Tatler UK - 10.2019

tatler.com Tatler October 2019

Aliki-Marcadia: ‘For

me, Amorgos is the

most special island’

T R AV E L

GREECE

Johnnie Shand Kydd

Photographer

For over twenty years, I have been lucky enough to visit

the Saronic island of Hydra. There are no cars, so you

have to travel around by donkey or water taxi. What’s so

special about the island is that it’s remained unchanged

due to the preservation order slapped on it in the 1960s.

All the streets here look identical, full of anonymous

blue doors that conceal fabulous Venetian merchants’

houses with lemon groves, like the Bratsera hotel. The

charm is in the island’s secrecy. It doesn’t wear its beauty

on its sleeve, which is why it always attracts a different

crowd to Mykonos. Some of my best memories are of

summers spent at Pauline Karpidas’ annual arts weekend.

Hydra, for me, has become a sort of seaside version of an

18th-century salon where spectacular careers and

long-lasting friendships have been forged by the most

arbitrary of encounters on the beach. The photographs

I have shot there of the YBAs, Isabella Blow, Phoebe

Philo and Sadie Coles became part of an exhibition

and book called Hydra for the Whitworth Art Gallery.

I think what’s nice about the island is the lack of hierarchy

that you would usually get in the art world in New York

or London. As soon as you put people in swimming

trunks, things become much more democratic. But

I certainly don’t want to suggest that the entire stay is

devoted to networking – far from it. My main recollections

of Hydra are of fun, laughter and swimming off ouzo-

induced hangovers at the most beautiful beach,

Plakes Vlyhou. bratserahotel.com

Aliki-Marcadia

Lampropoulos

Head of International Development, Museum of Cycladic Art

Every year we choose one of the Cycladic islands to host a fun weekend for the

young patrons of the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. There, we curate a sort

of immersive cultural/archaeological party, which is a way to connect Greeks who

live abroad. For me, Amorgos is the most special island. It’s wildly beautiful and

has the most dramatic coastline dotted with beautiful caves, where the water takes

on psychedelic shades of purple and blue. After a swim at Mourakia, have a

sunset dinner at Pyrgos in Arkensi village. This family-run restaurant is the

ultimate in simple, perfectly home-cooked Greek food, where even the salt is

home-made. Spend an evening at the Moon Bar in Katapola, and stay at Vorina

Ktismata, a collection of serene suites, apartments and villas which have the best

views across the island. cycladic.gr; vorinaktismata.com

Hydra calling: Johnnie Shand Kydd has

photographed Phoebe Philo (right) and

Isabella Blow (below) on the island

PHOTOGRAPHS: BART SCHOUTEN/UNSPLASH; CHRISTOPHER WOODS; JOHNNY SHAND KYDD

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