The tiny island of Delos opposite of Mykonos Island, a center of culture from as early as 2500 BC, well before the Golden Age of Pericles and the Parthenon, is one of Greece’s most important archaeological sites, one that no visitor to the country should miss.
“My inspiration was the inimitable island of Delos… there, opposite the hotel. When you’re dining or coming down the grand staircase by the pool you feel that if you just reached out your hand you would touch it”. Constantinos Charbilas, the tableware designer, sits next to me, on a summer-like day in mid-May, backs to the pool, gazing out at the crystal-clear sea spread before us. He squints in the blinding light enveloping the island and goes on. “And of course the structures on Delos. The famous home which probably belonged to a Phoenician merchant at the beginning of the 1st century, with its dolphins and ancient Greek meanders gracing the gorgeous mosaic floors in the ground-floor courtyard”. In my hands, I hold a large cup of hot coffee. Custom made tableware, the perimeter of which is decorated with the mosaic dolphins and meander, just as the original, with four small cupids, each riding a pair of dolphins. One of the resort’s 2 restaurants is named “Dolphins of Delos”, after the mosaic that graces its entrance, the spectacular view of the island of Delos opposite and the custom made tableware created to enhance the guests’ Mykonos dining experience.
“Delightful and marvelous”
Steady rain has been falling since this morning. The sun has decided not to make an appearance once again today. On afternoons like these, you get the gloomy feeling that day has all but forgotten to break. Darkness and bone-chilling dampness. Yet in the corner of my mind there is something that keeps me bright and cheery. That gives me a familiar, cozy feeling. A vivid recollection I am eager to experience again and again. I curl up under the warm blankets, close my eyes and am transported to the “delightful and marvelous”, where the sun always shines bright, shedding its golden spotlight on the beauty spread out below it, on the Cycladic island of Mykonos, on Ayios Yiannis Beach, at Mykonos Grand, the only Mykonos hotel featured on the Conde Nast Traveler Gold List 2014.
2,800 to 2,300 BC, in the Cyclades art approached the divine with the simple, linear, restless soul of the seafarer etched on the island marble. It reflected the light that had been its inspiration and depicted the land that had created it. The anthropocentric character of an art form, whose unique beauty inspired great sculptors such as Brancusi and Modigliani, sprung forth from the Cycladic islands with their distinctive architecture.
