Fisherman Giorgos & Marina or To Steki tou Proedrou) for charcoal-grilled lamb chops, pork souvlaki and local kopanisti dip at half the price of the south-coast beach clubs.