After our visit to the monastery of Toplou we made a quick stop at Sitia where we spent few hours shopping for provisions and strolling and then we continued to the miraculously blue beach of Tholos. In the afternoon we visited the archaeological site of Gournia one of the best preserved Minoan villages in the island known also as Pompeii of Minoan Crete where excavations are still going on.
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On your way to Vai it is almost impossible to miss it. It looks like a fortress but it is a monastery, one of the wealthiest in Crete. In fact most of the land as far as the eye can see, it belongs to Moni Toplou as it is known informally the monastery. It possesses masterpieces of religious art too and it is incredibly well preserved. If these are still not enough to convince you for a visit, consider that they produce (and they sell) excellent products.
Few hours later hoping that the situation would calm down we left Itanos heading towards Vai. We were right. This world famous beach (it is surrounded by the largest natural palm forest in Europe) was still busy but it was nothing compered to what was happening earlier in the day. We enjoyed the exotic beach and then, although we don’t surf, we decided to go to Kouremenos to spend the night.