Last year, when talking about this trip, I would say to people: “Our ideal village to stay is one that has two cafes and a bike shop”. And here we are, on the western coast of the island of Corfu, staying in the village of Liapades (pop. 916), which has two cafes and a bike shop. Except that the bike shop rents motorbikes, not bicycles as we had envisaged!

Liapades also has three churches, three minimarkets, three bars, two bakeries, two boat hire companies and a much larger number of family run restaurants or tavernas. It is positioned at the end of a gorgeous bay, with a stone covered beach surrounded by cliffs, with several little beaches, one more beautiful than the next in the coves around the bay and beyond. The nearest beaches are arrived at by walking down a steep path to the water level, allowing for views of the most iridescent turquoise and blue water on the way. Once at the beach, the water is crystal clear and while it becomes very deep very quickly, it appears much shallower as one can see all the way to the sandy bottom just a few metres offshore.

This is a place where the Mediterranean lifestyle and demeanour surrounds you. The first afternoon when we went to the bakery at the end of the lane which leads to our place, the baker had sold out of bread. We made a point of going back the next day in the morning, only to find that he only accepted cash and we didn’t have the €4 our loaf of bread and pastry cost. “Don’t worry”, the baker says. “You can pay tomorrow.” And so we did.

The hosts of our Airbnb, George and Katerina, live in the upstairs of the house we are staying in. They were both there to meet us, having happily agreed to allow us to arrive at 10am as we had caught the overnight ferry from Puglia in Italy. They both work in hospitality, clearly the main industry and employer in the region – she during the day and he does the 4pm to midnight shift. The house is surrounded by fruit trees, and they couldn’t have been more welcoming and generous in providing us with initial provisions and insisting we help ourselves to the fruit at any time. Each day we find fresh produce on our doorstep: lettuce one day, the next day fresh eggs and apricots, then plums and more apricots. We have also enjoyed kumquats, mulberries, figs, cherries and tiny plums from the tree.  George’s parents tend the garden and vegetable patch next door and each day his father greets us with a warm smile and a greeting of “Kalimera” (good morning). Having offered us fresh potatoes three days in a row, he was delighted that we accepted the offer today, foisting on us three times as much as I would have selected for myself. 

I cannot express the delight of the opportunity to prepare food with these fresh ingredients. The potatoes went into a warm potato salad with rocket, parsley, red peppers (the tastiest I have ever eaten) and a pesto mayonnaise dressing. The fresh eggs and apricots became the key ingredients of a twist on a Greek galaktoboureko or custard pie, with orange syrup instead of lemon. The plums, cherries, apricots and more make their way into fruit bowls for breakfast, with real Greek yoghurt on top!

Having taken a lot longer to get warm than we expected (and apparently than everyone in Europe expected), summer has now arrived in full swing. The days here warm up very quickly. I have taken to walking 1.3kms down to the beach, swimming for almost 2kms in the sea and then walking back with Kevin, who in the meantime has run up and through and around the village down to meet me at the beach as I finish my swim. By the time we have enjoyed a leisurely breakfast it is late morning. If we head down to one of the beaches, we can’t stay out for too long. For probably the first time in our lives, we appreciate the necessity of the beach umbrella our hosts insisted us taking to the beach. We might not finish our late lunch until 3pm and by 7pm we are asking each other where the day has gone – even though it is still bright outside. 

So we find ourselves walking out for dinner after 8.30pm, with the sky slowly changing from a pale blue to yellow, orange, pink and then purple before the light eventually disappears at about 9.45pm. On our first night we ventured into the bigger and more touristy village next to us for dinner by the sea, but our more relaxed and authentic meals have been at two of the tavernas in Liapades. One of them faces onto the “main” square up in the old village, made up of the taverna, two bars where many of the old men of the town congregate outside to sit and chat, and a church. 

The taverna was a family affair. The sons were waiting tables with warm generous smiles, the father was managing the service and mother and daughter were doing the cooking. The food was delicious, the service warm and the turnover of tables substantial as regulars and tourists would wait patiently in the square for a table to become free. Watching life in the village square occur at the same time was certainly part of the fun. 

The other taverna sampled so far is the “Fish Taverna” of the village, once again a family affair. This time the courtyard where we sat was covered in vines and the outlook was through the valley down to the beach, with gorgeous vermillion skies as a backdrop. Here the simple food far exceeded our expectations. Baked feta with tomato and oregano, tzatziki thick with cucumber pieces and rich yoghurt, sea bass grilled to perfection and sardines crisp and juicy at the same time – both accompanied by perfectly boiled potatoes (which probably came from the garden next door) and a very drinkable local rosé wine. We thought we had no space to order dessert, but we were able to make space for the delicious complimentary yoghurt mixed with honey and orange. 

Tomorrow the sun will come up again and beam down its hot and strong rays. We are planning to take a boat tour around this area of coastline and see all the hidden spectacular beaches and then have the boat drop us at one of them for a couple of hours. We are finally leaning into the slower, holiday mode – but how we are managing that process is for another time….

15 June 2025