What's the Best Time to Visit Mykonos? Have it all to yourself in March

March in Mykonos is all anticipation- buzzsaws and oil paint. Construction zones turn into fully stocked boutiques, literally overnight. The Nepheli, first cruise ship of the season, is arriving in four days. 

But, until then, we have the place to ourselves.

I'm thinking it's the perfect time to see what real Mykonos is like, because this is an unreal place, where the Louis Vuitton is right across from the public grammar school, and the kiosk sells bubblegum, cuban cigars, and splits of Asti- dry and demi-sec. 

I was here once in August, three days during which I heard Lykke Li's "I follow rivers" not less than 40 times (2011, for those of you who have lost track of the decade's better Sommerschlagen). I'm listening to it right now on youtube, while the rain is pelting the windows. What's Mykonos like when you strip away the pop and the passarella? 

You have to dodge a lot of tricycles- the little kid ones, and the ones workmen navigate the picturesque alleys with, stacked with sacks of cement and 10 liter buckets of white paint. Paint- people are wielding paint brushes dipped in white in every alley- painting walls, the spaces between the stones to set the stage for a Cycladic fantasy. Sawdust fills the air. It feels and smells exactly like a theatre production three days before opening night, sans actors- round the clock work- no tension, but no one is taking a break either. The few cafes that are open are still empty.

But the churches are full- even for Greece, there are a lot of churches, none larger than a 2 family house. The icon of the virgin was waked down in a procession from Ano Mera- the island's inland, hilltop capital- on the feast day of St. Theodoros, and will be staying at the church of St. Kyriaki until the feast day of St. Lazarus.

You think there will be this tourist fantasy Mykonos in the picturesque harbor, and that the "real" Mykonos is somewhere else. But the seafront of the Chora (in Greece, the main town of an Island is called the "Chora"- with a super-soft "ch," like in "challah") has a double life- as Greece's ultimate status promenade, and as a place to smack octopus on the pier (100 times makes it tender). When the boat from Delos gets in- that's just a couple of times a week- men and women with sacks of wild greens they gathered on the sacred grounds disembark along with the three or four tourists.

And every day that the boats can leave harbor- winter and summer- the fisherman sell the dawn's catch from a kiosk of marble slabs right in the sand-

They share the beach- one of the most coveted, prestigious stretches of waterfront in the Mediterranean- with five or six pick-up trucks filled with tomatoes that, thanks to the dry cycladic soil, are heavy with flavor even in early March, and sacks of wild greens:

And they'll still be here for melon season, too.