My Corfu: where I lived and where I want to return.

Sometimes a place is not just beautiful – it responds to the body. You breathe in the air and it feels like it’s already yours. That’s how it was for me in Corfu.

I didn't come here as a tourist. I just stayed. The island accepted me with ease: a bright balcony with oranges, a white cup on a wooden shelf, rustling leaves and thyme tea. I lived here for three years - as if I was writing in notebooks right from the balcony. My son studied, I wrote, we listened to the sea and time.

Over the years I have tried several places on the island, but some have stood out to me - not so much for the service, but for the atmosphere.

Proximity to water: Kontokali

A quiet corner – and a hotel to return to. In the morning, I walked barefoot onto the wooden terrace, where the rustle of the waves was almost invisible. The beach is private, but without luxury. Just sun, sand, the smell of the Ionian Sea.

In the garden there are oleanders and aloe. And in the room there is nothing superfluous. White bed linen, light curtains, silence.

Where Green Meets Sky: Dassia

I lived in this place for only a week, but I remember it as a morning after a long sleep. Everything is green, in gentle slopes to the sea. One of the hotels here is buried in pine trees and rosemary. The balcony overlooks the garden, and in the evenings it smells of heated bark.

It's easy to read, write and not want to change anything here. The restaurant has orange juice and a view of distant ferries.

The Old Town - past fortresses and orange shadows

I once rented a small room in the heart of the old town – not a hotel, more like a house. Stone walls, arched windows, the clink of dishes from the cafe below. It smelled of coffee, bougainvillea and baked eggplant.

Everything is at hand - honey shops, a bookstore on the corner, the Church of St. Spyridon. But the main thing is the feeling that you are inside history, inside time that is not in a hurry.

Sometimes, to understand a place, you just need to be there. Not just walk through it, not just “look at it,” but be there. I am grateful for every morning in Corfu, every cup of tea, every window with a view of the light.

And if you are looking for not just a hotel, but a touch, Corfu has such places.

Then I will tell you about Paralia Katerinis – about its spacious beaches, about the thunderstorm at midday and the rooms that smell of the sea. But that is another notebook.

With love, Lilia.