The Treasure of Pyrgos

This experience turns a walk through Pyrgos into a story-driven treasure hunt. It begins in the courtyard of a historical villa, where each participant receives an aged envelope holding a map, the first clue, and the legend of a secret kept for generations by Santorini families. From there, you wander through Pyrgos' winding streets, past its churches, one of the castles the Venetians built across the island against pirates, its houses set in rings so the village had one way in and no open flanks. You solve a series of short puzzles drawn from local history, Venetian symbols, architecture and island tradition. Each solved clue opens the next chapter of the story as you go. The final clue leads the group out of the village to a local farm, where you learn how volcanic soil, sustainable cultivation and innovative farming define the island's culinary identity, before tasting edible flowers and fresh microgreens over a farm-to-table lunch made with ingredients grown steps away.

Pyrgos is Santorini's highest village and the best preserved of the five Venetian castle settlements, its lanes laid out to confuse anyone who got past the entrance. There are around forty churches, and the tenth-century Theotokaki sits within the walls. Most visitors never reach here — which is why it is a good place to be handed a map and enjoy getting lost in. The puzzles are Maria's own, written for this route and no other. They are short and simple, and no prior knowledge of Santorini is needed — an occasion for discovery, not a test. Rather than walking behind a guide, you piece the village together yourself. Maria stays with you throughout, filling in what you're looking at, but the finding is yours. The farm visit at the end will show you that in a Santorini that barely rains, its traditional crops survive on sea mist and on volcanic ash, which is why the island's tomatoes and fava taste as concentrated as they do. What you eat at the end just grew a few steps from the table.

Maria Petrenko is a Santorini-based experience designer whose work looks beyond the island's famous views to the quieter layers that shape daily life here. Over the years, she has worked across Santorini's tourism world, building relationships with farmers, artists, drivers, and residents whose knowledge comes from living and working on the island. Her approach favors calm pacing, fewer stops, and more context, with space to ask questions, sit, and notice details that most itineraries pass too quickly. She works with small local producers rather than at the volume the island's tourism usually runs at.

Comfortable walking shoes — the experience takes place entirely on foot, and Pyrgos is uphill on stone paving most of the way. **Suitable for children aged 12 and up.