Karavolades Stairs

This guide to the Karavolades Stairs in Santorini starts with a disagreement: nobody agrees exactly how many stone steps zigzag up the nearly three hundred meters between the old port and clifftop Fira, because almost nobody climbing them is counting, most ride up on a mule instead. For centuries, before any road or cable car, donkeys and mules were the only way people and cargo reached the top, and roughly a hundred still work this route today. In October two thousand eighteen, the island set a weight limit for riders meant to spare the animals the worst of the climb. Watch how riders and animals share these worn stone switchbacks as you climb.