Corfu, Greece (As Narrated By A Woman We Could Not Understand)
Full disclosure: we saw Corfu mostly through a bus window while a very nice guide with a very heavy Greek accent explained everything to a group of Middle Georgia folks who caught maybe one word in five. So if some of the details here are slightly off, blame the language barrier, not us. We nodded a lot. We have no idea what we agreed to.
Here’s what we think we saw on this lush, ridiculously pretty island sitting out in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy – a place that’s been passed around through history like a holiday fruitcake, ruled at various points by Corinth, the Romans, the Venetians, the French, and the English. (The English left behind a cricket pitch, which tells you everything.)
Corfu Town & the Old Fortress
A gorgeous tangle of cobblestone streets, old tavernas, cafés, and shops, all sitting under a 15th-century fortress. One of the prettiest old towns in Greece, and the kind of place where Kimmy would absolutely get lost and somehow enjoy every second of it.
St. Spyridon Church
A 16th-century church with a tall bell tower and a jewel-covered silver sarcophagus holding the island’s patron saint. Beautiful, solemn, and one of the few stops we aren’t sure we made and definitely where we were pretty sure we didn’t understand what the guide was telling us.
Paleokastritsa & the Monastery of the Virgin Mary
Olive, lemon, and cypress groves spilling down into little coves along a rugged coastline – postcard stuff. Up above sits an ancient monastery wrapped in lemon trees and flower gardens, with a small museum of Byzantine art and views that genuinely shut everyone up for a minute.
Achilleion Palace
A neoclassical summer palace built for Empress Elizabeth of Austria, surrounded by Italian-style gardens full of statues and flowers. Fancy, mythical, and exactly the kind of place SuSu pretends she’s not too underdressed for. Not sure we stopped here either.
Koum Kouat Distillery
Home of the kumquat liqueur – a citrus that pretty much only grows in Corfu – plus all manner of sugary preserved sweets. Naturally, this is the stop where the group perked up and suddenly everyone was very engaged in the tour. Definitely stopped here.
Mon Repos Estate
A pink-and-green villa just above Corfu Town, and – fun fact: another stop we are definitely sure we have no idea if we saw this – the birthplace of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Franko filed this away to bring up at the worst possible moment later.
Mouse Island & the Vlaherna Viewpoint
Supposedly the most photographed view in all of Greece: the little 17th-century Vlacherna Monastery sitting at the tip of the Kanoni peninsula, with tiny Mouse Island just beyond. We were close to it, I do know that….took roughly nine hundred photos to be safe. At least one of them is probably good.
