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With the summer season just starting Villa Gabriella is pleased to welcome our first villa holiday guests this weekend.  With some final work being done over the last couple of weeks the villa is looking fantastic in the early summer sunshine.

Firstly, we’re please to report that our new Olive tree planted last autumn has taken beautifully and is thriving in it’s new location.

 

 

The solar pool heating system has been operating for a couple of weeks now and seems to be adding a useful couple of degrees to the pool compared to last year.  We’ve used seven Athena pods from the helpful people at World of Pools (see below).  This should make the pool much more useable in May/June and September/October.  It’s been installed so that it can be bypassed in July/August to avoid over-heating the water for our villa holiday guests.  Today’s temperature is about 25C.

 

 

 

We’ve also been busy planting in the gardens and extending the watering system to make sure the new plants get plenty of water. There won’t, to be honest, be much benefit this year but over the next year or two we should add a lot more colour to the gardens. Set against the green of the forest we hope the gardens will be a blaze of colour on the hillside for our 2016 villa holiday guests.

 

 

 

 

The poolside pagoda has been recovered in bamboo matting, blending in with the rest of the house much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And our beautiful fish mosaic from Madaba in Jordan has been cut into the terrace at the entrance to the hot tub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve also been working on a video filmed from the air and the still pictures taken at the same time. We’ll be posting those in the next week or two for all our villa holiday guests and friends to see – so keep an eye on this space.

http://www.worldofpools.com/athena-solar-sun-domes-details.htm

It’s a truly beautiful morning here at Villa Gabriella.  We’ve been doing some aerial photography and we hope you like our first attempt.  It’s hard in words, or pictures from the ground, to show the true beauty of the location and solitude that Villa Gabriella Lefkada enjoys.

We think these pictures give you a much better idea.  You can see the villa and pool from above, surrounded by the forest above Nidri.  And you can see the view from behind the villa looking out across the stunning views of the Ionian sea.

Although it’s only a 7 or 8 minute drive from the luxury of Villa Gabriella to the coast, the location allows you to enjoy true peace and quiet.  The forest around the villa means fabulous oxygen rich air too!  And it means you get these beautiful views across the Ionian including the islands of Skorpios and Madhouri with the Greek mainland lost in the gentle heat haze of today’s sunshine.

Most importantly the location gives you the true luxury of absolute solitude – so hard to find in the busy world of the 21st Century.  The peace and quiet that Villa Gabriella’s location gives you is an important part of any holiday.  Whilst most Greek islands offer a “get away from it all” feeling few can match the beauty of Lefkada.  This forested island really is a green jewel that shimmers in the middle of the azure blue of the Ionian sea.  On Lefkada itself very few places can match the stunning beauty of Villa Gabriella’s location.

Thanks for reading this week’s blog and we hope you like the pictures.  In case you’re interested they were taken from our new DJI Phantom drone.  www.dji.com/product/phantom-2-vision-plus

Villa Gabriella Lefkada.  Ionian Luxury. Immerse yourself.

With spring weather in abundance across Lefkada, the Ionian and Greece there are so many great visits just a short drive from the luxury of Villa Gabriella. These include the beautiful Panagia Faneromeni (also called the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary Revealed) on Friniou Hill outside the town of Lefkas.  The monastery is said to be the protector of Lefkada island and the site enjoys spectacular views across Agios Giannis Beach.  The monastery’s antiquity and beauty mark it out as one of the most significant historic and cultural sites on the island and make it well worth a visit during your stay at Villa Gabriella.

The history of the site started in 63 AD when three students of the Apostle Paul (Aquila, Sosiona and Herodion) were sent to Lefkada. Christian history tells that when Herodian knelt and prayed at the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of hunting, the icon of Artemis fell to the ground. This good omen led to the site becoming a shrine to the Virgin Mary. Sosiona founded the monastery and was subsequently ordained as Lefkada’s first Bishop.  269 years later in 332 AD, a bishop and two monks settled at the site and founded the Monastery. They constructed the first cells, extended the shrine to become a church and established monastic life at Faneromeni.

A highlight of any visit is the image of the Virgin Mary. This 1887 creation is a copy created by a monk (Benjamin Kontrki) from the Mount Athos monastery – see link below. Also during your visit you can see some of the works of Leonidas Sideris that feature various images from the New Testament.

Faneromeni monastery was recently renovated including the construction of a library and a chapel dedicated to Silouan the Athonite.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silouan_the_Athonite

A modern building on the site houses the new Ecclesiastical Museum of the Monastery with a wide range of fascinating ecclesiastical art, icons, clothing, books and insights into the cultural development of Lefkada.

Take the time during your stay – it’s a really worthwhile visit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos