One of my biggest pleasures on vacation is the ability to read during the day for hours on end. I try to consume a book every day or two. Fiction, non-fiction, recently published books, older publications. Always paper books – no e-book for me, even though it does mean all of these traveled in my suitcase from DC to Tinos, via Geneva.
I have been back from Tinos for almost two weeks, and its magic is still with me. A few of you have been asking about this island – my happy place. Part of me doesn’t want to share (what I love the most is how remote it is and how there are more churches than people), but sharing is caring. So here goes.
When people ask me what I do for fun, my answer is “read.” I read fiction, I read non-fiction, I read for book club, and I read beyond book club. Most of all, I read during my summer R&R, in Tinos, Greece. I aim for a book every two days.
In June, I count the days. The days until I am eating a Greek salad and drinking a glass of rosé at my favorite café at the Port of Rafina, in Athens, awaiting the ferry that will take me to my happy place, the island of Tinos. There, for two weeks, I will enjoy the sand, the sun, the sea, I will swim and read and eat and think and write and sleep.
Every summer, I have the privilege of going to Greece for two weeks, and spending some R&R time on the island of Tinos, thanks to my maternal grandparents who fell in love with this island and bought a house here decades ago. Time in Tinos is filled with sleep, sun, sand, swims, and reading.…
Continue reading ➞ Tinos reading list: 2017 edition
After a week in Tinos, I feel like a new person. Someone healthier, more rested, calmer, someone with more breathing room. It may be all of the fresh Greek salads, and the swimming in the sea, but I think there is more to it… Tinos is good for my soul. Time spent outside is good…
Continue reading ➞ Tinos… it's good for the soul…
