Stories from Kefalonia ……..back with Magic on the hill

Yesterday in Kefalonia the weather had been hot and sunny all day and still at eight in the evening it was a pleasant 28° which can be a little sticky.

But high on the hill overlooking Lourdas Bay the air was sweeter and the views dramatic as the sun set over the sea.

Added to which the promise of fine food and some good wines offered another night to be remembered, because this is where Lorraine’s Magic Hill restaurant is situated.*

It celebrates a quarter of a century this year and we can claim to have been coming for seven of those years.

I say seven but if I am honest it’s just six, given that this year I have had to stay behind, leaving Tina and her mum to spend the week under a Greek sun and more importantly dine at the restaurant on the hill.

And I am the loser because eating at Lorraine’s is magic

It starts with the location with its fine views down across the bay and out to sea, made even better by the climb up a series of twisty steps taking you away from the noise and heat of the resort through a collection of trees and fragrant flowers to the restaurant. 

The food is a variation on traditional Greek, but with the added magic of Lorraine’s imaginative style of cooking, who greets all her customers with a description of the specials for the night.

And here Lorraine doesn’t just reel off the titles of the dishes but goes into great detail from what inspired the dish to the combination of ingredients, many of which are sourced from the family farm, and is adamant that when a locally produced ingredient is no longer available the dish is off the menu.

Talking to Lorraine this morning she told me that  she was “just doing a vegan vegetarian pie, along with a vegan almond milk based cream, with cinnamon soaked apples in cognac for a dessert as well as vegan oats milk chocolate pudding tops with raspberries preserve”.

All three I have had in the past and I am indeed the loser for being in Manchester and not there.

But Tina and her mum had a grand time dining out on kalamata, fava beans with lemon and herbs and feta in filo with honey and sesame for starters followed by fish and lamb and while they wanted to swerve the puddings  Tina tells me Lorraine generously " arrived with two puddings and the cinnamon drink you like".

Lorraine’s own story helps explain her passion for food.  

She comes from the USA, made her home in Greece, and with her husband and now her children she has worked at offering up Greek food with the Lorraine twist.

During the course of the morning Loriane continued to update me on the pie, with a delightful video of the pastry case going on the pie and the finished dish.

Many who fall across Lorraine’s Magic Hill, go back again and again, like Sid and Sadie from Sale who have returned each year since 1992.  

I call them Sid and Sadie, but we never actually exchanged names, having spent the conversation swopping tales of the food we have eaten.

And that really is how it should be.

Leaving me to return to Lorraine's with more stories, the pictures of the pie and puddings she made today.**

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2018 and 2022, from the collection of Balzano.

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

**Stories from Lorraine’s Magic Hill https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Lorraine%E2%80%99s%20Magic%20Hill

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia? ..... no. 2

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

We had arrived early, and so choose to have an aperitif in the bar, and both went for an apple spritz.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano


Lorraine’s Magic Hill

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia?………. no. 1

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

But today it was the jam jar which took pride of place.

Tina liked the jam jar and it reminded me of a similar jar, in a taverna at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.

It was a full forty-one years ago, and while I have long ago forgotten what we ate, I can remember the ice cold Retsina which was served up in the glass jug.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

When picture postcards join the 21st century ……

I don’t suppose anyone will be over surprised that this holiday postcard sent on August 25th actually arrived today on October 6th.

Although I must confess I was a tad surprised that we had actually sent one to ourselves, from the Greek island of Kefalonia.

But on closer inspection I realized that “Panorama of Kefalonia” had moved with the times.  

On the reverse was a barcode and that even more technologically 21st century QR code along with the link www.toubis.gr 

All of which would have made my great grandparents take a double take at what you could now access from a humble picture postcard.

That said in their day you could send a postcard after breakfast confident it would arrive later that day, allowing the sender to arrange to meet a friend for tea in the late afternoon.

Not so today when the card might take days to arrive.

But in one-way great grandma’s card and this one remain very similar, and that is simply that the images are not always what they seem.

So, some of the colourful photographs on “Panorama of Kefalonia” were taken decades ago and show landscapes which have changed dramatically.

