Evaluation: This hike starts in the beautiful village of Apíranthos, it goes to the summit of the Fanári and it continues through an impressive landscape to Moní. Because of the marvellous panoramic view from this 883-metres-high top and because of the wonderful rock landscapes, this hike deserves an evaluation of ***. Some stretches in the second half are difficult to follow.
[Update by Raymond on September 28th 2011, on September 19th 2015 and on June 11^th 2021.]

Estimated time: It takes about 40 minutes to hike to the top of the Fanári-mountain and then 1h45 to Moní. This makes for 2h25 of actual hiking time (AWT), for a total length of 5,74 km, which  proves that we didn’t make good progress on some points. I reality, you should devote about 5-6 hours (TWT) to this hike – we walked from 10am to 4pm. Usually, there are no buses in Moní. You can perhaps continue to Chalkí, where you can take the bus or a taxi.

Route description: [Do not get off at the first bus stops in Apíranthos, but wait until the bus reaches the furthest part of the village, after having described a large bend. On the left you will see the church Kímissis tis Theotókou and on your right-hand side there is a large war monument. From this bus stop you enter the village, where you can first wander around for about one hour.]

[You first get to a rectangular square with the shop of "The Aperinthian women’s association" (where they sell all kinds of different textile), with some fancy bars and with the workshop "Apiranthos Art". The square leads to a beautiful street, paved with marble tiles: to the left there is the café Samarádiko with a great outdoor terrace; you also pass the tiny little church of Agios Sardónis. A little further down you get to the archaeological museum that was established by Michaïl Bardáni: to be seen in this museum are a lot of small Cycladic statues, a clay vase from the 3^rd millennium BC, a geometric tripodos from the 8^th century, some prehistoric stone tools, bronze arrowheads, etc.

The platía of Apíranthos.

You then reach a small platía with beautiful houses from 1846 and 1897. Above these houses you find the folk museum, consisting of three rooms of a not too old house: in the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom you can see all kinds of traditional objects and tools. If you want to, you can then continue to walk in the street for a little while, whereupon you should return to your point of departure. If you follow the asphalt road further to the left for a short while, you can also pop into the museums of natural sciences and geology.]

(0h00) You begin this walk on the square, opposite the church of Kímissi tis Theotókou (so to the right, if you come from the asphalt road), and you take  the marble staircase (hiking sign Fanári 30' / Moní 1h50 + [8]).

The marble staircase in Apíranthos, where the hike [8] begins.

After 42 steps you go RIGHT - with a kamára (or archway) on the left side - and then you take a left (2 X red mark). After a flat stretch, you turn left, right and left again, and then you go up again on steps (red dot). After another flat stretch, you go up again and take a left until you reach a small concrete road.

(0h06) You are here in the northwest tip of the village, with on the left the church of Agia Paraskeví with its white dome.

Above Apíranthos, the little church of Agia Paraskeví.

You follow across another small concrete road [8], which rises to the right of the ruins of a mill; the road turns right until you pass a large cistern after some 200 metres.

(0h10) At this point a path starts sharply to the left (hiking sign Fanári / Moní and [8]).

The hiking sign for the walks [8], high above Apíranthos.

[[The other branch of walk [8] continues to follow the little road - see the hike Apíranthos - Sífones - Stavrós - Keramotí.]

You thus take a sharp left, but a little later, you go right through a breach in a wall and you pass through a gate in reinforcing steel (red dot). Later, the trail winds and describes 4 times turns right and left. The retaining walls of the monopáti are still clearly visible, but also the red dots are convenient, as the trail is rather vague in the beginning. The path goes up fairly steeply and behind you, you can see that Apíranthos is quite extensive – it also appears to consist of two parts. Beyond the village, towards the south east, you have a great view on the island of Donoússa (on the far left), the island of Amorgós and behind the hill the other small islands or “eremonisiá” (the little islands between Náxos and Amorgós).

Panoramic view over Apíranthos.

(0h18) After climbing up steeply for about six minutes you go through another breach in a wall; the trail then continues in between walls, but it is very stony and quite steep. You then walk again on a marvellous stone monopáti, that climbs gently on the almost white slope of the Fanári - further, there are also beautiful steps, then you come again between quite abundant vegetation (two cairns).

The path to the Fanári.

The summit of the Fanári.

(0h28) Ten minutes after the breach, you get to a clear junction: a red arrow directs you to the right sharply, at an altitude of 750 metres. Further on you arrive at a gravel road, which you follow to the right. Three-four minutes later though, you arrive at windy pass between the top of the Fanári and a lower summit on your right.

[If you miss the bifurcation, you simply can continue straight on, because you will arrive anyway at the gravel road, where you should take a right of course.
If you decide not to go up to the summit of the Fanári, you can also continue straight; in this case, you continue straight ahead on the gravel road, and after 6 minutes you will begin the descent, see point (1h04) below.]