September 14th. Kephalonia to Ithaca. The next morning I visited a very pretty property of two houses set in Tuscan-like countryside but with the sea glimmering beyond the cypress trees. Kefalonia really is a beautiful island. Long sandy beaches are gently washed by clear, pale blue water. Mountains dark with pine trees sun themselves in the … Read More
September 13th. My heart does not usually leap for joy when I drive off to Luton Airport at six in the morning, but…… What a fortnight – doctors, surgeons, emergency clinics, consultants, hospital administrators, insurance companies – I have developed a new Pavlovian reaction: whenever a man in a suit says hello to me, I wordlessly hand … Read More
One Star Greece today – The worm’s eye view. Today’s blog is courtesy of my 20 year old son, just returned from a rather grubby island hopping trip to Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and Naxos, with which Five Star Greece had absolutely nothing to do at all… Mykonos: Lose the telephone numbers your well-connected mother gave … Read More
An invitation dropped into my mailbox to visit the famous confectioner’s Kardiasmenou on Spetses for Greek coffee and pastries. A picture of their speciality almond cookies, “Amygdalota” was on it. Like a Proustian madeleine, a slow, sweet, torrent of memories starts flooding in – No Greek would ever turn up to dinner, tea or any social … Read More
Honestly, how could one ever leave the important business of locating Odysseus’ palace to archaeologists? With this report, I would like to introduce you to the new discipline of Psycho-archaeology. I escorted a group of friends and relatives up to the new found site of Odysseus’ palace on the side of the northern part of Ithaca, … Read More
May 30th Much as I hate turning down helicopter rides, I was a day too late to get a lift to Sifnos with the owner, and ended up on the Aghios Georgios which takes 5 hours from Piraeus, but is delightful – go “Distinguished Class” and you get a private deck with deckchairs and a white piano in the … Read More
May 30th If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that two grouse strolled along my terrace this morning and had a drink from the pool. Still unseasonably cold, but I saw a couple of houses that we are going to take on – one in Lia, a lovely little gem tucked away above … Read More
May 28th Morning visit to a wonderfully professionally run house, great staff, dedicated concierge, terrific cook, 6 bedrooms, and lovely views. Lunch at O’Bata – excellent octopus braised in wine – with a local partner, during which we chatted about which owners were stealing clients, which owners were undercutting the agents, which agents were undercutting … Read More
May 27th Mykonos Breakfast at La Luna on Lia beach, forgot my wallet but the chill factor there is such that the manager just said to me “We are all human darling, pay me when you can”. A cheerful day rattling around a still rainy Mykonos with Roi, our Mykonos colleague. She is thin, drives like … Read More
May 25th – A quiet ride on the small, empty, relaxed island hopper to Amorgos, an island very close to my heart for its wild, broad shouldered, mountainous beauty, hair-raisingly lovely cliff-girt coast, the amazing Hozoviotissa monastery pasted like a white swallows nest into a cleft in the crags, with foaming peacock-coloured sea below, its open-hearted … Read More
May 25th After Amorgos, Mykonos is a real culture shock. I am staying on the Belvedere where the service is fantastic and very good-looking, but I do wonder how people put up with being so squashed and on top of each other with no privacy at all. It does make me realise how much nicer it … Read More
