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Like Nigel
I haven't made it past the first few pages of Louis de Berniere's
novel. However, I can claim to have been to Cephallonia. I
even walked onto the film set.
Last year
my week long screen break was spent on this tiny little Greek
island. The island itself is as dramatic and beautiful as
the film. For this reason it was already filling up with people
trying to find their own bit of fiction.
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| Our
man Dan, now without a tan |
With
the beaches being scattered with the famous blue and yellow
paperbacks, entrepreneurs already knew they were on to
a winner. The restaurants were full of the Captain's pie,
Captain's fish and Captain's cocktails.
At the
time this wasn't an annoyance, just a little aside. I'm a
fidget on holiday and so after the first day on a beach on
the South Coast my partner and I hired a car to explore.
It takes
about three hours to travel from end to end. In the west you'll
find the concrete capital (a bit of a feet scorcher), the
south contains long stretches of sandy beaches whilst the
north is a bit more secluded. It's here you'll find Fiskardo
and the yachting fraternity.
The summer
was so hot that we'd stop every half hour for a dip at the
side of the road. With our pocket guide we entered Sami for
one of these sunbreaks and decided to wander the town and
pick up a cold drink before checking out the town's nearest
beach.
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| Cephallonia
- Hollywood style |
Sami
is very small. Walking down the promenade we took a left
down a side alley.
There
was a dozing uniform at the corner and he started waving to
us as we walked up the street. I was hot and needed that drink
so I waved back and continued on my search. The town seemed
very quiet.
The buildings
also looked very old. On looking up I noticed a blond man
on top of a building. On scanning the skyline I saw several
more blond men. Bit strange, it felt like a warm Scandinavia.
Then the
buildings started tumbling down around us so we made a quick
exit. Now it might have been the heat, although I'm not known
to be one of the quickest, but it wasn't until another security
guard on the entrance to the beach told us that it was closed
for the next few days due to filming that I realised what
all those big banners with Nicolas Cage's face were all about.
Our brief
brush with stardom, well the set of stardom, was over and
we carried on our holiday of fish suppers and ice cool frappes.
Just like
the film, the island was slow but very warm and beautiful.
However, I don't think I'll go back until things have
quietened down.
Read
our review of Captain Corelli's Mandolin
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