Gaios, a harbour like a quiet river

Most harbours face the sea. Gaios faces an island. The town grew up along a strip of water only a few dozen metres wide, between the main island and the islet of Agios Nikolaos, and the result is a port that feels more like a canal town than a Greek fishing village. The water in the channel is still and bottle green, the houses come right down to it, and the bow of a yacht can almost touch the café tables.

The pine-covered islet across the water is named for the patron saint of sailors and carries the remains of a fort built under Venetian rule, together with an old windmill and a small church. The Venetians held Paxos for some four centuries, until 1797, and their hand is still in the shape of the town, in its tall, shuttered houses and in the olive groves they encouraged all over the island. Behind it, Panagia islet holds the monastery of the Virgin, the goal of the island's biggest festival on 15 August, when boats ferry the faithful across and the celebration carries on late into the night back in the square.

The quayside square is the island's living room. In the morning it smells of coffee and diesel as the caiques load up for Antipaxos and the west-coast caves; at midday it falls almost silent; in the evening the tables fill and the lights of the houses lie in long lines on the water. A short walk south along the front brings you to the old school building, now home to the Paxos Museum, and to the lanes that climb gently into the olive groves behind the town.

For all that, Gaios stays small. There are no high-rise hotels and few large ones; most visitors stay in restored houses, rooms and villas scattered among the olives. When the last day boats from Corfu and Parga leave in the late afternoon, the town gives itself back to the people who sleep here.