LIMASSOL

Over the centuries, the Cypriot city of Limassol has absorbed the flavours of the Mediterranean and Middle East, while its vineyards have proved equally adaptable, nurturing both local and international grapes. Words: Nina Caplan

What will the future judge to be beautiful? I often wonder this while travelling through places that don’t conform to a guidebook ideal of prettiness. In our carefully curated world, where every town has a tourist board and every food trend a champion, it’s rare to find a place that hasn’t airbrushed out its blemishes and imperfections to appease the tourists. Yet, for those of us with a keen interest in local flavours, these can be among the most rewarding places to explore. And, so it proved with Limassol.

For a winter-weary Brit like me, Cyprus offers warm reprieve. On arrival, I find the coastline thick with buildings but also alight with sunshine, the Mediterranean glinting beyond. My driver — a child during the Turkish invasion of 1974 — recalls this entire stretch as empty land, save the ruins of Amathus, one of Cyprus’s ancient kingdoms, conquered by the Persians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs. As a boy, he used to play here, dipping into the Mediterranean at will. Still today, he tells me, “if I don’t see the sea for two or three days, I get stress”.

Now it’s a different sort of playground. Just beside Amathus is Amara, a five-star hotel, constructed on several levels, all facing the sea. The spa had to be built around one of Amathus’ ancient walls. Everything else is brand new and very elegant, fashioned from local wood, travertine and granite. It’s not Limassol’s first luxury hotel but it’s certainly the only one with restaurants helmed by global gastronomic heavyweights Nobu Matsuhisa and Giorgio Locatelli.

This is the new Cyprus. But there’s a lot of value in the old, too. Limassol’s recently redeveloped port has restaurants with sea views and decent fish, but rather than seek out these shiny new premises, I go looking for older wineries instead. Usually beautiful and often under-explored, they can be great places to dine — or at least ask for recommendations. Winemakers know the best local restaurants — they are, after all, the ones to supply these establishments with wine.

Street cafe’s with tourists in Omodos village, Limassol District

Grilled octopus at Armyra by Papaioannou restaurant, at Amara