Kalathas Beach - Crete, Greece

Arriving to Crete for the very first time...

Arriving to Crete for the very first time, I had this rare privilege life gives us when we step out of what is familiar and into a completely foreign place. Out of what seems ordinary in life and immersing into the extraordinary. Whenever I travel, I love the feeling of seeing something for the very first time, having fresh eyes and ears and new things to taste — how every sense feels like it has just been awakened. Needless to say, I fell hard for this mountainside retreat overlooking the Mediterranean Sea the very first moment I stepped foot (or climbed up several hundred feet) to where this property sat. The word “legacy” just kept coming up for me, from looking at the hillside and asking the builder, “is this a fossil?” Leonardis, the founder of Batakis Construction, who was the builder for this expansive 2 year long project, took his time to carve out of the stone wall a fossil that resembled a crustacean. He placed it delicately in my hand and told me that this little creature predated Christ. Another humbling moment where I am moved to tears at how this ground we stood upon carried the legacy of first settlers. In Chania, just about a 15 minute drive on moped up a very windy road (without a helmet, but with a lot of prayers and a death grip around the driver, Nikos Bataki, who kindly offered to drive me back to the hotel) — walking the streets and seeing the waterfront, you can see how very old some of the original buildings are, yet their remnants remain. Whether its an opening without a window or these incredible archways you can walk through made of stone by hand. This was considered the first European civilization to have left a significant mark through art, the original architecture and how trade has influenced all parts of the Mediterranean.

Not only was the land these villas sat on filled with legacy, but the team of men who were constructing the villas themselves had a family legacy of building. I love it when families can work together and Batakis Construction was every bit of a blending of each individual’s gifts with Leonardis as the Company’s founder and his two sons, Nikos and Demitris both working as Builder/GC and Architect. It was nothing short of awe inspiring to watch how they were able to construct some of the most elevated and beautiful buildings and green spaces from where once a mountainside existed. I later met the women of this talented family at dinner, in Chania, as it is customary for the builder to take clients and their friends/families out to a family style dinner, We dined together several times during my two visits to work on this project, and I have to say, above all the experiences shared, getting to experience family-style dinners, a tradition I wish we could uphold in America, was one of my favorite parts. It was so nice to listen to their stories and share our own and have our two, very different cultures collide in such a way that we would leave that week as friends.