Friday, June 28, 2019

Patrick Leigh Fermor: Visiting 'Paddy's' Place


For years we've been waiting to visit 'that' house
 Paddy's House, . . .it's just up the road in Kalamitsi. 

We'd heard and read so much about him

And, after all. . .he's the one who got us here.



Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor's home near Kardamyli July 2018


Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, war hero and adventurer, considered by some to be the most notable travel writer of the 20th century, is known simply as Paddy or Michalis around here.  The Englishman and his wife, Joan, were early-on expats, having lived for decades in the home they designed and built in the early 1960's just outside the village of Kardamyli. 

Sir Patrick was Knighted in 2004 for his services to literature and to Greek-British relationships. In 2007 the Greek government named him a Knight of the Order of the Phoenix, its highest honor. Around here the titles don't matter; Paddy is remembered for being Paddy.

We think of him as the guy who introduced us to The Mani. . .

The 'highway' we first traveled into the Inner Mani 

The Back Story. . .

Paddy and Joan's lives have been chronicled by many a writer and the two are immensely well-known on this side of the Atlantic. Perhaps our favorite tales were written in, News from the Village, Aegean friends, a memoir by American poet David Mason, who for a time in the 1980's lived next-door to the Fermor's compound. His book brought to life the area's villages while recounting his life-long friendship with the couple.


Stoupa as it was when Fermor arrived in the 1950's and as it looks today.


It was a well more than a half dozen years ago that we read David's book and subsequently Paddy's, Mani, Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, (published in 1958). Paddy's book chronicles his first trip to the Mani, back when it was a decidedly undeveloped and remote place (just check that 1955 photo of our present-day tourist magnet, Stoupa). He came to the Mani on foot, having climbed up and over the Taygetos Mountain range to get here. 

The two books were all it took to convince us that we needed to visit this still unspoiled and rugged place on the Greek Peloponnese ourselves.


Patio at the Fermor house

Our first visit  to the Mani - Kardamyli, Stoupa, Agios Nikolaos -- in 2012 was a year after Paddy's death in England at the age of 96. Joan had predeceased him in 2003 at age 91. The two had met in wartime Cairo in the 1950's, then traveled together, and finally made their home in a picturesque seaside setting in an area called Kalamitsi, just outside Kardamyli. 

Our slice of The Mani-- The mountains Fermor crossed


Back when we first visited The Mani the idea to live in Greece wasn't a serious consideration of ours. But we were soon caught up in the area's spell. We just kept coming back. And, the fact that we ended up living so close to where they both lived, is one of those goosepimple-kind-of-coincidences that life randomly tosses at you.

Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor Center


Hallway at the Fermor house.


The Fermor's bequeathed their home to the Benaki Museum in Athens with a stipulation that it be used as a retreat center for scholars and intellectuals, (loosely defined as writers, researchers, artists, poets, etc.).  


A place to curl up with a good book off the house's great room


When it opens this fall it will  be known as the Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor Center. Although I suspect with so many in the village who still remember the unassuming couple, that around here it will continue to be thought of as 'the place Paddy and Joan lived'.


Garden restoration underway

The Center will serve as a retreat, be the site of events and also welcome the public in set tours. In order to generate funds for on-going maintenance and upkeep, the museum will rent the house for three months each year. A partnership with Aria Hotels will make that happen.


Main floor bedroom lit with morning sun



Beginning June 1, 2020 the three-bedroom house with a separate studio (once Paddy's writing studio) and another one-bedroom cottage (once occupied by his housekeeper, Lela, and her family) will be available for rent. Guests can rent the entire complex or just a room.

I did a quick check for a one-night stay for two persons next summer and found prices were 280-, 400- and 480- euro for a room, depending on the date selected. I didn't find the cost of renting the entire complex. (Several weeks are already booked.)

Visiting Paddy's House


Entryway at the Fermor house


I've been monitoring the process of turning the house into a retreat center for at least two years. Each time I'd think I could visit some rehabilitation project was slated and the house closed up again.

