MILWAUKEE-NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST THIRTEEN

HOW TO SLEEP IN FIRA, SANTORINI

We have an unexplainable amount of good fortune when it comes to our traveling. We're not Catholic but it seems for some reason Saint Christopher has taken us under his wing especially as it affects our hotel stays.

It happened in Mykonos when the Elysium upgraded our room to a two-bedroom two-bath suite  from what was supposed to have been a single room with a queen bed and a cot.  Emmy was saved from having to endure my snoring and she had her own room with a door she could close and a bathroom of her own.  There wasn't any particular reason why they did this or at least not one we could identify. Then they extended our stay in the same suite once our boat to Santorini had been canceled. No boats were traveling in the Aegean with those hurricane force winds and we were more than happy to spend another day at the Elysium.

It happened again in Santorini. Because of the lost day, the hotel staff offered us an upgrade to a suite complete with a private pool and Jacuzzi when our original reservation only called for a room with two single beds and a pullout sleeper.

We hadn't asked for it. They said it was a gift for the inconvenience of the weather. I don't know if they offered this to any other stranded guests but we did feel singled out. It felt a little like winning the lottery.

We were left wondering about our good fortune but totally exhilarated by our room with a private pool, Jacuzzi and a loft bedroom for Emmy. Saint Christopher: an explanation please.

Our hotel outside Fira, the major city on Santorini,  with all these amenities was gorgeous.

With a view of the sea and the tasteful white on white palette adding a hint of bluish grey the Astro Palace was worth every minute we stayed there.
It was virtually the last stop on our vacation although we still had a night in Rome and another in London. We felt we had shopped, museumed and toured about all we could take. We wanted our stay here to be as relaxing as possible.

This meant getting up late but in time to make the last of the hotel's breakfast array.

Every morning they laid out a feast with islands of jams and fruits, an entire aisle of hot breakfast fare, a Greek yogurt station and a cappuccino machine my daughter had to teach me how to operate. Turns out you put your cup underneath the spout and hit the cappuccino button. I have an age related deficiency with any sort of machinery.

If you could squeeze more tempting fare onto your breakfast plate there was also a fantastic sweet station with pistachio cake and chocolate truffles. With all they offered I could easily survive on this gourmet morning spread until dinner.

After we'd stuffed ourselves at breakfast and showered by then it was one in the afternoon.  Our routine became to go to the pool and sit, lounge, sun or swim at our choice of our own personal pool

or the larger pool adjacent to the bar where a waiter was always at hand ready to serve you an Aperol spritz or a ginger beer.

There was always the ability to add a snack to our drink order when we found we were too travel weary to get off our poolside bed. We were simply just too comfortable right where we were.

Our snack habit had us addicted to their Santorini fava bean mash with capers, red onion and cherry tomatoes served with a plate of warm pita bread triangles.

When we tired of our private pool lounge chairs we'd head to the outdoor beds where we could lounge around and have a free mini-massage by one of the hotel's staff masseurs

The minis lead to the maxis. The hotel offered a series of massages and facials at their spa for a twenty percent discount for guests. Each of us took up the offer and Emmy went twice. Fair skinned that she is she fell asleep at our private pool on our second day and burnt her face and chest to the point she needed two treatments to take down the burn.

We as a family begrudgingly did make it into the town proper on a couple of occasions taking in some of the sites

I did make one solo journey into town specifically to see the hotel we had stayed at on our only other time in Santorini decades ago. This was a time when the only way in to Santorini was by boat and donkeys were still a major form of transportation.

The Hotel Atlantis sits very near the highest point in Fira dominating the view as the largest nonreligious structure in a vista of the city. I don't remember what we paid to stay there way back when but now the hotel was far out of our price range.

The redecoration of the hotel is a trip back in time when travel meant white suits for men and diaphanous dresses with heels for ladies.

It was a time when partaking high tea was on every guest's calendar.

And an afternoon could easily be spent reading a book under the spinning fans in the lobby. The whole hotel harkens back to an era when guests booked their stays in terms of weeks rather than days and life truly did seem less rushed and way more relaxing. As much as I loved our hotel the memory of what this island was back on our first visit reminded me of a lost time.  It's tough to recapture romance.