SKÁLA , with most of the island's population of about three thousand, seems initially to contradict any solemn, otherworldly image of Pátmos. The waterside, with its ritzy cafés and clientele, is a bit too sophisticated for such a small town, and some of the service staff a bit world-weary. During peak season, the quay and commercial district swarm by day with hydrofoil and cruise-ship passengers souvenir-hunting or being shepherded onto coaches for the ride up to the monastery; after dark there's still a considerable traffic in well-dressed cliques of visitors on furlough from the cruise ships which weigh anchor after midnight. In winter (which here means by Oct 10), Skála assumes a ghost-town air as most shops and restaurants close, and their owners and staff go back to Rhodes or Athens.

 

Melóï beach, one of the most convenient and popular coves on the island, lies 1.5km to the north; Hóra, a bus or taxi ride up the mountain, is a more attractive base, but has few rooms. Yet given time - especially in spring or autumn - Skála reveals some more enticing corners in the residential fringes to the east and west, where vernacular mansions hem in pedestrian lanes creeping up the hillsides. The modern town dates only from the 1820s, when the Aegean had largely been cleared of pirates, but at the summit of the westerly rise, Kastélli , you can see the extensive foundations of the island's ancient acropolis.