Korfu

Corfu is the greenest of the Greek islands, its hills covered with olive trees the Venetians planted and nobody ever cut down. The old town looks like nowhere else in Greece: tall ochre houses, narrow lanes and Italian arcades, with the Old Fortress pushing out into the sea like a ship made of stone. Cricket is still played on the wide lawn of Spianada Square, left behind by the British. On the west coast, cliffs drop into bottle-green water around the bay below Paleokastritsa Monastery and the pale sand of Mirtiotissa Beach, and further north the sea has carved the sandstone channel of Canal d’Amour. Inland, the Achilleion Palace still holds the statues and gardens an Austrian empress had built here for herself. From the top of Mount Pantokrator the whole island appears at once, with Albania across the strait. On the table: fish baked in the oven, veal sofrito with garlic, and kumquat liqueur.