Greece - Korina Miller [551]
Atsitsa Ατστσα
The picturesque port village of Atsitsa on the island’s west coast occupies a woodsy setting, shaded by pines that approach the shore, where Taverna Antonis ( 22220 92990; mains €4-8) sits opposite a small pier where the family’s fishing boat ties up.
Sunset Café ( 22220 91331; Atsitsa; drinks & snacks €1.50-4) overlooks the bay. This snappy all-organic cafe is a treat. Choose from Greek coffee, wines from Corinth, fresh juices, ice creams, karidhopita (walnut cake) and delicate salads, all compliments of Mariana and family. Look for the family’s adopted pelican, Poseidon, while you’re there.
Nearby, just a few metres from the beach, is the ceramics workshop of Yiannis Komboyiannis ( 22220 91064; www.artinskyros.gr; Kira Panagia). This ceramics master goes about his work methodically, visitors or no visitors. The yard facing the beach is filled with rope, random sculptures, fishing nets, an old boat pulled ashore and his most recent handiwork drying in the sun. Look for workshops and gallery openings in the summer.
Beaches
Beaches on the northwest coast are subject to strong winter currents and summer meltemi winds.
Atsitsa has a small pebble beach shaded by pines, good for freelance camping, but too rocky for swimming. Just to the north (1.5km) is the superior swimming beach of Kyra Panagia, named for the monastery on the hill above. Just 1.5km to the south, the tiny and protected north-facing bay at Cape Petritsa is also good for swimming.
A beautiful horseshoe-shaped beach graces Pefkos Bay, 10km southeast of Atsitsa. Nearby, the beach at Aherounes has a gentle sandy bottom, very nice for children, along with two tavernas and domatia.
To the north and near the airport, Palamari is a graceful stretch of sandy beach that does not get crowded. Palamari is also the site of a well-marked archaeological excavation (www.skyros.gr/ancient-palamari-skyros.html) of a walled Bronze Age town dating from 2500 BC. At the airport junction, the popular roadside Taverna To Perasma ( 22220 92911; mains €4.50-7) serves excellent mayirefta dishes (goat in lemon sauce €6).
Rupert Brooke’s Grave
Rupert Brooke’s well-tended marble grave is in a quiet olive grove just inland from Tris Boukes Bay in the south of the island, and marked with a wooden sign in Greek on the roadside. The gravestone is inscribed with some of Brooke’s verses, beginning with the following apt epitaph:
If I should die think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
From coastal Kalamitsa, just east of Linaria, a road south passes the village of Nyfi, and brings you to Brooke’s simple tomb. No buses come here, and travel is restricted beyond this southernmost corner of the island, which is dominated by the Greek Naval station on Tris Boukes Bay.
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Ionian Islands Τα Ιóια Νησι
* * *
CORFU ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑ
CORFU TOWN
NORTH & NORTHWEST OF CORFU TOWN
SOUTH OF CORFU TOWN
WEST COAST
PAXI ΠΑΞΟΙ
GAÏOS ΓΑЇΟΣ
LOGGOS ΛΟΓΓΟΣ
LAKKA ΛΑΚΚΑ
ANTIPAXI ΑΝΤΙΠΑΞΟΙ
LEFKADA ΛΕΥΚΑΔΑ
LEFKADA TOWN
EAST COAST & SURROUNDS
VASILIKI ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ
WEST COAST & AROUND
CENTRAL LEFKADA
MEGANISI ΜΕΓΑΝΗΣΙ
KEFALLONIA ΚΕΦΑΛΛΟΝΙΑ
ARGOSTOLI ΑΡΓΟΣΤΟΛΙ
SAMI & SURROUNDS ΣΑΜΗ
ASSOS ΑΣΟΣ
AROUND ASSOS
FISKARDO ΦΙΣΚΑΡΔΟ
ITHAKI ΙΘΑΚΗ
VATHY ΒΑΘΥ
AROUND ITHAKI
ZAKYNTHOS ΖΑΚΥΝΘΟΣ
ZAKYNTHOS TOWN
AROUND ZAKYNTHOS
* * *
The Ionian Sea is where ‘the blue begins’, in Lawrence Durrell’s haunting phrase, and the Ionian Islands are certainly where Greece begins to seduce with its heat, its intensity of colour and its dazzling light. This is where the grey north relents entirely. The main islands of Corfu, Paxi, Lefkada, Ithaki, Kefallonia and Zakynthos lie scattered down the west coast of mainland Greece like fragments of a mosaic. With their olive groves, cypress trees, starkly beautiful mountains, and countless beaches fringing iridescent waters, they offer