GREEK ODYSSEY

On Zakynthos, Helena Lee balances adventure with restorative days savouring the Ionian isle's mythical beauty

My five-year-old daughter is lying in the crook of my arm as we relax on a terrace overlooking the lonian Sea, teased by a light breeze that tempers the heat. It seems apt that I'm reading her the opening of Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of the Greek Heroes, stories of immortals who wander amid the towering heights of great mountains, like those that rise behind us. Mid-sentence, Darcy turns to me and asks: "Is Pan the shepherd still there?", and it really feels as though he might be.

After all, we are on the island of Zakynthos, where the natural landscape-ancient olive groves and saturated skies seems touched by the otherworldly (in The Odyssey, Homer calls it "wooded Zakynthos"). Today, the south coast is lined with late-night bars and tourist traps, but our villa is near the north-east, where the rhythms of the day are shaped by nature, from the birdsong that greets our ears as we wake to the rising moon that shines yellow each night.

Our base is Livadi, an airy five-bedroom villa close to the port of Agios Nikolaos. Cast in a C-shape, the house hugs a wide courtyard on one side, and on the other sees the landscape fall dramatically away, layer by layer, towards the sea, with the sloping path to the kidney-shaped infinity pool fringed by herb gardens bursting with rosemary, thyme, and oregano. The villa was originally designed by Dominic Skinner, an English architect and former associate of Norman Foster, who lives part-time in Corfu. Unusual in layout and scale, the property has two ensuite bedrooms flanking the courtyard and is independent of the main house, making it perfect for teens who want their own space. As our party consists of two families with four children under seven, we find ourselves spending much of our time in the double-height living room, where sunlight beams through the French doors.