Marmaro - stone name

In western Corfu, in a place where the tour bus can't reach, lies a village with a name that rings like a bell - Marmaro . Stone. Quiet. Real.

We drove there in the morning, and the road did not go along the sea, but into the depths. Into the hills, into the grass, into the simple outlines of the island, where everything is no longer for the eye, but for breathing.

Marmaro is not a tourist place. There are no signs in English, no apartments with swimming pools. Only alleys where grapes stretch from house to house , like a thread between people. Only cafeneo , where time sits at the same table with old people. And only silence that does not need to be interrupted.

A stream runs through the village, like a line that divides and connects at the same time. A stone bridge connects the two halves, as if the island itself were gathering itself in the palm of its hand.

In the center is the church of Agia Marina. Inside is an icon carved from marble. The same marble that was mined here in the past. Hence the name of the village: marmara – a stone that preserves light. Nearby is an old oil press, now a museum. But the walls still remember the smell of olive oil and the work of hands.

Marmaro seems untouched. But it is not abandonment - it is care. It is a place where the sky does not interfere with the roofs , and history lives not in monuments, but in habits . Where women wash the steps in front of the house, and children run not after the car, but to the river.

📌 Note for the diary: Marmaro is not on the way. You have to want it. Go in, linger. Walk to the bridge. Sit in the shade of the coffee shop. Watch the grapes touch the wall. And just be.