Its warm orange stones contrast with the azure blue of its water: welcome to the island of Aegina in Greece, a little corner of paradise just an hour's boat ride from Athens.
Sean Thomas finds that Greece's Vikos Gorge, the world's deepest canyon by some measures, has fine walking trails that take you to sacred groves, fortified churches, and crystalline bathing ponds.
Nisyros is the only one that is visually active, with its sulphur gas “fumaroles” (vents or openings at the surface where volcanic gases and vapours are emitted) hissing ominously on the crater floor.