It appeared earlier this year that the house would be finished and open for tours in mid-June. Again that official opening has been delayed but is far enough along that the Museum is honoring requests for public tours. (Limited times and days because it is still under construction and empty.) 

Entry way and art work

Admittedly from the stories we've heard about their hospitality, it would have been far more fun to have been a dinner or lunch guest of Paddy and Joan's but visiting Paddy's house last week was a pretty special experience.  I had goosepimples walking through the massive entry.


Workers completing The Great Room renovations


While a backhoe clattered away in the lower gardens, a woman mopped the kitchen floor and workers concentrated on completing the living room - the small group of about a dozen of us were set loose to explore the house.


Gardens filled with herbs, oleander, cypress (kiparrisi) and fir trees


It was a perfect time to imagine how it must have been back in the day that these two opened their doors and welcomed guests.  One account reported that this twosome would plan their discussion topics for the evening in advance, so that there would never be a lull in the conversation.



Can you imagine sitting around this table with Paddy and Joan?


Writer Artemis Cooper, a frequent guest, and author of the 2012 book, Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure, recalled her first visit as being on a calm night with a million stars and six people at the table:


'What did we discuss that night?' she says. 
'I don't remember anything but the velvet night, the sound of the sea, the faces 
in the candlelight, the laughter and the voices - 
and the thought that nothing could be better than that moment.'
.

One of many patio seating areas at Paddy's house



And in Fermor also wrote of those gatherings that stretched long into the night:

'These summer nights are short,' he  wrote.
 'Going to bed before midnight is unthinkable and talk, wine, moonlight and the warm air 
are often in league to defer it one, two or three hours more.'


Open corridor between rooms had garden and sea views


The Fermor's L-shaped  main house is built on two-levels. Bedrooms, a kitchen and the grand room all open off an open stone corridor. Another bedroom is on the lower level. I could imagine houseguests waking  to morning sunlight streaming through the windows, later sipping coffee in the patio, perhaps taking a dip in the water just a stairway away.


Fermor's stairway to the sea



Many of those guests recall with amazement the many books in the home. One writer who toured the home estimated some 5,000 books were tucked away on built in book shelves.


'. . .dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, special editions, Oxford companions, anthologies based on birds, beasts, fishes and stars in the immense libraries -- 
even the bathrooms had bookshelves. . .' he wrote.  

Cartons of books waiting to be re-shelved 


So, even though the bookshelves were bare when we toured, the mountains of boxes stacked in each room led us to speculate the books would soon be back on the shelves.  



Paddy's writing studio 



We followed our tour guide -- a woman who had worked for the Fermor's -- through the sprawling gardens and to his writing studio. It was here he wrote several of his books. His desk  to the right of the group in the photo above, seemed a shrine to the great man. The guide asked that no photos be taken of it (although all of us had photographed the room with it in it). 



The writing studio 

Our tour ended at Lela's House, at the back of the main house. Lela was a long-time housekeeper and cook.  We did have the good fortune to see her before she passed away. She opened Lela's Restaurant on the waterfront in Kardamyli after leaving the Fermor house. Even when she became too old to work in it, she sat 'guard-like' outside her eatery keeping an eye on all preparations and the comings and goings of customers.



Kalamitsi, lower right, and Kardamyli, upper right



After our tour we joined our friends for coffee in Kardamyli, I couldn't help but think of a passage Fermor wrote about the village in his Mani book:



'The Guide Bleu only spares it a half a line, 
mentioning little beyond the existence of its four hundred and ninety inhabitants.  
It is better so. It is too inaccessible and there is too little to do there, fortunately, 
for it ever to be endangered by tourism.'

The village was packed with people that morning, we had to search for parking.  Tourist season has begun.  And I chuckled wondering if Paddy ever imagined as he left his home to the Museum that his place would one day bring even more tourists to the village.

For those coming this way and who want to take part in a tour,contact:  leighfermorhouse@benaki.gr

If you want to book a hotel stay there: 

Thanks for joining us on a trip just down the road and back in time today. As always, we appreciate the time you spend with us.  Wishing safe travels to you and yours until we are together again next week.  A special thanks to those of you who've been sharing our posts with friends ~ it is the best compliment a writer can get!

