The town of Poros occupies the volcanic Sferia peninsula — the southern of the two islands that make up Poros — and is one of the prettiest small-town waterfronts in the Saronic Gulf. The ferry port is busy with boats crossing the 200-metre channel to Galatas on the Peloponnese, but step back from the quay and the lanes become quiet and residential quickly.
The clock tower, visible from the ferry as you approach, is the town's symbol: a pale blue dome on a white campanile perched at the crest of the hill. The climb up is straightforward and the view from the top — the channel, the pine-covered hill of Kalaureia, and on clear days the outline of Aegina — repays the effort. The streets around the tower have the typical mix of neoclassical houses in faded ochre and blue shutters, small grocery shops, and cats in doorways that define island Greece at its most unpretentious.