In the same way those from the early 20th century went through, colorization and retouching to the point where they no longer resembled the original scene.  In one famous case, a picture postcard of Beech Road in Chorlton taken in high summer and been reissued with a Christmas greeting.

And that is it.

Location; Greece

Picture; “Panorama of Kefalonia”, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bits the Greeks forgot ……….

Now Lourdas Bay is pretty typical of most of the Greek resorts we have stayed at over the last forty years.

Amongst the holiday apartments, bars and pop-up restaurants, there are those skeletons of buildings yet to be, which stand against the skyline as bare concrete pillars waiting for something to happen.

But just occasionally tucked away there are a few relics from a bygone time.  

Some are ruined houses which were abandoned decades ago.  Just how long they have been left empty and forlorn is anyone’s guess, and often the old residents you ask are themselves unable to offer a date or a name.

All that remains are a few battered walls, a crumbling fireplace swamped by a mass of undergrowth.

And then there are a few properties which look at first glance to be empty but on closer inspection show signs that someone still calls it home.

We stumbled across this one on our daily walk to the village bakery.  

It stands just a little way down a path whose entrance is barred by a rusty old fence, and several notices warning you to be aware of the dog.

I can’t say it looked either promising or inviting. There was a telly beside the front door and a tired looking skateboard propped up at the side of the house, along with a series of sheds which were all but ready to collapse.

It is the sort of property which makes you wander just what stories lurk behind the door, and what the future holds for both the buildings and the accompanying land.

The speculation hovered on an elderly couple who have seen their children leave the island, heading for a better life in Athens or maybe even abroad.

Then there was the intriguing idea that it had been taken up by itinerant travellers who had chosen long ago to break their journey and somehow never moved on.

Now that was not such a daft idea, because in the 1970s an acquaintance backpacking across Crete had run out of money, and in an age before internet banking, or mobile phones, the only option was to seek employment on a Greek farm and work through the year making up the lost funds.

Likewise, a decade later we ran into a bronzed weather-beaten fisherman.  He had a northern accent and might well have come from Yorkshire.  But he was vague about his time on the island, and sensing that his life was a closed book not to be shared, the conversation dribbled away leaving heaps of speculation about how a middle-aged man had ended up far from home.

And that brings me full circle to the house behind the gate and a heap of possible stories.

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; the house behind the gate, 2022, from the collection of Balzano

 

The Magic on the hill ……..

Now, if I had to nominate one place which combines memorable food, good service and stunning views it would have to be Lorraine’s Magic Hill, a restaurant on Kefalonia which we just keep going back to.*

This year was our sixth on the island, and of the countless Greek restaurants over the last four decades, Lorraine’s is in indeed “magic”.

It starts with the location with its fine views down across the bay and out to sea, made even better by the climb up a series of twisty steps taking you away from the noise and heat of the resort through a collection of trees and fragrant flowers to the restaurant. 

The food is a variation on traditional Greek, but with the added magic of Lorraine’s imaginative style of cooking, who greets all her customers with a description of the specials for the night.

And here Lorraine doesn’t just reel off the titles of the dishes but goes into great detail from what inspired the dish to the combination of ingredients, many of which are sourced from the family farm, and is adamant that when a locally produced ingredient is no longer available the dish is off the menu.

So, last week for those looking for “the Lamb chops topped with lemon, olive oil and oregano, served with oven roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables” they were directed instead to “Chicken Robola”, the Sea Bream or "Gemista", because the only available lamb was from New Zealand and New Zealand lamb ain’t Greek.

As a vegetarian I am always impressed that one of the specials is veggie with a vegan alternative.

And so, on one of our visits last week I swooned over the feta mouse starter, and on another evening was made very happy by the vegan custard pudding. 

Lorraine’s own story helps explain her passion for food.  

She comes from the USA, made her home in Greece, and with her husband and now her children she has worked at offering up Greek food with the Lorraine twist.

At which point I could go off and describe the meals we have eaten, but where would the fun be in that, when the pleasure comes from going there and enjoying it yourself?

