Miracles, Marble and Marzipan Tinos is the archetypal Cycladic island without the blight of too much tourism. A barren, mountainous mass with the typical dry terraces, rocky peaks, wide sandy beaches, azure waters and fertile valleys of the Cyclades. Aiolos, the ancient keeper of the winds, resided, they say, on the peak of mount Tsiknias. … Read More
“Tonight I decorated my guitar with ribbons and took a walk in the lanes for the beautiful girls”, Zakynthos cantada. 1953’s earthquake abruptly severed this gorgeous garden island’s historic continuity and the beauty that led to the Venetian overlords name for it of Fiore di Levante (The Flower of the Levant). One of the most … Read More
When You Set Out On Your Journey To Ithaca… Cavafy’s poem is a haunting icon for all our odysseys. Do look it up! Ithacans themselves have been adventurers and wanderers, journeying to other sides of the world to build new lives since the time of Homer’s hero Odysseus. The island is dramatically beautiful, rugged, relatively … Read More
Two Names, Two Natures One side is chic coastal villas and the yachtie heaven of Vourkari, with its lively resort feel, on the other side are the gentle and arcadian uplands of farmers cultivating the rich and fertile terracings of far-flung country settlements. Kea feels very different from the other Cyclades: it lacks the photogenic … Read More
Greece’s Wild West – “Where Burning Sappho Leaped and Sung…” Byron’s wonderful Ode to the Isles of Greece picks out the extreme westernmost point of the island, where the range of white cliffs dropping down to turquoise water and white sands comes to an end. The end of the cliffs, from which the ancient poetess … Read More
Queen Of The Islands – natural elegance with high-octane glamour and style Dazzlingly white and windswept, waterless and treeless, but with superb thick sandy beaches, blue-domed chapels and churches, dovecotes and windmills and a sparkling streamlined natural architecture, the most beautiful small harbour/port in these islands, Mykonos epitomizes an ideal Greek island. But it is … Read More
Dionysos’ Island Having slayed the Minotaur in Knossos, Theseus the son of the king of Athens, abandoned Ariadne, his young Cretan bride here after she helped him escape from King Minas’s wrath – as Dana Facaros wrote: “This was, even in the eyes of Athenians, dishonest.” Mary Renault found a neat explanation to save her … Read More
A Gentler Mykonos Paros is the stuff of travel posters – whitewashed houses, narrow winding village streets, brilliant sun, wide shallow sandy beaches and deep blue sea. Low hills roll down to the sea, enclosing three plains with waving yellow August harvests, two deeply-cut bays providing sheltered harbours. Hills with layers of marble and fertile … Read More
The Private Island Koufonissia is really the playground of the islands; no need for a car, you can walk from one end to the other in 40 minutes easily, and if you take the coastal path, you can stop and swim in a different little beach every 50 metres, and have a drink, a fresh … Read More
The Perfect Miniature Island Antiparos is a small holiday paradise just across from Paros, from which it is divided by a shallow channel just a few metres deep. Guests here keep coming back as it is the closest thing to a private island – small, not much accommodation, low key. It’s the sort of thing … Read More
“I, John … was on an island called Patmos … and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet, saying, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, write what you see in a book, and send it to the seven churches’.” This tiny sparse island has an elegance, mystique and … Read More
