From here, you can rent a boat and putter to your own cove: perhaps Nissaki, Agios Stefanos or Kerasia. It's wall-to-wall Sloanes and speedboats at Agni, a tiny fishing village with three rival tavernas (Toula's is the best). The smart set stay on Corfu's north-east coast (nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea) where the Rothschilds like to unwind. With its pastel villages, rolling olive groves and grand manor houses, the rest of the island recalls Tuscany – but with some of the best beaches in Europe. Evenings kick off with cocktails on the Liston (a colonnade modelled on Paris's Rue de Rivoli), followed by dinner at Salto, an unpretentious wine bar and bistro on the edge of the Old Town. The cosmopolitan capital is a charming clash of Venetian, British and French colonial influences. For groups: Villa Syros sleeps 12 peopleīest of the Greek islands for: character and lush landscapesĬorfu is the It Girl of the Ionian islands.
For more recommendations, see our insider guide to Syros. Before you leave, stock up on loukoumi (rose-tinted Turkish delight) and San Michali cheese from Prekas delicatessen, and visit Zeyelo for hand-made wooden sunglasses. Perhaps the prettiest restaurant of all is Mazi, a vine-covered courtyard festooned with bougainvillaea.
In Ermoupoli, the finest places to eat and drink are around Androu Street: Ousyra, where the chef plates up Greek-ified pasta and beautifully balanced salads, and Django Gelato, where the pistachio gelato reigns supreme, and the fig sorbet made in August can sell out in less than half an hour. But fabulous seaside tavernas abound: Iliovassilemar on Galissas beach for samphire and sea-urchin salad and rockfish soup Allou Yialou in the pretty seaside village of Kini for lobster with orzo.
But the most splendid legacy of the shipping industry are the manor houses in Vaporia and Poseidonia. The beaches are slightly less splendid - with the exception of Delfini, Varvarousa, and Aetos in the wild north. Once Greece’s ship-building centre, Syros' industry centres around the yard in Neorio. A few rembetiko joints have survived in the upper town, Ano Syros. There’s still a strong Italian flavour in Ermoupoli’s marble piazzas, princely mansions, and miniature replica of La Scala, the showpiece of a year-round cultural scene. Syros hosts festivals of animation, dance, digital art, film, classical music, jazz and rembetiko, the Greek blues popularised by local musician Markos Vamvakaris. The colourful 19th-century city of Ermoupoli is built on twin peaks – one Orthodox, the other Catholic, the heritage of a long Venetian occupation. On Syros, capital of the Cyclades, you won’t find sugar-cube villages and whitewashed lanes.
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