All of which just leaves me to say there are plenty of stories on the blog about our visits.** 

And each includes a link to the restaurant which offers up heaps of pictures from happy customers to the food, as well as the menu.

Many who fall across Lorraine’s Magic Hill, go back again and again, like Sid and Sadie from Sale who have returned each year since 1992.  

I call them Sid and Sadie, but we never actually exchanged names, having spent the conversation swopping tales of the food we have eaten.

And that really is how it should be.

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2018 and 2022, from the collection of Balzano.

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

**Stories from Lorraine’s Magic Hill https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Lorraine%E2%80%99s%20Magic%20Hill

When expectation fades in the setting sun …… new stories from Kefalonia

It had all the hall marks of those traditional Greek tavernas.

Good fresh food, slow but easy-going service and an abundance of house wine, which is the memory from many island holidays.

But last Thursday evening even we were challenged……. Things we asked for never arrived, and things we said we didn’t want, we got.

Did it matter?  No, I don’t think it did.

Our friend Maria said the place “served simple, traditional food” which it did, and it was set in an idyllic spot, surrounded by trees, heaps of flowers and the constant sound of insects.

Added to which there was the magic of watching as the sun set out across the sea.

We were told that we didn’t have to book but plenty of people had, and they all seemed content with the night, and in fairness we weren’t charged for the mistakes.

As ever being veggie I chose from the starter menu and for once the dishes arrived at the same time as Tina’s main course of assorted fish, only slightly spoilt by the absence of two things we asked for.

But it will be a more memorable meal because it was the night the Queen died.

The couple next to us, like us were checking the internet chatter and like us stumbled across the announcement.

Other groups were totally oblivious and carried on their meal amid a mix of silly jokes, comments about the food and exchanges about work and stories of previous sunshine adventures.

We pondered on telling them, but that smacked of “Brits abroad sharing home news", and we reckoned they would get to know soon enough.

As evenings go it was memorable if only because it was not what we had expected.

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; The fish place, 2022, from the collections of Andrew Simpson and Balzano

The unexpected contest down by the sea ……… new stories from Kefalonia

This week I have been engaged in that war of the towels.

A war which if nothing else has shattered that myth about which nationality gets down early onto the beach to stake their claim to the best sun loungers.

Even more surprising when the contest occurs under a Greek sky where, as everyone knows life is very laid back.

Of course, that idea that the pace of things is slower here must be qualified because the men and women in the bars and restaurants work exceptionally hard, as do the taxi drivers, the bin men and pretty much all those engaged in the tourist business or just keeping the roads clean, water flowing and all else.

Still I have always tried to take things at a very slow pace during the years we have been coming to the Greek islands.

But this year has been different, and it took a few days to tumble that small groups have been bagging the spaces between the sea and the sand by laying down their towels just as the sun rises and the last few party goers stagger home with the sound of disco and Karaoke ringing in their ears.

From the balcony we watched as these "lounge stealers" marched purposefully to the beach, sometimes singly as an advance guard or in pairs, returning a few minutes later to take a leisurely breakfast secure in the knowledge that their place was guaranteed.

I have to say that at first, I was dismissive, pointing out the large number of loungers left and a little smug that I was above such things.

But never underestimate the sudden urge to challenge the prevailing “lords” of the beach and copy the territorial pettiness.

And so always being ones to wake early, by just after six we joined the “beach stake holders”, reasoning that really, we were only dropping the towels off following the impulse to take a walk along the seashore before the sun rose in the sky, on the bakery to get fresh croissants.

Even so at such an early hour the English had got there first, with six prime sites marked out with bright towels, and all the essentials for a day by the sea.

But not one sun seeker in sight.

Determined not to be beaten we repeated the exercise before conceding it was all a bit silly and that like so much about Greek Holidays you should just fall in with what was on offer.

Leaving me just to reflect that at least it laid to rest that myth about Germans and beaches, which is all to the good, given that falling back on “national stereotypes”, is lazy, foolish, and often dangerous.

Location, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lourdes Bay, 2022, from the collection of Balzano

After the tourists leave ………..

