Conde Nast Traveler magazine pays homage to Kyrimai Hotel
Kyrimai Hotel is owned and run by Alexandros Kyrimis who looks like the sober version of Oliver Reed. His great-grandfather had built a warehouse in the area of Gerolimenas in Mani, thus, transforming the –at that time- small cove into the sole commercial port in the whole area. During the summer months the wind called “Zephyros” by the locals, stirs up the sea and the sun rays make the rock of Cavo Grosso look like the face of a giant overlooking the waters spreading in front of the hotel.
In the summer and in spring alike, one can visit the area for walking among the flowers of purple and golden shades. In autumn you can hunt for quail and in the winter you will experience the storms. We had rabbit with wild herbs for dinner. The owner of Kyrimai Hotel employs the locals who can find and bring him traditional herbs and also a chef, none other than the known across Greece Yiannis Baxevanis, who knows how to make the best of the ingredients through his rich culinary skills. We tried a ferocious red wine by Estate Papantoni, a wine which you can drink all night long, as Kyrimis -the owner- describes it while speaking at the same time about the character of the mainland’s interior. ''The inhabitants of the region of Mani are obsessed with death. Here, you may choose not to attend a wedding, but you will never miss out on going to a funeral. The women say various rhymes about death and about guilt. The people of Mani have almost nothing. The battles they have given was their eviction. The Maniots were land pirates and wreckers. The boys were called ''guns'' and wore female clothing to trick death.
At dawn, the silence is only disturbed by small owls which are hunting cicadas as we make our way towards CapeTainaro, the southernmost point of the Greek mainland. We walked through the ruins of a Roman villa boasting wavy, mosaic floors. The sun rose with a fiery copper color. At the edge of the cape there is a sea-cave which -according to mythology- is said to be the mouth of Hades. Author Patrick Leigh Fermor has swam within the cave and claimed that its entrance is shut…nonetheless, I prefer the version by Alexandros Kyrimis : ''A donkey once fell into another sea-cave 40 km away and was found in this cave, so, of course its entrance is not shut!'' Perhaps Orpheus tried to reclaim Eurydice from Hades at this very spot. The lucid morning proposes a world of surprises in which we do not look back, but, instead we are lead along the path towards another day.
