Letter from the Archipelago: Hubris is a Greek word

For all its peace and beauty, Skiathos is not entirely immune to the turbulence we are witnessing on the streets of Athens.

The country is now gripped by a two-day general strike. Banks and public offices have shut down. Power cuts have become a tool of union action against the government’s austerity measures. Mr Papandreou and his ministers are hated. With good reason, the people blame a succession of corrupt governments for the debt crisis. The poor will suffer terribly while the rich comouflage their swimming pools with tarpaulins to evade the prying eyes of spy satellites and a threatened new tax.

The Greeks are a fiercely proud nation who believe their country and its Aegean and Ionian archipelagos compare with no other in the world. It is a pride which borders on hubris. A sense of divine immortality courses through the national bloodstream. So they resent being told what to do by outsiders (like the IMF and EU) and they react violently to leaders whom they have elected and who then dupe them.

Like taxes, authority and regulation are instruments to be ignored or evaded! Two years ago smoking in public places was banned, but people still smoke in restaurants regardless of the law.

In Skiathos Town there are no parking restrictions to speak of, and where there are, they are ignored. The labyrinth of narrow streets is subject to a one-way system. It is ignored. Everyone ignores it. With cars parked randomly in side streets, this can cause a few hair-raising confrontations. All of us behaving like madly gesticulating traffic wardens!

But these wonderful people are the warmest, most exuberant nation. And you can’t help loving them in spite of their madness!

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago

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Letter from the Archipelago: Greek peaches at sunrise.

Up at six to watch the sun rise. A sublime peace shimmers over the archipelago.

After a wake-up mug of English Breakfast, I peel myself a peach. In doing so I rediscover one of life’s most sensual gustatory pleasures: the eating of this ripe, yellow-pink fruit in the quiet of the morning beside the Aegean Sea.

With a small kitchen knife, I cut the velvety fruit and gently separate the two halves. One portion clings to the stone. I halve the other, nick the skin at its point and draw it back with the knife. If it surrenders in one slow, clean movement, the peach has arrived in a state of perfect ripeness. The skin on all four quarters of today’s peach makes a perfect peel.

The juice trickles through my fingers and the fruit provides me with the sweetest, most fragrant early breakfast. The peach’s only match is a fresh, ripe fig. But this is a pleasure that must await its season – August.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

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Letter from the Archipelago: Politics, ouzo and a souvlaki with horta!

These are dark days for Greece. Commentators are beginning to wonder if the country is ungovernable as an embattled George Papandreou faces riots on the streets of Athens, general strikes and a parliament in disarray over the IMF/EU rescue plan. The Prime Minister’s attempt to form a government of national unity has failed. So he is now calling for a confidence vote. Europe is holding its breath. Bankruptcy is the word on everyone’s lips, a word our leaders dare not utter.

This is a country with a bloated public sector which needs to be cut to size. Tax evasion is endemic. Inevitably, the Greeks don’t like the medicine on offer. What they are facing is a tragedy on a Euripidean scale.

Meanwhile, our Aegean island remains a land of milk and honey. We are oblivious of any crisis. The only tangible evidence of a problem is a drop in the number of foreign tourists one might expect at this time in the season. Turkey and Croatia, it seems, have become more favoured as destinations to our corner of south-east Europe.

But as much as the Greek people resist the economic imperatives of the moment, they are a kind and loving nation who want to welcome you as family and give you pleasure. You see their generosity of spirit in a thousand tiny ways.

We have a favourite cafe-bar by the quayside of the old port in Skiathos town. Louise and I like to sit for an evening ouzo here and watch the ebb and flow of life on the water and on the promenade. When we first discovered the place, Dimitri, the owner’s son, did not stock my particular brand of ouzo. He was tied in a deal to another company. But to keep us coming back he hides a bottle of Plomari under the counter.

Now I’m fussy about my ouzo. As a young man, I first acquired a taste for anise when my father took me to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain in northern Greece. What we know as ouzo today was first developed by the monks on Athos in the 14th century. The composition of flavourings varies from brand to brand and is usually a closely guarded secret. Plomari comes from the town of the same name on the island of Lesbos. I much prefer it to most other ouzos which are sometimes a little too sweet for my palate.

Local restaurants are equally accommodating. Our favourite eaterie happens to be our own terrace with its stunning views of the archipelago. (Read my latest book, My Archipelago). But if we don’t feel like cooking, we take an ovenproof dish to  Taverna Stathis, and with 24-hours notice, chefs Linda and Vera will provide us with a sublime moussaka, or stuffed peppers and tomatoes, or a shrimp saganaki. (Taverna Stathis +30 24270 23508).

Another favourite local, hosted by the charming Stelios, is Taverna Kanapitsa (+30 24270 21191). This is a place, right on the water’s edge, the sea lapping our feet, where we also enjoy an evening ouzo – and Stelios stocks Plomari. It is here that I discovered how well ouzo goes with simple grilled food like a souvlaki – a typical Greek taverna staple which we eat with a bowl of horta on the side. I adore horta! Wilted greens – akin to spinach – seasoned and lubricated with olive oil and the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon. Happiness!