Now the thing about the end of a holiday is just that. 

Most of us return with little thought to the resort we left other than fond memories, a tan, and a souvenir fridge thing.

Not so those who service the tourists, for them life goes on, with new holiday makers, fresh souvenirs and postcards to sell.  

Except if your holiday coincides with the end of the season, because then the sense that it is all running down is all too evident.

It starts with the lack of tourists, and the absence of hire cars, and that knowledge you will not have to be first down to the beech to nab the best sunbeds and umbrellas.

Already some restaurants faced with few customers have shut up shop, and begun shifting out the tables, chairs, and kitchen equipment.

Others are debating just when would be best to call it a day. 

And so, it is with the Sunset Bar beside the beach.  

Last time we were here in August two years ago the bar was heaving.  

This year in late Sept it is still doing well but the signs are there with fewer sun worshippers on the beach and so fewer retreating from the heat to the bar.

 They will close this week ahead of the official close of season. 

But unlike others, Maria, her dad, and brothers will not take the long ferry trip to Athens or somewhere else on the mainland to be reunited with the family.  

They live above the resort in a fine house.  And during the next month will begin harvesting the crop from their 90 olive trees from produce a fine organic product.

They also own long thin strips of land which run up from the road beside the beech.

On these they grow the tomatoes, onions, aubergines, cucumbers, and courgettes which are the ingredients for the dishes they serve up in the bar.

They even proudly include on the menu, chips made from “our own organic potatoes”.

This year they not only will finish a few weeks earlier but also started later, guessing that the tourists would not be as great as they had been in 2019.

This had been a bumper year, followed by the year of the covid lockdown.

So by early November the beech strip of restaurants, bars and the solitary supermarket will have closed up, the holiday apartments will stand empty and apart from the occasional car taking a short cut along the sea road, the place will be quiet till the spring.

Location; Lourdas, Kefalonia

Pictures; lunchtime, Sunset Bar, from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  sunset over Lourdas , and the apéritif , Argostoli, Balzano, 2021

Evenings at the Magic Hill ………

Lorraine’s Magic Hill is a restaurant set high up above the small Greek holiday resort of Lourdas.

That marks it out from the selection of tavernas and bars which stretch along the beach road.

Not that there is anything wrong with these eating places which offer up pretty much what the tourist thinks is traditional Greek food. 

But Lorraine’s restaurant is different, partly because of that commanding view out to sea and across to the island of Zakynthos and because of the food which is a mix of “fine Mediterranean and Modern Greek Cuisine, [with] "a menu carefully balanced with seafood, meat dishes, traditional specialties, pastas and salads – plus mouthwatering desserts”.  And “a select wine list containing well-known Kefalonian wines and noted wines of Greece”*.

It is not just a meal but an experience, and begins with Lorraine herself, who greets each group of diners, and takes them through the menu along with “the specials” which are prepared that day and inspired by what has just come out of the ground from their own garden.

And all the food is seasonal and locally sourced, so on our first visit back this year, the lamb had been taken off the menu, because the supply of local Greek lambs was no longer available.

It is evident from Lorraine’s presentation that she has not lost any of her enthusiasm or love for what she does, and her descriptions of how the specials are cooked is matched by her interest in her customers.  

All of which leads to both an insight into her story as well as questions about where we came from, what we did and how long we were staying.

And here I confess we are devoted fans of Lorraine’s Magic Hill, having first visited the restaurant back in 2019, and in the course of the holiday went back three more times, and was moved to write a piece for the blog.**

This year we were back, and back again, and were not disappointed at what is a family run business.

Tina and her mum fell on the fish dishes, and I was more than happy with the vegetarian alternatives, and those “mouthwatering desserts”, which are accompanied by a small glass of another Lorriane “special”

It is made from the local wine and flavoured with a mix of aromatics, which one of her daughter’s told me Lorraine had worked on, producing variations on a theme.

At which point I could go into detail, describing the meals we ate, but where would the fun be in doing that, when you can call up the site and explore the food for yourself?

