Greek hospitality on Santorini
Participants in the Publishing Alliance Conference held in Athens from June 22 to 24 wound up their stay in Greece with a visit to Santorini, the birthplace of Kathimerini publisher Aristeidis Alafouzos, who welcomed the representatives of the International Herald Tribune and its partners in the alliance (which include Kathimerini), with his wife Lena and younger son Themis. Heading Kathimerini’s editorial team on the visit was managing editor Nikos Konstandaras, who is also editor in chief of Kathimerini English Edition. Also in the party were board member Martha Dertili, marketing director Andreas Katsaniotis and the International Herald Tribune’s regional director Alberto Cano. The group left the strikes behind them as they flew out of Athens on a chartered aircraft where most of them stayed at the Oia Kanaves, the villa complex developed by Yiannis Haidemenos, whose mother is the sister of Aristides Alafouzos. The guests were enchanted by the view of the caldera from the Kanaves. The next day’s program took in the ruins of Akrotiri, destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the 15th century BC, where they were given a guided tour by the archaeologist in charge since 1968, Professor Christos Doumas, formerly a lecturer at Princeton. The impressive new roof over the digs, a bioclimatic structure, is to be completed by the end of next year with funds from the Greek state and the European Union. No island holiday is complete without a swim, and the guests then boarded a caique for a tour of the Caldera to Thirasia, Armeni and then Ammoudi, where the previous evening they had been treated to a meal at a traditional Greek taverna, with music and singing. Saturday evening was the official dinner beside the pool at Kanaves that included the island’s traditional dishes of kaparokouba and melitinia. It was a fitting end to a wonderful few days of getting to know the members of the other newspapers in the International Herald Tribune partnership, which is as far flung as Japan, Egypt, Spain, Israel, Moscow and Korea.
