Spending a Month on an Island: Corfu

We planned to stay at an apartment, in a small town (population is almost 40,000), on an island (population of 97,000). Does that sound limiting to you?   It did give us pause. Would there be enough to see and do?

We visited the Old Fortress in Corfu straightaway. Now what?

When we stood on the ramparts of the Old Fortress we could see a windmill in the far distance. A few days later we walked down the coast to see it up close.

On our first rainy day we headed for the Museum of Asian Art of Corfu. It seemed a strange location for what turned out to be amazing collection. We spent most of our time looking at two areas of the museum, the collections donated by Gregorios Manos and Jason Deighton-Sarzetakis + Yiannis Sarzetakis. The latter collection had unusual pieces we’d never seen the likes of in any museum.

We categorized “Oriental” rugs in one group but our knowledge was expanded with the stunning display of woven Baluch rugs.

The more we saw icons on Corfu, the more interested we became. We considered purchasing one to hang with the miniature painting of St. Michael we bought in Cuzco, Peru. At one shop the owner advised us to learn something about icons before making a commitment, and she sent us off on a search to see some of the very old works.

An icon in the Church of St. Jason and St. Sosipater.

We’re not sure that we even scratched the surface learning about icons, but we did buy a very small, hand-painted (and affordable) one that will look great next to St. Michael in our future cottage.

One other piece we wanted to buy was at Myrto Zirini Ceramics. When we were at her shop, she highly recommended a tour of Patounis Soap Factory.

The owner gave us a very good introduction to making soap, and, believe us, it was more interesting than you might think.

Our most frequent visits were to the park at Mon Repos. An old chapel on its grounds dates back to the 16th century, but this piece of art was on an exterior church wall built centuries later.

The biggest disappointment, and not just for visitors, has been the long closure of the Archaeological Museum of Corfu. (We can only assume this is due to the financial setback in Greece.)

A challenge for us is finding a suitable place to stay – and that’s especially true for a month-long visit. How lucky we were to have found the perfect place to stay in the Old Town!

We climbed up many, many stairs to get to the AirBnB flat, but once there, were rewarded with the best views of the town and across the water to snowy peaks.

The month flew by too quickly, and, by the end, we realized that there were still places to see and things we’d not yet done. It was hard saying goodbye.

 

 

April 2018