A pitta all right
Cyprus offers a fabulous mix of fine food, sights and culture, says Lucy Williamson
Reality dawned after the fourth plate of marvellous meze arrived. I’d not been to Cyprus before and assumed lunch was maybe three courses and devoured the houmous and pitta.
Oh no. How naive I was. We were just getting started at the traditional Agrovino Tavern in the village of Lofou and sumptuous dish after dish kept being paraded on to the chequered tablecloth by friendly servers.
Five courses deep, I realised there must be some sort of Cypriot law requiring all visitors to eat their own body weight in halloumi.
The only thing I would be saying “hallou” to would be my renewed gym membership as the plane tyres touched down at Gatwick a week later.
Bursting at the seams, I soldiered on.
The village of Lofou sits on the Troodos Mountains with honey-coloured stone cottages, traditional blue-coloured shutters lining steep cobbled streets, garnished with bunting depicting the Greek and Cyprus flags.
A quintessential Cypriot village – or like a real-life Mamma Mia! film set, to you and me.
With every sip of freshly squeezed orange juice from the local orange trees, a citrus fruit deeply rooted in the history of Cyprus, my empty fridge back in Britain felt a world away. And yet, as we drove along the 30-minute winding road back to Paphos, something about the country felt very familiar.
From driving on the left, to the recognisable shops – the third-century Tombs of the Kings UNESCO world heritage site sits just a few miles from the Paphos branch of Marks & Spencer – it’s easy to see why there are at least 50,000 Brits who reside in Cyprus, many in the Paphos region.
But for the Brits just here for a week or two, a sound choice to stay is the Ivi Mare hotel, a perfect base to explore the Paphos area. Or