I’ve been so crazed working on Honor & Folly, I’ve let designtripper fall to the wayside a bit. And now that the b&b is open (hooray!), this is exactly the kind of trip I’d like to take. Tatjana Quax, the stylist half of Studio Aandacht, sent over these photos from her late fall trip to the Ionian island of Zakynthos–documented by Homer and later home to a litany of famous poets, artists and composers. Mythical legend contends that Artemis used to wander the island’s woods, while her brother Apollo played his lira under the trees in order to enchant the island and make it even more beautiful.
Travelers are still wooed by the natural beauty, of course (you can’t read anything without mention of the majestic caves, cliffs or capes), but it gets more and more difficult to separate that from the thriving and pretty scene-y hotel-restaurant-gallery-shop circuit of the islands. Tatjana’s photos are a good reminder of how you can turn something that many might perceive as a drawback into a trip’s most striking asset. During the tail-end of Greece’s Indian summer, most everything is closed, but Tatjana took advantage of having the island entirely to herself. I appreciate seeing a place like this without throngs of tourists/vacationers, stripped back to its essentials, making you appreciate the great natural beauty that made it so popular in the first place.
Located in a tiny hilltop village of Artemonas, the Psacharopoulos House couldn’t be farther from the typical Grecian tourist path. The 19th-century neoclassical home is found on Sifnos, a small and sleepy island that’s managed to avoid many of the Aegean’s most popular ferry routes. And like its island location, the house also speaks to a quieter time, way back when bathrooms didn’t outnumber bedrooms, before flat screens invaded every room in the house (there isn’t one to be found here. Drama is best found in the ocean views). Built in the 19th century by the Pasacharopoulos clan, the house is still in the family, now with its 6th-generation owner, Nicos Zacharias, who’s obsessed with keeping the place low-key and honest to its historical roots. The two-story structure is wrapped with sprawling terraces and tiered, old-growth gardens. Inside, the five-bedroom house is filled with treasures collected by the family over decades, but it’s all put together with a sense of old-world restraint, with rooms that manage to be both spare and cozy. Perfect to calm the most cluttered mind.
The Details
The five-bedroom house sleeps up to eight people. Located a 15-minute drive from the beach; a 5-minute walk to nearby tavernas and coffee shops; and a 10-minute walk to the island’s main town, Apollonia. Prices start at $2,230 a week. Rent it at welcomebeyond.com.
