Cyprus: take me to the top
Minutes after arriving in Paphos I find myself on the long deserted coast road bound for Mount Olympus. I knew I had to get to Limassol before turning inland, but the GPS didn't agree and made me turn left. The route was slower but much more scenic, turning into the highlands of Troodos , a rocky massif covered with forests that extends throughout the southern half of the island. I made a stop along the way to enjoy the wonderful Mediterranean sunset. As the sun sank behind the hills, it left a horizontal streak across the sky, like a pink ribbon tied to a blue gift. It was like an omen: this place was going to be special.
Here Troodos is known as 'the Switzerland of Cyprus'. It is a forgivable exaggeration . It snows in winter and it is possible to ski to the top of the mountain in January and February, but Olympus is the only peak. We are not in the Alps. Still, Downtown Heights is a great find. As is often the case on islands, the interior seems more real and grounded than the liveliness of the coast . And everyone I met, hoteliers, waiters and restaurant owners, was flattered that I left the sea aside and felt its land under my feet.
Archontiko house of Apokryfo hotel
The Troodos mountains are a place for summer I am completely serious, an easy getaway to the cool heart of the island. “It's nice to get away from the humidity of the coast,” said the first person I met, “ and not feel like you need a bath right after you get out of the shower ”. As was the marvelous calm of him.
The Greek poet George Seferis, referring to the town of Platres (a place I wanted to see), said: “ Can't sleep because of the nightingales ”. Nothing further from the sentence, the tranquility on the southern slope was complete. I slept like a hibernating bear.
My first stop that night was in the lowlands. In the village of Lofou , where there is hardly anything to see, beyond a church that is never open, a quiet kafeneio (coffee shop) and a couple of friendly tavernas. But that was precisely the key. I was staying in apokryfo , a tiny, charming hotel overlooking the village at the end of a wide hollow. Like most hotels in Troodos, l The rooms are distributed among a group of stone houses (This trend of reinventing rural areas has saved villages that were virtually abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s, and is what has made Troodos such a destination.) . One of the Apokryfo's suites used to be the summer retreat of the owners, the Cypriot architect Vakis Hadjikyriacou and his British wife Diana.
The School-master house of the Apokryfo hotel
"This is the Cypriot Cotswolds," says Vakis, perhaps thinking of those sand-colored stones. It could also refer to the elegance of the interior of his hotel, quite similar to that of an English mansion. There is a lantern-shaped window that lets in light through a hole in the wall , a bed that Vakis has carved from an old door and a huge shovel-shaped interior arch, like the dome of a norman church , which is the sign of the buildings in this part of the island.
At the same time, everything is very cozy. “ There are two ways to take care of people ”, Vakis says. “You can dress the staff in uniform and train them to be waiters. Or you can tell them to treat all guests like family . I tell them to be generous with everything. Some of the people who work here don't speak English very well, but I insist you don't worry. Where goodwill exists, people will understand and. Let them do what they have to do to make everyone happy."
Bridge in Kalopanayiotis
All this became clear at dinner time. I spent a few minutes looking at the menu, considered ordering a little greek salad , but it turned out that the menu was more of an agenda, a list of the dishes that were going to be served to me. I tried fabulous recipes, all prepared with love and imagination. Among my favorites are a courgette flower tempura stuffed with halloumi cheese , sweet butternut squash with bitter chicory, lamb and goat casserole... The dishes kept coming until there was no room left on the table. I only got to sample a few of the delicacies and by the time we got to the baklava and fresh fruit, I was feeling as (re)full as that courgette flower tempura. Over coffee, **the bouzouki music was suddenly interrupted by a choral rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen**, as if they knew that, in the height of summer, a banquet of Christmas proportions was in progress.
"These mountains are home to wine and monasteries," said Vakis. I wanted to taste both. All of Troodos is dotted with painted churches, many of them World Heritage . Its facades are not particularly striking, as are the vaulted cathedrals that are seen on the coast or in Greece. With their quincha walls and sloping roofs, they look more like barns or stables than churches or chapels. The wonder only becomes apparent once inside, every meter is covered with paintings: icons of saints with their haloes and holy kings, scenes from the life and death of stoic martyrs: religious stories that could perfectly pass as comics for the devout and illiterate.
Zucchini flowers stuffed with halloumi cheese at the Apokryfo hotel
The most spectacular of the painted churches is Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis , just outside of Kakopetria. Inside, the walls are lined with saints, sad pale faces in colors so vivid it's hard to believe these anonymous works of art have been here for hundreds of years. There are some amazing individual images , like that virgin Mary breastfeeding almost unique. Biblical heroes look down or into the middle distance with the same Byzantine expression of another time, halfway between pain and pity.
Around Galata , in Panagia Theotokos, much smaller, I was mesmerized by a representation of the baptism of Jesus : a Jordan River populated with small fish and eel-like creatures and, under the painted waves, a rare human figure holds an urn, like a pagan god or a weeping ghost. A personification of the Jordan itself. The story of Lazarus It is presented with special prominence in this church and in others. They say that after being resurrected, he came to Cyprus to spread the gospel, and became the first archbishop of the island. Presumably it was here that he died, for the second and last time.
