Tinos lies between Syros, Andros and Mykonos and is 86 nautical miles from Piraeus and 62 from Rafina. Tinos is a mountainous island with an area of 195 sq. km., a coastline of 106 km and a population of 8,000.
Tinos island can be reached from Piraeus or Rafina by ferry or more rapid craft. From Tinos one can visit the other Cycladic islands.
According to mythology, Tinos was the home of Aeolus, god of the winds. The Ionians came in Tinos island around 1000 BC.
In the 6th century BC Tinos was ruled by Eretria, while in 490 BC Tinos island was seized by the Persians, regaining its freedom after the battle of Marathon. Poseidon was the god chiefly worshipped on Tinos, a fact evidenced by the remains of a temple dedicated to hom and Amphitrite at Kionia. 
In 1207, Tinos was conquered by the Venetians. Venetian rule in Tinos island lasted longer than on any other island of the Cyclades. In 1715, Tinos was taken by the Turks, to be liberated by the Greeks in the War of Independence of 1821.
The year 1822 was an important one for Tinos, for it was then that the famous icon of the Blessed Virgin was discovered, after a nun in the Kechrovouni convent saw it in a dream. She is honoured on the island today as St Pelagia of Tinos.
The island of Tinos features in more modern history with the torpedoing of the Greek cruiser "Elli" in Tinos harbour by an Italian submarine on 15 August 1940-the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin.
