Ready to beamazed?

Honeymoon HeaRtlandsNewly-weds always hope their marriage will play out like a fairy-tale. so what

better way to start thaN with a hoNeymooN iN romaNtic europe? aNdy rouNd is

seduced by the goddess of love iN cyprus, has his heart brokeN by romeo aNd Juliet

iN veroNa aNd falls head over heels for the romaNtic legeNds of latvia.

Text by Andy Round / Photographs by Christian Andersson

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cyprus

the goddess of love aphrodite casts a captivatiNg spell

over the islaNd of cyprus seduciNg travellers with a uNique

mediterraNeaN magic.

islaNd of love

On a limestone hilltop overlooking the sea, wedding planner Tatania Pashko is putting the finishing touch-es to an elaborate arch covered with roses while her assistants arrange spotless white chairs into rows. Below, sparkling waves crash against the rock said to be birthplace of the goddess of love Aphrodite.

Pashko has organised more than 400 weddings in Cyprus. There are at least three a week in this loca-tion. ‘Why here? It’s unimaginably romantic and pho-togenic. My clients love it. You can get married in this place and then stay in Cyprus for your honeymoon.’

So legend has it, if you swim around Aphrodite’s Rock three times you will be blessed with great love and great fertility. ‘I didn’t have to do the swimming. I just came to this hilltop,’ smiles Pashko, stroking her stomach. ‘My baby is due in a few days.’

There are dozens of European islands with stunning views, sunny panoramas and magical beaches from Sicily and Sardinia to Malta and Madeira, but only Cyprus can claim to be the island of Aphrodite.

‘Throughout history Aphrodite has inspired art, poetry, music, sculpture and literature,’ says guide Neoptolemos Michael. ‘And for centuries Aphrodite’s Rock has been a place of pilgrimage where people came to worship fertility deities.’

The area of Paphos was once the centre for the cult of Aphrodite. Today a vast area of scattered sacred stones is all that is left of the temple created to worship the goddess, but information boards tell tales of accommodating priestesses, provocatively shaped rock carvings and a lively celebration of the art of fertility dating back to the 12th century BC.

‘There are lots of deserted intimate beaches to enjoy and always stunning sunsets.’

Michael searches for the right words to describe the legacy of the famous goddess. ‘Aphrodite had, well, a complicated love life,’ he laughs. This is an understatement. In the soap opera world of Greek gods, goddesses and mere mortals, Aphrodite had an insatiable romantic appetite. No wonder her aphrodisiac influence is everywhere in Paphos.

On the beach by the goddess’s birthplace, hearts are outlined in pebbles, romantic graffiti scars the rock and contemporary Aphrodites pose provoca-tively for photographs in tiny bikinis and giant sun-shades. Nearby, couples saunter arm-in-arm around the five-star Aphrodite Hills resort, a contemporary temple of love that seduces the devoted with pri-vate Jacuzzis, plunge pools and giant suites.

Beyond Aphrodite, Cyprus enjoys plenty of other romantic reasons to claim the title of the island of love, says Nasos Hadjigeorgiou of Paphos Regional Board of Tourism. ‘We are famous for our pictur-esque villages and dramatic coastline. There are lots of deserted intimate beaches to enjoy and always stunning sunsets.

‘In Paphos the pace of life is very relaxed and that’s what people love. It’s very romantic to walk by the harbour and enjoy a drink before having dinner at an intimate fish restaurant. I used to do these things myself with my girlfriend. I still do now she’s my wife.’

Paphos certainly has a relaxed holiday feel. Along the promenade are bright souvenir shops, sea-view restaurants and bars as well as an atmospheric 16th century castle guarding sleek superyachts and bob-bing fishing boats in the harbour.

Every September the fort is the venue for the Aphrodite opera festival and exciting performances are already being planned in anticipation of Paphos’ status as European Capital of Culture in 2017, a title it will share with Aarhus in Denmark.

tree of love

on apostolos pavlos avenue, overlooking the

gloomy shadows of st solomon’s catacombs is an

ancient tree festooned with thousands of hand-

kerchiefs. in cyprus it is a tradition to tie a cloth

to a tree in memory of loved ones.

Paphos has always been internationally popular. In the past Phoenicians, Egyptians, Persians, Turks and sunburned European tourists all stopped off for extended visits, but it is the legacy of the Romans that lingers on most spectacularly.

At the vast moonscape of Paphos’ Tomb of the Kings, giant catacombs are carved from the lime-stone rock, the final monumental resting places of generations of Romans.

At the House of Dionysius, believed to be the home of the former Roman governor, amazingly

pristine mosaics from the 2nd century AD tell tales of transformation, jealousy and love.

The stories are endless. In one there is Narcissus falling in love with his reflection, in another Phaedra being burned by Eros. Then there is poor irresist-ible Ganymede being whisked away by Zeus, Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe who died for love and inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and a constant pro-cession of ever-ready hairy-legged satyr seducers.

‘This is the dining lounge area,’ says Neoptolemos Michael gesturing across acres of bright mosaics.

At the House of Dionysius, believed to be the home of the former Roman governor, amazingly pristine mosaics from the 2nd century AD tell tales of transformation, jealousy and love.

truly, madly, deeply

‘a wonderful thing for couples to do is to experi-

ence scuba diving,’ says photos socratous of cydive.

