Kyrimai
Kyrimai Hotel
Photography & Art Direction: Edvinas Bruzas
Assistance & videography: João Henriques
Writing: Antonia Quirke
Location: Peloponnese, Greece
Commissioned by Condé Nast Traveller
Down in deepest Mani, the middle tentacle of the Peloponnese, there’s nothing for miles save for the occasional road lined with shrines, or fields full of chest-high thistles; here and there, old stone towers stab the sky. In one such place, Gerolimenas, on the far southwestern shore, Kyrimai hotel has occupied a 19th-century tower house for some 20 years. Originally built by the family who runs the establishment, it’s perfect as far as conversions go: immaculate and indulgent, yet retaining the deep romance of a place so remote it might have been overgrown with brambles only a week ago. It’s a maze of arches and stairways, the rooms inside the thick stone walls often split on two levels, with beds wearing white linen tucked in the eaves. Yet nothing feels cavelike. Instead, sunshine spreads beyond the windows and shutters into the amber-coloured walls and along hefty wooden floors. A restaurant sits above clear water in which fish curl and loll toward the shadows. It’s impossible not to step off repeatedly for a swim. There’s usually someone doing laps around the bay, or the sound of a creaking boat resounding off thyme-scented cliffs. In spring, the high rocks can turn light blue with wild sage that also appears in the house cocktails. The food is the best in the region: sardines with black olives whose spicy freshness cuts through the fatty fish oil, and rock samphire that turns creamed feta from a salty Greek chore into something paradisiacal.
