– the FT visits Kardamyli
In February, the journalist Alev Scott visited the former home of Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor at Kardamyli in the Peloponnese region of Greece. Experiencing the swim which Paddy took every day at Kalamitsi beach, he immersed himself in water and culture which the Leigh Fermors enjoyed themselves over many decades from the 1960s when they first discovered the area.
‘The house is almost as celebrated as the man himself, and there has been much excitement about its reopening,’ he comments, in this article for the Financial Times. Aria Hotels manages the property during the summer months on behalf of its custodians, the Benaki Museum in Athens, to which its famous owners left the house and grounds when they died. It can now be rented in its entirety for some of the year, and is a place of retreat for artists and academics, in line with the Leigh Fermor bequest.
As Alev Scott concludes:
‘The morning before my swim, I had set out on the mountain trail from Kardamyli to Sparta, a path much trodden by Leigh Fermor himself, and described in his book Mani (1958). I climbed up past medieval tower houses, surrounded by colour: almond blossom, anemones, irises and mysterious wildflowers; soon, the sea fell away behind me and ahead of me the last of the snow was visible on Mount Taygetus. For those wanting to experience the magic that kept Leigh Fermor here for nearly half a century, the view from the mountain to his house will reveal even more, perhaps, than the view from the sea to his house.’
To read at the full article at the Financial Times, click here.
To read more about the Leigh Fermor house, click here.
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