Captain Corelli&
This extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres is a popular reading choice for civil wedding ceremonies: Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your root was so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.
- Movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin
- Captain Corelli Wedding Reading
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin Wedding Reading
Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.
Due to the huge success of the best seller 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin', it had been decided to film this book at its original location, Kefalonia (Cephalonia). The film is about Captain. Most of the filming took place in Sami, a village 9 km south of Agia Efimia, where a huge and beautiful set was built. The campsite of the. This extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres is a popular reading choice for civil wedding ceremonies: Advertisement Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
Which frankly is a big relief. Kefalonia is not like other Ionian islands.
It's bigger, more scenically varied, more old-fashioned and more hospitable. The island itself divides neatly into north and south. The south has white sand beaches and package resorts; the north pebbly coves, yachts and upmarket villas. Running between them is a spine of switchback mountains that gives Kefalonia some of the most exhilarating - or terrifying - roads in the Ionian.
Its geology, too, follows the north-south divide. In August 1953 Kefalonia was devastated by a massive earthquake. Two thirds of the island's buildings were destroyed, 600 people died and thousands more were injured. But while the worst damage occurred in the south, the tiny port of Fiskardo, resting on limestone at the northern tip of the island, survived largely intact. It was to Fiskardo that we headed. Founded in the 11th century by the French crusader Robert Guiscard, who died here of plague, it has a ruined Norman church and a Venetian lighthouse standing guard over the harbour entrance. The waterfront is lined with Venetian houses, many of them beautifully restored.
There's a 17th-century church and a maze of white-painted back alleys hung with flowers. Best of all, the town centre is pedestrianised. The man who can justifiably claim to be the 'father of tourism in Fiskardo' is Tassos Matsukis, who in 1977 opened the Captain's Cabin restaurant, mainly to cater to passing yachts. Since then he has moved into villa rentals and has his own travel agency, which has overseen a cautious growth in tourist numbers, partly regulated by Fiskardo's relatively high prices. 'They keep the other tourists out. That's how we want it,' says Tassos, a chain-smoking, bear-like man of 63. This is not elitist but realistic.
Having seen the sort of destruction wrought by cheap tourism on Corfu, it would be hard to argue. And Fiskardo has kept its character. At sunset a velvety dusk descends on the town. Lights twinkle across the bay, one or two late-arriving yachts motor into the harbour. Strollers move down the waterfront, passing family supermarkets and tavernas with tables at the water's edge. In the backstreets children are playing, and at the Captain's Cabin the 70-year-old chef, Makis, is dishing up food that long ago disappeared from most tourist menus in Greece. Creamy moussaka sprinkled with cinnamon; meat and vegetable pie with crusty pastry; a rich rabbit stew.
The sky, unblemished by city light, is a canopy of stars. Our villa, Katerina, overlooked the water 15 minutes' walk from town; a light airy house with bougainvillaea around the door and stupendous views. Each day we watched as a stream of yachts, fishing caiques and power boats sailed in and out of Fiskardo. Three times a day the ferry from neighbouring Ithaka would roll into port. Container ships glided past on the far horizon.
Ithaka appeared as a series of dark striated ridges, its blurred and shimmering hills contrasting with the deep blue stillness of the channel between. On an unspoilt Greek island, a view like this is all the enter-tainment you need. We breakfasted on the terrace, swam off the rocks in front of the house; returned for long lazy lunches and siestas, and in the late afternoon headed to the nearby beach at Fokis. Fokis was a deserted, fjord-like indentation on the coastline, whose steep sides were thick with cypresses, its water cool and clear. Kefalonia-at-large beckoned too.
In a hire car I drove down the east coast through Sami, the semi-industrial town mocked up in the film of Captain Corelli's Mandolin to look like 1930s Argostoli, the capital. The town has an inevitable Captain Corelli's Coffee Bar, and the other half-dozen location sites on the island draw a handful of visitors, but otherwise the film has had little effect. Argostoli itself has been wholly rebuilt since the earthquake, and is now a modern town, where a strip of sandy beaches and package resorts stretches south from the capital. Inland lies a startlingly dramatic landscape. At nearly 6,000ft, Mt Aenos is one of the highest mountains in western Greece. It is surrounded by smaller peaks on which are perched abandoned Venetian forts, with far below, cave systems dating back 30,000 years. The mountain is a national park, its slopes covered with unique fir trees, and home to wild horses.
It's also ideal walking country. There are waymarked trails, and the island's size means you can escape the crowds - if there were any. In two hours' walking I hardly saw another soul.
Movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Standing at the peak, buffeted by the wind, I could make out Corfu to the north and the Peloponnese to the west, while above me, an eagle glided in the thermals. In the foothills below lies the Monastery of St Gerasimos, where the body of the island's patron saint is interred.
A nun stood in the doorway. Casual viewing of the saint, it seemed, was discouraged. 'But if you'd like to kiss his feet you can wait for the priest and he'll open up the casket.' Time to get out on the water. At the harbour in Fiskardo a friendly chap called Makis was sitting under an umbrella with a boat rental sign.
Captain Corelli Wedding Reading
No addresses, credit cards or deposits required - you simply turn up and go. Again, this is Greece as it used to be. We cruised down the east coast, stopping off in tiny deserted bays to swim and snorkel, then skimmed across the cobalt water to Ithaka, birthplace of Homer's Odysseus. The tiny harbour of Polis ('City') was Greece stripped to its bare essentials. Deep blue sea; bare scrubby hills.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin Wedding Reading
A row of fishing caiques; a taverna hidden in the shade. We ate squid and sardines, salads and cheese, washed down by rombola served in jugs. After lunch, I noticed a sign with tourist information. The nearby Louizos cave, it stated, was thought to be one of the most important sites in Greece, pre-dating the likes of Delphi and Olympia. At dinner that night Tassos Matsukis sent over farewell drinks. Angela from the supermarket next door arrived with two bottles of rombola as parting gifts.
There was a time when life in the Greek islands was always like this: calm, unhurried and hospitable. Will it remain so on Kefalonia? As we left the villa two dolphins, backs arched in a question mark - or a gesture of farewell - skimmed and dived out in the channel.
Paul Mansfield travelled with Kefalonia specialist Ionian Island Holidays (020 8459 0777, ). A week in the Villa Katerina in September costs from £475 per person, based on eight people sharing, falling to £395 per person in October. Car hire: from Pama Travel in Fiskardo (0 41033), from £35 per day. Boat hire: from Fiskardo Boat Hire, from £37 per day excluding fuel. Guidebook: The Rough Guide to the Ionian Islands (£9.99).