Every morning, I woke at dawn to sit on the stone stoop and watch the sunrise.Ī low-key, cosmopolitan crowd comes back to Sifnos summer after summer after summer, yet it remains one of the most authentic of Greek islands its traditions thriving not for tourist consumption, but because life here has always followed the rhythm of the land and the seasons. Far below, a zigzagging staircase, each slab of stone outlined in limewash, led to a tiny, blue-domed chapel marooned on its own miniature peninsula. The hazy outlines of distant islands shimmered in and out of view, depending on the weather. But the view was incomparable beyond the narrow footpath that marked the outer perimeter of the village, there was nothing but the blue horizon. My room was basic and the owner - an elderly gentleman who ate raw garlic for breakfast and was prone to bursting in unannounced - was a busybody. An acropolis once crowned the village, but its marble columns were pilfered long ago in order to prop up the jumble of houses, along with fragments of engraved tombstones. Enclosed within 14th-century fortifications punctured by arched gateways to protect the medieval inhabitants from pirates, Kastro clings to a sheer outcrop thrusting into the Aegean. When I first visited Sifnos about 25 years ago, I stayed in a spartan, whitewashed room that was burrowed from the rock face in the hilltop hamlet of Kastro. Saturday July 02 2022, 12.01am, The Times
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |