Known for their hospitality, traditional music and healthy home-cooking, Cretans are also fiercely independent.

BBC: Seductive southern Crete

While Evans insisted on keeping a distance from the islanders, the Cretans have embraced him wholeheartedly, recognising his role in creating their tourist industry.

ECONOMIST: Bullshot

Historically, Cretans have eaten only what their land produced: lots of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and pulses the dried seeds of legumes such as lentils, beans and peas.

NPR: Crete: Ancient Diet with Modern Message

But some Cretans have warmer words for the newcomers.

ECONOMIST: The Greeks and the Chinese

It is this sense of otherness (amply displayed in Lakkis' splendidly curling, pencil-thin moustache - a relic of centuries past), that makes the Cretans, and especially those from the south, such good company.

BBC: Seductive southern Crete