Admittedly with the holiday season drawing to a close you may have to wait six months, but that just adds to the expectation of what is to be enjoyed. 

And that is it, other than to say having exhausted our own pictures of the place in the earlier blog story I have fallen on a selection of images from their dedicated site.

I hope Lorraine doesn’t mind.

Location; Lourdas, Kefalonia

Pictures; courtesy of Lorraine’s Magic Hill

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

** Tales from a Greek island part three …… the restaurant on the hill with a story https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/08/tales-from-greek-island-part-three.html

Tales from a Greek island part five …… the lamp post, courtesy of Leivatho municipality

Now I remain fascinated by street furniture, be it a red post box, a coal hole cover or a faded ghost sign, so was happy to see Tina add this lamp post the collection.

To which I thank the former municipality of Leivatho who erected it in the village of Lourdata, which includes Lourdas Beech.

Location; Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lourdas Beech, from the collection of Balzano

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia? ……………. no. 3

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

The house wine ............ a litre bit more.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano


Lorraine’s Magic Hill

Tales from a Greek island part four …… the window and the view

It was our first full day, and as you do, we snapped away, making pictures of everything we saw.

No matter that this was our fifth time on the island, it was what you do.

Location; Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lourdas Beech, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

Tales from a Greek island part three …… the restaurant on the hill with a story

It was our third day on the island, and we had already tired of the sea front restaurants, which offered much the same food and pretty much the same views.

And so, I suppose it was that combination of boredom and curiosity which took us across a field and up a steep flight of steps to “Lorraine’s Magic Hill”, which offered fresh and organic food, collected in the morning from their own fields and cooked that evening.

A measure of the popularity of the place was that on each of our three visits the restaurant was fully booked, with more than a few of the customers  returning again, and in some cases were loyal regular visitors who had been coming for years.

And we could see why, because while there was plenty of traditional Greek food on the menu, many of the dishes had been imaginatively enhanced by Lorraine’s style of cooking.

At which point I could reel off what we had eaten and what we wish we could have eaten, but that can be easily remedied by anyone who follows the link to their site.

Instead I shall focus on the restaurant, its location and above all Lorraine, her three daughters and the remaining seventeen staff who make the place special.

Which brings me to the story, because Lorraine is part Austrian, part German and part American, and comes from Montana.

She fell in love with “the love of her life” when she was just seventeen, and the pair decided to open a restaurant.

And the rest as they say, was a lot of hard work, steel determination, and a love of food, especially Greek food.

They open at 7.30 in the evening, but Lorraine will have been there since the morning, having taken a swim in the sea, while thinking of what mix of fresh food could be combined for the evening meals.

It is an approach which does sometimes lead to surprises with the meals that had been decided upon the night before undergoing slight changes as Lorraine tweaks a dish with a variation of herbs or a combination of different vegetables.

So it was, that on one of our nights there, a new aubergine starter was added, because the crop lifted from the field that morning was so perfect it required to be given its own special place on the menu.

And there were plenty more dishes which you could see were the product of that imaginative approach.

In turn, they were set off by the views from the restaurant out across the bay, which as the sun set were spectacular, to which can be added the friendliness of the staff their attentiveness and a few added little touches which I think I will leave you to discover.

Location; Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesmagichilllourdas.com/

Tales from a Greek island part two …… some strange goings on, two nice people and some sea turtles

As pictures go, I grant you there is nothing very remarkable about this one.

But it is what was going on just out of sight, down on the beach, hidden by that bit of bush on the seashore which makes it special.

For down there by the water were two figures who appeared to be searching the area in front of them, prodding a spot a with a stick and then digging down into the wet sand.

Now, this was seven in the morning, so I reckoned it was a tad early for sandcastles, added to which the two people were about my age, and like me had left building sandcastles way behind, as an activity for the beach.

Moreover, having dug down, they back filled the sand, and proceeded to cordon off the small patch with that red and white tape, used for a crime scene.

This they repeated on subsequent mornings and the evenings when their work attracted a of local interest.

But breakfast is breakfast and who was I to go and gawp.