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago

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Letter from the Archipelago: Greek Orthodox blessings.

The Greek archipelago commands a special place in the culture of this nation – one quite distinct from the rest of Greece. The government, burdened by its debt crisis, even discriminates economically between the two. On the islands, VAT is levied at 16%, whereas on the mainland it is a whopping 23%.

But it is in the daily lives of the islanders that the differences are more vividly drawn – seen, perhaps, most powerfully in the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church. Indeed, here in Skiathos the priesthood is a family business with Papa Georgeis being supported by his son, Papa Nicholaos. The pair are an essential force inside the community, socially as well as spiritually. 

Last night, Louise and I joined a large gathering of locals and expats for the opening party of “Salt & Pepper”, a new restaurant in the village of Troulos to the south-west of the island. The owner, George Mitzelos, is an old friend and a proud professional who takes the business of hospitality very seriously. His guests, some 200-strong, were proof enough of his popularity. We all love George. Better still, in true Greek tradition, he was determined to make this a family celebration with his children playing in the garden and enjoying the party as much as the grown-ups.

Now, an event like this on a Greek island like Skiathos cannot take place without the intervention of the Church. Before the feasting comes the agiasmos, the blessing.

We all gathered on Salt & Pepper’s flower-decked terrace. A white-lace cloth covered a taverna chair on which were placed a sacred icon of the Virgin, a glass bowl of holy water, an incense burner, a silver crucifix and a small bunch of twigs. Behind the chair George’s mother lit candles. In front, with incense filling the air, Papa Georgeis began to intone the liturgy.

We could not follow it all but it was solemn and beautiful with many Kyrie eleisons, signs of the Cross and invocations of the Holy Ghost.

Towards the end, the priest held the crucifix and crossed the holy water three times, dipping it into the water in the name of the Trinity. Then, taking the twigs, he sprinkled water in the direction of the four corners of the restaurant, blessing it and wishing it every good fortune.

Only then did we call for ouzo and wine, and attack the magnificent buffet George had layed out for our pleasure.

To reserve a table, telephone Salt & Pepper on +30 24270 49329. Or just stop by and have a drink at the bar on the garden terrace.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago

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Letter from the Archipelago: A wedding on Lake Como

We have returned to our Aegean island – the place that provided so much inspiration for the writing of My Archipelago, my latest book.

On our first morning, just after six and on cue, the sun rose over the cliff-tops of Skopelos and cast its brilliant pink shaft across the bay. Once again I was a witness to Homer’s majestic “rosy fingered dawn”.

The past week has been a moment of travel and celebration. From Somerset to London Heathrow, our first stop, via Milan, was the town of Bellagio – a handsome resort at the head of two legs of the tripod that defines Lake Como, a littoral of breathtaking beauty framed by high, craggy mountains. The shoreline is all mediaeval-renaissance settlements, baroque palazzos and villas, and great horticultural splendour. Tall Italian cypresses, pines and palm trees break an endless display of rhododendrons, hydrangea, azaleas, oleander and geraniums.

Like so many European resorts, Lake Como boasts its pet Hollywood royal. George Clooney keeps house here and everyone talks about him… all the time, just as they do on our Greek island about Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

But Louise and I were visiting Bellagio for a special purpose: to attend my godson’s wedding. Giles was marrying his Jenny and their chosen setting could not have been more Hollywood than, well, Hollywood!

Now, I have often used this blog to extol the virtues of The Castle at Taunton as a perfect location for a wedding. And so it is! Getting married in an historic 12th century castle is pretty romantic.  But for all its charms, Taunton in England’s West Country does not quite compare with a summer wedding on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como!

At four in the afternoon, we gathered by a private quay in Bellagio and a fleet of motor launches ferried us across the lake to the Villa del Balbianello, an 18th century palazzo built by a Vatican cardinal for his pleasure and seclusion.

This was a fairy-tale location made real. At the top of the property, on its own hillock, stood an immense baroque loggia with its two open sides commanding spectacular views down two branches of the lake. And it was here that the marriage rites were performed. An experience we shall never forget!

After a pause for champagne and canapes on the lawns of the villa’s luxuriant gardens, the motor launches took us off to another lakeside palazzo for a five-course feast. Speeches, dancing to a live band, and a firework display to end all firework displays brought the evening to a colourful and ear-splitting finale.

Wedding tourism is big business on Lake Como. It never occurred to me that our small Aegean island of Skiathos might also be a draw to young couples looking for a romantic location. After the movie Mamma Mia! was filmed here and on its neighbour Skopelos, all that changed.

But if nuptial bliss means keeping faith with the home country, look no further than The Castle at Taunton! We know how to make you feel like royalty, or Hollywood royalty if you prefer!

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton, and author of My Archipelago

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