200 years ago, it was agreed by all except the Ottomans, that what the world really really wanted, was… Greece. How could there be a Europe without it? This year is the bicentenary of the War of Independence where poets, peasants, priests, and princes joined the trickle that ended up as a riptide, carving … Read More
Five Star Greece was thrilled to be able to escort the historian, television presenter and author, the divine Bettany Hughes, to one of Greece’s secret sites. We are even more thrilled that she offered to write a blog about it! Read on for Bettany’s own words… Standing on a Greek island, a balmy, Mediterranean … Read More
There is good food, there is bad food, and OK food. I can cook all three kinds, especially the last two. Then there is the food where you close your eyes and let something magic happen in the universe. I can’t do this at all, but chef Costas Bouyiouris can. I will just say … Read More
Parikia is often thought of as a place you arrive on the ferry and drive out of pretty sharpish to head to pretty Naoussa or your villa on the south coast, but apart from its function as the capital of Paros, it has it own great charms and considerable interest, and it would be a … Read More
Paros beaches are fun, plentiful, sandy, safe, clean and get rather full in summer. Here are some ideas for getting away from them for a day or two. THE BYZANTINE ROAD Through Paros’ green and flowery June meadows, along hillsides and down into cool valleys, a path of weathered, grey marble flagstones meanders from … Read More
Although it has an airport, Syros has somehow missed out on becoming a destination, all the more surprising when one takes a close look at it. The other Cycladic islands are variations on a theme, based on the aesthetics of fishermen and peasants; the iconic cubic houses, cane roofs and whitewash are the stuff … Read More
Did you know that the origin of the Christmas tree in ancient Greece, was not fir or cypress tree, but a branch from a wild olive tree? According to many references in ancient texts, the wild olive branch, or “Eiresioni”, was decorated with garlands of red and white wool. On it hung the first autumn … Read More
The seven islands that make up the Ionian Islands are about soft seduction; they don’t go in for brash, bright, harsh, wind-blown, barren, dynamic or other such theatricals – Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Kythira have always been a country apart – the Venetians owned them, as did Napoleon and then the Russian … Read More
The Panaghia Spiliotissa, or the Panaghia ton Vlachernon as it is properly known, is a little magical site on the hillside of a mountain on Ithaca. The path winds up through peaceful fields and smallholdings that Homer’s Laertes , the father of Odysseus whose farm is supposed to be around here, would have probably … Read More
It’s a lovely Greek concept – borne higher and higher by the thermals of good luck and perhaps hard work, up flies the giddy mortal, till some minor sun-god lays aside his cup of nectar for a second to swat away the irritating trespasser, who then plunges earthward, spiralling back down to where he came … Read More
Clearing out a drawer, I found an antiquarian book with some wonderful photos taken in 1957 of Greek islands – here are my favourites – another world then.