That said one evening we encountered the two, at a stall beside the Klimatis Taverna, and finally curiosity got the better of me I asked them what they had been doing, to which they replied that they were there to “help the sea turtles of Kefalonia by creating and sharing information that allows tourists and locals alike to understand the treats that the sea turtles and their habitats face”.

So, they were down there on the beach checking the state of the buried sea turtle eggs, and if need be assisting the newly hatched ones out to the sea.

Gill and David were part of a team which also looked after sick seat turtles along with those which had been injured and supported scientific research, including the specific challenges faced by the animals during the tourist season.

“Kefalonia is home to two of the seven species that exist in the world …… and all are threatened with extinction …. And are protected by Greek and European law.  Sea turtles are highly migratory, and they swim across the Mediterranean Sea to forage.  They return to the same area, where they hatched in order to mate and lay their nests every two to three years.  Within one nesting season a female may lay three to four nests with around 90 eggs in each clutch”. *

So, there you have it, a first for the blog ………… stories about nature rather than history.

All of which just leaves me to thank Gill and David, who now live on the island and whose passion are those sea turtles and say that the Society for the Sea Turtles of Kefalonia & Sea Turtles of Kefalonia, can be found on both facebook and twitter


Location; Kefalonia

Pictures; Kefalonia, 2019, from the collection of Balzano, and remaining images from Society for the Sea Turtles of Kefalonia & Sea Turtles of Kefalonia

*Society for the Sea Turtles of Kefalonia & Sea Turtles of Kefalonia
Labels: Cephalonia, Greece, Kefalonia

Tales from a Greek island part one ………how the other half live

The first hint that all might not be well with the return flight from Kefalonia was the delay in boarding the aircraft.

What followed was a spell on the plane, followed by our disembarkation, and return to an already very crowded departure lounge, a frustrating long wait, with little in the way of information, culminating in a series of confused messages and concluding with frantic efforts to place 280 passengers across an island at the height of the holiday season for the night.

Some, it has to be said were winners, ending up just a short coach ride from the airport in very nice hotels.  Others discovered that there “was no home at the inn” in their temporary accommodation and were bussed to alternatives, with one group finally settling in the property of the coach driver’s nephew.

Now I grant you that set against the tragedy of migrants crossing the open sea in leaky boats, abandoned by the smugglers, our collective experience was a trifle, and most of us could see that, but we were all tired, frustrated and in possession of little information.

Which leads me to our plight, which involved an hour and half journey to the north of the island, arriving at midnight, a full ten hours after our expected departure time.

And here the story really begins and involves one of those rare experiences most of us will ever have, which is to be confronted with real wealth.

The sort of wealth that makes worrying about a gas bill as likely as a trip to the Moon, and more seriously will ensure only the best paid medical care and the most prestigious international schools.

A quick search offered up the possibility that we were going somewhere very upmarket, which was confirmed by our reception, which involved the provision of gently scented white towels as a refreshment, and long elegant glasses with which to drink the very cold drinking water.

Unsurprisingly the rooms came with a swimming pool were very comfortable, the breakfast a world away from an “English” and the public places lavishly designed.

And with all that came the reaction of the paying guests, which ran from quizzical curiosity at the new group in their midst to some who looked on with disdain.

From the first group, came a nod to that old belief “that the poor will always be with us” and that it was only right that this band of unlucky package passengers should be accommodated, as long as it was only for the night.

Others, and here it is difficult to know if they were being mischievous or ignorant, wanted to know how long we were staying, because the facility was “top notch” with that unmistakable attitude that it was not for us.

And as if on cue, one woman walked to the pool carrying her towel and suntan lotion in a large and genuine Prada bag, while a loud conversation behind us, reflected on the current trend in stealing expensive fireplaces, and ornaments from the homes of the rich in Zurich and Paris for onward transfer to the homes of the equally rich  in Rome, Berlin and Moscow.

Not that we had to worry, for at the appointed time the coach arrived and with much careful attention our luggage and ourselves were ferried on motorized buggies up the hill to the hot roadside and a return to the airport.

Location; Kefalonia

Pictures; Kefalonia, 2019, from the collection of Balzano