Corfu

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Achilleion, Gastouri, Corfu ©2017 Kel Harvey

    Jane & I have visited the Achilleion a couple of times over the years. A photogenic but curious place which points to one particular period in Corfiote history, but also serves, along with other curiosities, to illustrate the complexity of that history and Corfu's place in Europe's. The island has variously been governed by most of the major European powers over the centuries: Roman, Venetian, British, French, German - and their collective architectural and cultural influences have left a distinctive mark on this most singular of Greek islands. None is more marked in this respect than the Liston - a French collonade of bars and bistros that could happily sit in Paris or Lyon - on the edge of Spianada Square at the very green middle of which is a cricket square, the obvious influence of British rule in the 19th century. These days, the former conquerors are merely tourists peering back at histories they know little of. Corfu is a touchstone for these histories and a jewel in both the Greek and the wider European crown.

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