Oinousses

Oinousses is a small cluster of islands lying just off the north-east coast of Chios, in the narrow channel between Greece and the Turkish mainland. Only the largest is inhabited, and its single village of white and pastel houses climbs gently above a calm harbour. Fewer than a thousand people live here year-round, yet this modest place has one of the most remarkable stories in the Aegean: it is the ancestral home of a striking number of the great Greek shipowning families, whose fortunes were built on the world's oceans and whose names are known throughout the shipping industry.

That wealth is worn quietly. The village is neat and well-kept, with grand family mansions, a fine church and generous public buildings funded by the shipowners, but there are no resorts and little bustle. A celebrated Merchant Marine Academy trains future officers here, and the small Nautical Museum displays ship models, instruments and family portraits that tell the island's seafaring history. On a headland stands a bronze statue of a mermaid, the Panagia Gorgona, watching over sailors at sea.

Because it sits so close to Chios and sees few outsiders, Oinousses keeps an unhurried, almost private atmosphere. Days are spent swimming at quiet, pebbly coves such as Bilali and Zepaga, walking the low hills dotted with chapels, and eating fresh fish at the handful of tavernas by the water. In summer the population swells as shipping families return to their roots, and the island briefly comes alive, but for much of the year it is profoundly peaceful.

There is no airport and little in the way of hotels, so most visitors come as a day trip or short stay from Chios, to which a small ferry runs daily in about an hour.

Go to Oinousses for its unusual story, its calm and its authenticity rather than for sights or beaches on a grand scale. It rewards the curious traveller with a glimpse of a proud community that quietly helped shape global shipping.