Sorry about the type size changes throughout the text. Google Blogger is about to drive me to drink. . .or find a new blog platform. . .changes are coming!

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Sunday, June 16, 2019

Costa Navarino~ A Road Trip Out of Greece

We've just returned to Greece. . .or at least it feels that way. 

Pylos town - Greek Peloponnese

You see we took a road trip to a luxury resort not far from our house. A sprawling oasis of pure bling with two five-star hotels, an enormous spa and so many top-notch restaurants that you could lose count of them all. It is the type of place you'd find in Hawaii and Arizona; similar to posh places in France and Italy . . . for that matter, on our glitzy islands, Santorini or Mykonos. But, Messinia?!



Sailboats docked at Pylos harbor - Peloponnese

We'd driven northwest from our home in The Mani, past Kalamata and then across Pylia, the most western Peloponnese 'finger'. Like most road trips in this area we'd slowed for farmers on tractors and had passed a dozen or so mom-and-pop fruit stands that line the narrow two-lane road that serves as a 'highway' here.  Our route took us through villages so small that a mere blink and you'd miss them; each with some distinctly Greek name,like, Neromylos, water mills.

A common sight on the roads of Pylia this time of year

Eventually signs directed us to an even more narrow road that wound through an ancient olive grove, and then another turn and we were on way to the resort's security gate at the end of a landscaped drive. A gate we wouldn't have gotten past without reservations, I might add.

Fruit stands line the highway - it is orange season


Two hours after leaving home, we'd arrived at Costa Navarino, the 321-acre resort featuring side-by-side hotels --The Westin and Romanos Luxury Collection -- two golf courses, an enormous spa, conference facilities to serve 1,700 and so many swimming pools and high end restaurants that we lost count of them all.

From Agios Nikolaos on the right to Romanos on the left

The lobby of the small  Kalamata Airport, some 40 minutes away from the resort, is a showroom for the resort. Enormous photos, maps and information - you can't miss the hype for the ultra luxury experience to be had at this place. Each time we saw the display, we'd say we should check it out. Finally, we did!

The resort opened in May 2010, a few years before we happened upon the Messinian region of the Peloponnese. At the time of its opening, it featured The Dunes 18-hole golf course. A second course, The Bay, opened the following year. (Two more courses are being developed in the area of Navarino Hills.)

A view of The Dunes golf course - Costa Navarino

Since we can't yet travel outside Greece (still waiting for those residence permits), this seemed a perfect destination for last week's road trip. While the valet parked our car, we were greeted by a charming receptionist from Venice and we were settled in our room shortly after 1 p.m.

Center of The Westin Lobby - Costa Navarino

The common area décor was simply understated elegance.  The guest suites posh and amenities luxurious.  We felt as if we'd left the Greek world we know and entered a different one.  There was at ubiquitous resort feel ~ it could have been a resort anywhere in the world.

'Agora's' restaurants and big screen - Costa Navarino

At times when strolling its grounds, with no sign of the Mediterranean Sea, (it is set back from the beach for environmental reasons) we'd comment that it felt like we were in Scottsdale, Arizona. And there's nothing wrong with that!

Our 'family suite' had two full bathrooms and large deck

For those of us who live in Greece and who would like a change of scenery and tastes, it was perfect option. We were upgraded -- thanks to the Marriott/Starwood Bonvoy hotel loyalty program -- to what is called a 'family suite' - a room large enough that we could have lived in the place. It was difficult to pull ourselves away from our room.

One Man's Dream

A bit of Navarino Bay
Captain Vassilis Constantakopulos from Diavolitsi, a small village with 854 residents, about 39 km from Kalamata, had the vision for putting his Messinian homeland on the tourist map. After a few decades at sea, he founded a successful shipping company, expanded into other businesses and by 1980 had conceived the vision of Costa Navarino. While he retired in 2005 and turned the business over to family, he lived to see the resort open. He died in 2011.

