Mamma Mia 2’s magical island
Sarah Turner falls in love with the Croatian island where Pierce Brosnan and cofilmed the new Abba movie
I’VE never thought of Pierce Brosnan as the sort of actor who takes filming so seriously that he stays in character even after the cameras stop rolling each day. It’s something that Daniel Day-Lewis always insists upon doing, but Pierce Brosnan? It was a bit of a surprise, frankly.
However, when he came to Vis in Croatia to film the Abbatastic sequel to Mamma Mia! last summer, by all accounts he spent the entire production channelling his inner Sam Carmichael.
‘You’d see him in the cafe each morning having a coffee, saying hello to everyone,’ said my landlady Tatjana. ‘And in the evening, he’d be at one of the restaurants on the quayside with his wife. By the end, everyone knew him.’
Vis is a two-hour ferry ride from Split (although you can be like Cher’s character in the movie and drop in by helicopter if you want).
As you arrive, the island unfolds like a book: limestone rocks, a series of houses hugging the harbour and high hills behind with terraces of vineyards. The wilder parts of the island are full of fragrant wild rosemary and sage.
If you were staying here last summer, you could have seen Andy Garcia wander down the quayside, watched Amanda Seyfried spend her downtime paddleboarding in the Adriatic (full respect there) or caught sight of Lily James setting off for a cycle ride with her boyfriend Matt Smith on her days off.
Whether all of the islanders knew exactly who they were is another matter. Vis – on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast – is not the most worldly place. There’s just a single cinema, an openair one and only in summer (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again will be shown there this year, for sure).
It’s a superbly laidback island, with the locals even relaxed about the fact that Vis will be masquerading as the Greek island of Kalokairi, where Donna (played by Meryl Streep) and her daughter Sophie (Seyfried) live. For the sequel, most of the production centred on Komiza, a centuries-old fishing village on the west coast. Locals lent their chickens and goats for scenes, piers were built and Greek signs were put in place. Komiza is also the starting point for excursions to Vis’s most famous sight, the Blue Cave, on nearby Bisevo island. Visitors are taken in small rowing boats into a cave system, where, thanks to a set of natural skylights and white sand, the light reflects into an underground cave, with a beguiling pool of bright blue light. It features in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, in cinemas from Friday.
I follow in Pierce’s footsteps and wander down to the waterfront for a coffee. Everyone is very nice and speaks English – even under former communist rule, it was the official second language for schools. Vis starts to feels like Kalokairi, but crisper and much more efficient. Particularly the plumbing.
VIS town is spread across a large harbour and a maze of pedestrianised streets. There are churches and small bars, tiny greengrocers and moorings for yachts. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from one side to the other, passing
the villa where Pierce stayed in Kut, the oldest and most beautiful part of Vis.
From the outside, there’s just an anonymous grey door. But step inside and the property reaches back into the hillside and includes a swimming pool, several large bedrooms and a view of the church of St Jerome, which Pierce photographed and put on social media several times. And, as proof of how much he loved the villa, he also left the owners a self-portrait of himself and a message of thanks.
Kut is very beautiful. Most of it dates from the 16th Century when it was part of the Venetian empire. Vis’s oak trees were cut down so that they could prop up Venice, but the Venetians left a series of graceful palazzos in return, now draped with climbing plants. The streets are too narrow for cars, so you’ll find bikes everywhere.
There’s one ‘smart’ hotel on Vis and it has only a handful of rooms, so mostly people stay in villas or B&Bs. Mine, the Villa Vis, is typical, a beautifully renovated house with four rooms, where you can hear the church bells. It’s a minute’s walk from the quayside and Tatjana, a Croatian who grew up in Germany, cooks wonderful breakfasts each day. Vis also has a steady influx of yachts coming in to moor – not ridiculously smart ones but yachts owned by those people who know how to sail. I don’t, so a water taxi takes me to a restaurant in the neighbouring inlet of Stoncica, where the grill is fired up and fresh prawns and lobsters are cooked in front of guests. Then it’s time for a swim. Stoncica has one of the few sandy beaches on Vis and it’s lovely (even if some spoilt Aussies who’d hopped off a boat were sniffy about it).
As twilight descends back at Komiza, locals and visitors do an Italian-style passeggiata, strolling between the cafes that line the quaysides.
The food on Vis has Venetian roots too, with risottos and pasta as well as shellfish and pizza. But it’s a lot cheaper than its expensive neighbour across the Adriatic.
The cast’s favourite restaurant was Konoba Vatrica, on the quayside near the Villa Vis – there are pictures of Pierce and his co-star Colin Firth enjoying a meal there.
It is one of the best restaurants on the island – and the food is delicious – but meals are just £25 a head with wine. And if you ask the chef, he’ll show you a picture of him with Pierce. ‘Lovely man,’ he said. ‘Just like he is in the film.’