Inari

Inari is a small village in Finland's far north with only a few hundred inhabitants, and it is **the centre of Sámi cultural life** in the country. The Sámi are the only recognised indigenous people within the European Union, and their homeland runs across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Inari holds the **Finnish Sámi Parliament**, in the timber Sajos building, and **Siida**, the museum that tells their history in their own voice rather than someone else's. In front of the village stretches **Lake Inari**, Finland's third largest, holding over three thousand islands — among them **Ukonsaari**, a Sámi sacred site for centuries. From Inari the great northern parks open up: **Urho Kekkonen**, **Lemmenjoki** and **Kevo**, the widest protected wilderness in all of Finland. Note: the polar night here is longer than at Rovaniemi — the sun does not rise for about **five weeks** in midwinter.