He'd likely be quite proud of the award-winning resort these days as  among its accolades are: National Georgraphic Travel Editors named it one of the 20 Best Destinations in the World, it was named the European Golf Resort of the Year in 2017 by the Golf Tourism Association and The Westin has been voted the "Best Family Destination' in The Mediterranean. 


A Sustainable Destination

The resort's web site proudly claims to be 'the prime sustainable destination in the Mediterranean.' After seeing first-hand the environmental and socio-economic efforts going on here, they certainly have a right to such a boast.
Beach café has limited operation in deference to the turtles

Let's start at the beach:  The restaurant, with the most beautiful undulating canvas roof I've ever seen, operates only in the daytime. At sundown the beach belongs to the turtles as explained in the sign in the photo.


A Blue Flag beach - Costa Navarino
The beach is also one of only a few hundred in all of Greece to be awarded the Blue Flag designation. Criteria for the flag recognition include: cleanliness, water quality, organization, swimmer safety, and environmental protection.


How old is this tree?!?!? we exclaimed.

 The development also has the Navarino Pet Community animal adoption center, a place that is open to guests to visit and adopt previously unwanted animals who are cared for by a team of volunteers. Forty animals have found new 'fur-ever' homes thanks to those volunteers.

A decade ago the founders of Costa Navarino formed a partnership with the academic community and created the Navarino Environmental Observatory that operates with a focus on research and educational programs on climate change and the environment.

Keeping locals employed and able to live in Messinia was part of the founder's original vision. Producing Navarino Icons, the private resort label of products including wine, olives and olive oil is one way of doing that. (You can find these at Dean and Deluca and Whole Foods in the US and Marks and Spencer in the UK).

Security guard at work - Costa Navarino

Perhaps the favorite part of our stay was the morning breakfast buffet, which was included in the room rate.  Food displays filled two interior  rooms of a large restaurant and guests sat in an open air covered terrace area.  Aside from the food, what made breakfast a treat was 'the security guard' who roamed (with his handler) through the restaurant.  

Being open air, we learned the sparrows that swoop, dive and entertain throughout the grounds had been little pests: dive-bombing tables and making away with food. With a hawk keeping watch they haven't had that problem. And as the handler said with a smile, "The sparrows don't know he is tethered to me!" They keep their distance now!

On that note it is time to thank you for the time you've spent with us at Costa Navarino and we hope you'll be back next week when we take a look at the realities of road trips and driving in Greece!  Hope to see you again soon! Safe travels to you and yours ~

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Sunday, June 9, 2019

Mediterranean Diet ~ A Taste of Greece

Okay, time to fess up. . .our time in Greece has seemed an almost non-stop Food Festival.

New flavors. New dishes. New settings. Far too many temptations. Our houseguests usually ask at some point during their visits, 'Do you ever eat at home?' as we race them from one eatery to another trying to show all of our favorites in a short span of time.

We do eat at home, but with so many good eats at affordable -- often ridiculously inexpensive -- prices, we've found ourselves eating out often and soaking up the spirit of dining here.


An array of mezes are offered BEFORE the main course at this taverna
That time honored ritual of eating - not the grab-a-bite-and-be-on-our-way kind-- but that which  makes dining an event is still very real in Greece. A 2015 article in The Atlantic magazine examining the rituals of eating could have been written about dining in Greece:

'How food is experienced has everything to do with the decor, 
with the rituals surrounding the meal, with the company, 
and with the experience.'

Dinner out in the village - good food and good friends 

Going out to dinner -- or even out to lunch here -- can span several hours of savoring tastes, soaking in the atmosphere, and engaging in conversation with your dining companions or even folks you know who might be passing by your street side table.

Summer nights in the village the road closes to accommodate taverna diner

The Mediterranean Diet - Greek-style


The Mediterranean Diet
In general the diet consists of fruits and vegetables, 
beans and nuts,
healthy grains,
fish
olive oil
small amounts of meat and dairy
and . . .red wine!


The 'Mediterranean Diet' is one inspired by the eating habits of Greece, Southern Italy and Spain in the 1940's and 1950's. Those fresh, healthy foods that made up the diet then remain a centerpiece of Greek eats today.

