Living room
part of the Corfu Experience, the feeling that the centuries collide
in this small corner of the Mediterranean.
This is not like walking through a museum, however. The his-
toric objects are part of a living, continuing family history. Their
Sunken bath
polish and lustre is witness to the regular care lavished upon them,
especially in two very different rooms. The formal dining room is
quite small and intimate, its sideboard and side table laden with
splendidly ornate silver pieces, while an elaborate brass and glass
light fitting hangs over the table and a collection of exquisite flow-
er-decorated plates lines the curve of the arch separating the room
from the drawing room. Leading off from the drawing room is the
‘Old’ kitchen – at the back of the house, with stairs leading down to
storage rooms, it is dominated by one of those huge old traditional
ovens, built into the wall and still used by the family for baking
bread and pizza. These walls are hung with copper utensils and
kitchen tools that are probably never used now but are just as care-
fully burnished as the silver elsewhere in the house.
The ‘New’ kitchen is, by contrast, at the front of the house, sun-
ny and south facing, with modern worktops and cupboards and
a magnificent cooker that looks at first glance like the last word
in Aga design, all matt black and gleaming brass. It is, however,
custom-built from wooden units that house a Neff cooker and was
designed by Periklis himself. A settled atmosphere pervades the
kitchen, which is not lacking in contemporary touches. Adjoining
this is the library, lined with shelves and filled with books, but not
as many ancient tomes as might be expected – although a pile of
massive leather-bound books does still take place of honour on the
desk. A narrow flight of stairs leads down to a lower floor, where
I was shown what was to me the most intriguing part of the entire
house. This was a bathroom, though any resemblance to a conven-
tional bathroom was strictly minimal. It reminded me of a harem
Kitchen
bath in one of those Victorian Orientalist paintings. Stone steps led
down between wooden columns to a sunken bathing place with
stone benches along the sides and a row of brass faucets jutting
from the wall. Exotic bathing accessories from the past are placed
here and there but the bathroom is perfectly functional and is avail-
able to the lucky guest who stays in the neighbouring guest room
with its canopied bed, its five hundred year-old wooden armoire
6 ISLAND ISSUE 9
Cellar
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