Archives

An endless expanse of shimmering waters paired with unmatched Greek hospitality awaits visitors to the islands of the Aegean Sea. Each island is home to a unique spirit and mythology. From Patmos (a favourite of Aga Khan) to Hydra (which captivated Henry Miller, Leonard Cohen and Sophia Loren), the islands are imbued with a seductive sense of history, tradition and adventure. Several films over the decades have been filmed on them, including Boy on a Dolphin (1957) on Hydra, The Big Blue (1988) on Amorgos and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) on Santorini. Sources of inspiration for millennia, the ancient ruins, cliffside monasteries and volcanic rims are all can’t-miss sights.

Venturing on an Odyssey of their own, the author and the photographer boarded a traditional Greek sailboat and set out to capture the calming atmosphere, quintessential characters and breath-taking architecture of these gems of the Aegean. A spectacular journey re-created in the pages of Greek Islands.

Silver shimmering on sapphire-colored seas, opal-colored sunsets which never get old. Bougainvillea vines flowing on white houses. Walking in the street and catching the scent of a fig tree. All of this and a sense of freedom and peace. Can you ask for anything else?

Eugenie Niarchos, designer

About the author & photographer

Chrysanthos Panas is a businessman, art collector and philanthropist from Athens. He is in the hospitality industry and co-owner, with his brother Spyros, of several well-known clubs and restaurants in Greece, such as Island, Athénée and Salon de Bricolage. He is an expert in destination management and one of the first to use the term “Athens Riviera.”

Katerina Katopis-Lykiardopulo is a photographer, hospitality consultant, travel writer, marathon-runner, aviator and travel aficionado. Her adventures have taken her to more than 110 countries around the globe, but to her, there is no place like Greece. As a member of the team behind some of the country’s premier luxury destinations, she has been instrumental in introducing the concept of branded residences in Greece, for projects such as Amanzoe.

Overlooking the Aegean Sea, a charming string of coastal neighbourhoods form the Athens Riviera, a serene escape from the constant activity in the city’s centre. A selection of high-end hotels lines the pristine stretch of beaches down to the southernmost point of the Attica Peninsula. The revamped Four Seasons Astir Palace, with a history of housing foreign dignitaries and film stars of the 1960s, is the most luxurious hotel in Athens, perhaps even in all of Greece. The night club, Island, is bringing back the glamour and excitement of the twentieth century bouzouki clubs reminiscent of names such as Melina Mercouri and Stavros Niarchos. Athens is experiencing a revival—in art, night life and design. For a metropolis constantly associated with the past, the modern strides in development and culture are sometimes overlooked in favour of the ruins and artefacts from antiquity. When in fact, the juxtaposition only enhances the beauty of both. Athens Riviera puts the old-world beside the new-world and a deeper understanding of this ancient capital emerges. With one foot in the past and one foot in the future; access to both the electricity of city life and the tranquillity of a beach side resort, Athens cannot be defined in simple terms. One just has to experience it for themselves.

Stéphanie Artarit began her career as a journalist, and worked as a psychoanalyst for many years in Tokyo. She then went on to write the novel Variations of the Devil in 2013. Today, she divides her time between homes in Athens and the Cycladic island of Antiparos, where she also operates her boutique, Petit Tipota, and represents several French fashion labels in Greece. In 2018, she began her company, The Gang of Style, which specializes in designing in-house boutiques for luxury hotels all over the world.

Presents beautiful black-and-white photographs of Santorini taken between 1954 and 1964, depicting idyllic landscapes and traditional island culture.

Today Santorini is visited by some 2.5 million people a year. But when Robert McCabe and his brother arrived there in 1954, they were the only visitors on the island. In this collection of stunning photographs from the 1950s and 1960s – reproduced as tritones of surpassing quality – McCabe has recorded the hardscrabble, yet often romantic, life of a vanished era.

Picturesque whitewashed houses dug into the volcanic pumice; the harvest of the island’s famous cherry tomatoes; the winding road to the ruins of ancient Thera – all this was captured by his lens. McCabe’s photographs are complemented by two essays from the noted Greek journalist Margarita Pournara, one poetically evoking her grandmother’s childhood on Santorini and the other explaining the geological forces that have given this volcanic island its dramatic form.

A companion to McCabe’s recent volume on Mykonos, this book will fascinate modern-day visitors to Santorini, as well as those who trace their roots to the Greek islands.

There are hundreds of Greek islands. Why did Mykonos become, in just a few decades, one of the world’s top vacation spots? Part of the answer can be found in these remarkable images, which show the natural beauty and traditional island culture that initially attracted artists, writers, and celebrities like Jackie Kennedy.

These photographs, taken in 1955 and 1957–many for National Geographic–re-create a daylong visit to Mykonos in the days before cars, running water, and electricity. We disembark in the Old Harbour and wander the picturesque streets of Chora (the main town), watching the townspeople at their daily tasks. We visit St. Panteleimon Monastery on a festival day, and take a caique (a traditional wooden boat) to see the ruins on the neighbouring island of Delos.

Every photograph is reproduced as a full-page tritone of surpassing quality, and accompanied by a detailed caption. This book will fascinate modern-day visitors to Mykonos, as well as those who trace their roots to the Greek islands.

Publisher: Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S.  2018
ISBN: 9780789213303
Number of pages: 188
Dimensions: 305 x 290 mm

“My first visit to Mykonos was in the summer of 1955. From the vantage point of those days on that magical quiet island with one 12 passenger bus and a plethora of donkeys it was absolutely inconceivable what would happen over the ensuing 60 years. On the day I arrived there were some 15 visitors on the island. In 2018 on a typical summer day the island expects between 120,000 and 140,000 visitors.”

Robert McCabe

“In the 1950s you took only real ships to Mykonos, often very old ships. The sea-going high speed buses of today did not exist. You could smell the sea and feel it. You transitioned to shore not as part of a horde emerging from a dark cavernous garage but by leaping into a bobbing tender and gripping a gunwhale for dear life as the meltemi’s wild sea spray hit your face. Who could have guessed that tenders would soon be replaced by docks and docks would soon be replaced by ferry ports and that airports would be built and a huge cruise ship harbour would be constructed and that the island would become a super prime tourist and second home destination for Greece and even for the world.

What happened to the caiques, those magnificent wooden boats that flourished in Mykonos and whose roots went back millennia? You will see them in these photographs but you will not see them on the island anymore.”