If you've traveled in Greece you know that the flavors and menu offerings vary by region. So while the food items may appear to be the same, the regional influences: spices, preparation and cooking make each dining experience different. Take, for example, our trip to the island of Spetses that I told you about last week. It is only 4.5 hours from our home, and basic menu items appear to be 'like home', but the preparation made the flavors delightfully different.

A typical order of fish
Fish, (which most people seem to think we eat all the time) is a key part of a Mediterranean diet. So, true confession: we seldom eat fish in Greece. Its presentation and cost doesn't appeal. It is usually served whole, and grilled looking much like the one in the photo above. It is sold by the kilo (1 kilo is 2.2.pounds) price, so a whole fish could cost 55 to 60 euros. You could eat several full meals without fish for the price of a single fish.

Marinated anchovies, mussels in mustard sauce, Spetses-style fish, dessert

However, we did eat seafood in Spetses: the presentation, the variety, the flavors and prices all appealed. The collage above shows a selection of foods served to us during our stay on this small Saronic island. The white anchovies (no bones) were marinated in lemon sauce and olive oil, the mussels in a mustard sauce make my mouth-water just writing the words, the Spetses-style fish was a white fish smothered in a red sauce, almost a stew of vegetables, and far more interesting than a whole fish on a plate. The complimentary dessert was a baked apple, scoop of ice cream and philo dough bites.


A pitcher of our fresh-pressed olive oil
So aside from not eating fish regularly you would think that living and dining in the Land of the Mediterranean Diet would keep us fit, trim and healthy, wouldn't you?

Not quite! In February we faced the fact that it wasn't the camera angles, it wasn't the clothes shrinking, it wasn't our bathroom scales or the doctor's office blood tests being out-of-whack: we were having a wee bit too much of a Food Festival. Yes, too much of a good thing can be, too much. And we admit we weren't really eating that healthy version of a Mediterranean diet. After all, those yummy oregano-flavored potato chips, just don't fit the diet's intent. . .

The Ancient Greeks nailed it: In all Things Moderation

So we set out to change our eating: we gave up foods made with refined sugar and flour (pastas and breads and baked goods) and cut back on carbs (potatoes, potato chips and crackers) and passed on the desserts, with a fruit plate being an exception. We refreshed our Mediterranean diets by mixing in a bit of the Keto diet and the Glycemic Load diet philosophies.

You might say we are following the advice of Ancient Greeks who sang the praises of moderation.


Mushrooms stuffed with cheese, green salad 

'Observe due measure, moderation is best in all things,' 
              -- Greek poet Hesiod.

Mediterranean salad with Balsamic dressing and Greek cheese

'We should pursue and practice moderation.'
-- Plato, philosopher.

Grill plate with tomatoes, not potatoes
'Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven'
--Euripides, Greek playwright.

A meze of fava beans topped with roasted tomatoes, capers,garlic and olive oil


We still drink those 'miso kilos' (pitchers) of Greek wine and we still dine out often. We indulge in a bite-sized piece of dark chocolate regularly. We've found that switching potatoes to tomatoes is quite easy and passing up bread isn't a sacrifice. We've substituted cucumber and zucchini slices for crackers and potato chips at home. We've not sworn off any food completely, allowing guilt-free indulgences every so often. We don't consider ourselves 'dieting'.  Yet, we've each lost 12 pounds.

Kali Orexi

Kali Orexi, means literally, 'good appetite' but is often the wish offered to diners as food is served in Greece, meaning 'have a good meal'.  

A meze dinner is our favorite kind of meal

And having a good meal  isn't hard to do in Greece even when you've modified your eating habits! The photo above shows a recent dinner at a restaurant in Stoupa, our neighboring village. From the top left,tomato balls and a yogurt dip, Mani sausage (orange flavored) with horta (greens instead of potatoes), sautéed mushroom, and oven-baked garbanzo beans with a cheese topping.

With a wish that many of you get a chance to taste the real flavors of Greece one day while sitting at a harbor-side taverna or a sleek 5-star restaurant, we'll sign off for this week. We thank you for the time you spent with us today and look forward to being back next week when we will be back to talking travel.

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