Fruit salad in Apokryfo
The low foothills on this southern side of the mountains form a region called the Commandaria. The name comes from an event: during the Crusades, the Knights Templar had a base here, The Great Commandery. commander It is also the name of a dessert wine made from the ripest xinisteri grapes, picked and dried in the sun to sweeten before being crushed.
Ricardo Corazón de León served this wine at his wedding and it is said that he declared it the “wine of kings and the king of wines”. It's officially the oldest wine appellation in the world, but ask any local and they'll tell you it dates back far beyond the Templar name or royal seal of approval. Three thousand years, maybe four, it's been brewing here . The Cypriots even claim, in a tone that does not allow any kind of disagreement, that this was the wine that the members drank at the last supper.
The Vlassides cellars
I tasted some of the centenary wine. A taste too sweet for me, like a sherry fortified with a spoonful of sugar. Yes indeed, I knew that other wines made from the xinisteri grape were definitely delicious . There are vineyards and wineries all over Troodos. Visited Vlassides , a brutalist concrete construction hidden, like some Bond villain's lair, in the hollow of a hill. Inside, high-tech, dimly lit corridors and glass walls through which you can see the great oak barrels stacked in pyramids like cannonballs. “There has been an evolution in Cypriot wines over the last ten years ”, assures the owner Sófocles Vlassides. “A better knowledge in cultivation, irrigation, etc. You would have to be very unlucky to find a poor quality xinisteri today”.
I asked him about the curious custom of serving red wines cold, something I have already seen in several restaurants. “It's not so much that you have to drink it cold. Possibly the wine comes from a fresh cellar. When it's over 30°C on the streets, you don't want to have a glass of wine at room temperature . It is true that here red wines have not progressed in the same way as white wines, and that served at a low temperature can, in a certain way, cover up some sins”. And while this I don't think would work at home, I have to say that I liked the cold red.
I could have spent a week visiting intoxicating vineyards and churches on the south side of the mountain. But I wanted to go deeper . I went first to Plates , the village where nightingales caused Seferis insomnia. Here, near the peak of Olympus, the slopes are covered with black pine forests, their branches facing the ground from the weight of winter snow, so that the cups resemble giant green bells . I stopped at the foot of Platres to go on an excursion to Caledonian Falls . A rocky path leads uphill, against the current. Soon you are out of the sun and in the shade of the pine trees, with their trunks covered in soot, like a thick bundle of obscure exclamation marks.
Along the way, you come across strange-looking plants such as the strawberry tree, its roots exposed like the lanky legs of some giant red spider. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the falls , which plunge 15 meters into an ice-cold pool. Many walkers have the opportunity to take off their shoes and cool off their feet before heading back to the restaurant psyllium dendro at the beginning of the route. Its shady patio is always buzzing with customers looking for the famous grilled trout in garlic sauce with boiled potatoes.
Room in Casale Panayiotis
After Caledonia I drove to Troodos Square , a strange paved platform filled with gift shops. It is the most populated point of the mountain. After a previous stop to fascinate me for a moment in the sweet shop Erotica Komandaria , begins the descent to Kalopanayiotis, on the north side of the Troodos. It is a pretty town situated on one side of a steep gorge. The old monastery of Saint John Lampadistis , which contains another beautiful painted church, is located on the other side, at the end of a large steel bridge.
The two main streets of the town run parallel, but the gorge is so steep that one street is 30 meters higher than the other, even though they are only ten meters apart. John Papadouris , the wealthy mayor of Kalopanayiotis, had a funicular to save the citizen the hard work of climbing the slopes and stone steps . With its brand new steel rails and metal cabin, it looks like a zipper sewn onto the fabric of the mountain: zipping up, zipping down, and zipping up again.
Papadouris is also the owner of the Hotel Casale Panayiotis . It offers rooms in restored houses, as well as a spa in an old stable and a restaurant in what used to be a cinema. It is, in effect, a holiday village that lives side by side with the Cypriot population , the same one that has lived in this beautiful place for several generations.
Hotel Casale Panayiotis
In the Hotel Casale Panayiotis , you can stroll through the bar library or the elegant hotel cafe and join the church congregation, with the locals, who display sacred icons along cobbled streets singing and carrying candles. Much of the fruit and vegetables served in the restaurant come from the estate owned by Papadouris.
Casale Panayiotis guests also visit the estate to fish, use the swimming pool or simply pick fruit in the orchard. I went to see him with the hotel housekeeper, a sweet grandmother named Antigone.
“I came to live in these mountains years ago – she said – her, because my husband is from a town located on the other side of the cliff. At that time, many people went to the coast in search of work. There were houses where the doors had not been opened for 20 years . But now the children of those are returning to the old family homes.” Here in the cool, among the peach trees and the grapevines full of clusters, it's hard to guess why they waited so long to do it.
* This report is published in the September 87 issue of the Condé Nast Traveler magazine and is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device.
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Caledonia Waterfall, near Plantres, it takes about 40 minutes on foot to get there