Get travel inspo in your inbox every week from storytellers Marilee and Paul. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, and meaningful travel experiences in the USA, Europe, and beyond – currently, GREECE. 100% original content by Paul, the photographer, and Marilee, the writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
✨A change in season
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What’s the view outside your window today? The view outside our window is entirely unexpected this early in November. Just the other day, a glorious autumn was underway: Blue skies and golden sun. Green lawns. Crimson and amber leaves. But today, a snow plow rumbling down the street serves as the soundtrack to the winter scene. Looking out the window as I write, suddenly Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 comes to mind:
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, / Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”
The contrast seems even more stark for Paul and myself, immersed as we’ve been in the mythical legends and true stories of Corfu. Today, we published a brand-new article on the Achilleon Palace, the Greek island estate of Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Sisi created the elegant Achilleion on a picturesque yet private hilltop property she’d purchased in 1888. She desired a peaceful escape from “prying eyes,” and a tranquil respite to heal from a heart-breaking tragedy: The sudden loss of her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889. Sisi had a marble jetty built on her coastal property, in order to arrive and depart in complete privacy aboard the imperial yacht, Miramar. Not only the jetty but the entire estate, furnishings and artwork were designed or purchased solely to fulfill her creative vision and cultural inspiration. Alas, when Sisi set sail on the Miramar from Corfu in 1896, she never again returned to her “secluded paradise.” The Empress traveled continuously for the next two years until that fateful day in Switzerland, September 10, 1898. And wherever she wandered, she carried the memory of the people and places she most loved.
“This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong / To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
Until next time, Reader, Travel on, sparkle on, meaningfully✨ Marilee + Paul Kostadimas PS: If you’d like to learn more about Empress Sisi’s Greek villa, click HERE to read our new article, “The Achilleion Palace”. PPS: Do you know friends or family who’d like a little inspo in their box? Please forward this email. They can subscribe by clicking the button below:
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Slow travel with the Hidden Gemologists
Get travel inspo in your inbox every week from storytellers Marilee and Paul. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, and meaningful travel experiences in the USA, Europe, and beyond – currently, GREECE. 100% original content by Paul, the photographer, and Marilee, the writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
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Rathausplatz Christkindlmarkt - Vienna, Austria Across the continent from Empress Sisi’s estate in Greece, to her imperial palaces in Austria, the festive season is officially underway in Europe. Traditional Christmas Markets are open daily in the capital, Vienna. Elegant Christmas lights sparkle in every district. Ethereal classical music and carols resound in every neighborhood. (we can’t help but wonder if Empress Sisi found the formal court ceremonies and opulent palace extravagances more...