‘discovering a new world together for the first

time is incredibly romantic. in cyprus, the visibility

is clear, the water is warm and there are under-

water sites that date back to roman times.’

power of love

aphrodite is the irresistibly beautiful greek

goddess of love and fertility. after emerging

as a desirable woman from the sea off cyprus

(the product of godly genitals tossed in the waves),

she was married off to ugly hephaestus by Zeus and

immediately set about being unfaithful. No god or

mortal was safe from her sexual appetite. Just for

starters, she was the lover of adonis (as well as

being his surrogate mother) and ares, god of war.

her capricious nature contributed to starting the

trojan war (she inflamed paris’ desire for helen

and he kidnapped her) and she put snakes in the

hair of medusa because she was jealous of her

beauty. complicated, scheming, deadly, beautiful

and passionate, aphrodite is irresistible.

cyprus UsefUl website www.visitpafos.org.cy

In the Almyra Hotel, infinity pools, private nine-course dinners on sun-kissed rooftops and a cutting-edge spa offer every 21st century indulgence.

‘Banquets would be served here to entertain high ranking guests and afterwards everything would be cleared away so the orgies could start.’

Contemporary lovers in Cyprus tend to prefer slightly more exclusive arrangements. In the Almyra Hotel, infinity pools, private nine-course dinners on sun-kissed rooftops and a cutting-edge spa offer every 21st century indulgence.

‘People like to get married here because they can spend a week with their guests and then disappear into their own private world for a honeymoon,’ says the hotel’s wedding organiser Sally Boyce.

It is certainly romantic. On the hotel’s manicured lawn that evening a Lebanese couple celebrate a warm honeymoon night with a private dinner. Next door at the Annabelle Hotel a wedding party is enjoying a show of traditional Cypriot music and dance. There is a lot of cheering.

The next day in the hotel lobby the goddess of love makes an unexpected appearance. ‘Enjoy your day,’ says the receptionist with the most romantic nam-etag on the island. Of course, it reads Aphrodite.

the eNchaNted italiaN home of shakespeare’s romeo aNd Juliet

has beeN captivatiNg travellers for ceNturies.

lose your heart in veRona

In the digital age love moves at hyper-speed. Stu-dents Daniella Katz and Jade Bruni may have only just arrived at the Italian home where Shakespeare’s Romeo sought out his Juliet but they have already uploaded romantic pictures to their boyfriends in South Africa.

With smartphones they photograph each other writing declarations of love on graffiti-loaded walls and attaching padlocks festooned with hearts to nearby railings. They then press ‘send’.

‘I have two keys,’ says Daniella after securing her lock. ‘One is for my boyfriend the other is for me. I’m locking up our love.’

‘Doesn’t everyone read Romeo and Juliet at school?’ laughs Jade. ‘We had to come here, it’s the most romantic place in the world.’

‘Here’ is the 13th century house, said to have been the home of Giulietta Cappelletti, a name later angli-cised to become the most famous romantic heroine in history, Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet.

Two metres above the courtyard, Kate Backhouse and Bas Heerma van Voss laugh as they pose for pic-tures on the most famous balcony in literary history.

‘I think the appeal of Romeo and Juliet is that they made the ultimate sacrifice for an impossible love,’ says Kate. When she kisses her boyfriend, the tour-ists below cheer.

Verona does this to people.

‘The city makes you fall in love with love,’ says guide Franklin Baumgarten.

No kidding. Daniele Angelini organises about 600 weddings in Verona every year for the city hall or-ganisation Sposami a Verona (‘Marry me in Verona’). ‘Couples come as far away as Peru and South Africa,’ he says. ‘You have to reserve months in advance be-cause venues like Juliet’s house are extremely popular.

‘Our most unusual request? A couple got married in the crypt of Juliet’s tomb. They wore gothic clothes. And so did their guests.’

The tomb is a gloomy place for a wedding. Featur-ing a chunky broken sarcophagus in the vaults of the church of San Francesco, this is where, according to local legend, Romeo and Juliet committed suicide.

Upstairs in the Museum of Frescoes, the mood is infinitely lighter and the smiles of volunteers work-ing at the Juliet Club are brighter than sunshine.

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shakespeare’stragic lovers

their families may be sworn enemies, but romeo montague

and Juliet capulet are in love and they secretly marry.

unfortunately, romeo becomes embroiled in a revenge killing

and is exiled from verona. while he is gone Juliet attempts

to avoid an arranged marriage by taking a potion that puts

her into a comatose state. when romeo returns and finds his

lover apparently dead, he kills himself next to her body. Juliet

awakes and, grief-stricken, stabs herself to death.

The club started in 1989 in response to the huge volume of heartbroken letters from all over the world addressed simply to ‘Juliet, Verona’.

‘Today we receive around 100 000 every year and we have a team of 20 volunteers who reply to eve-ry letter that has a return address,’ says the club’s secretary Giovanna Tamassia.

She shifts through a pile of hand-written mate-rial featuring diaries, wedding invitations, cartoons, items of jewellery and endless stories of unrequited love. ‘For these people Juliet is a muse. I think just the act of writing is a therapy in itself.’

There are plenty of romantic cities in Europe from Paris to Prague, but combined with Shakespeare’s famous romance, Verona offers all the magic of Italy distilled into one irresistible romantic package of glo-rious chapels, al fresco restaurants, baroque palazzos, cobbled streets, soaring pine trees, romantic bridges, medieval towers and staggeringly beautiful churches.

‘Our most unusual request? A couple got married in the crypt of Juliet’s tomb. They wore gothic clothes. And so did their guests.’

italy UsefUl website www.tourism.verona.it

wheart aNd soul

over four days every february, including valen-

tine’s day, the city stages ‘verona in love’ a festi-

val of romantic films, plays, music, heart-shaped

markets, romantic restaurant menus and hun-

dreds of events. when it started in 2008 there

were around 10 000 visitors, today the festival

attracts 50 000. ‘every year we stage a mass syn-

chronised kiss when thousands of people young

and old gather together in a romantic verona

location to kiss one another for one minute,’ says

festival director loris danielli.

super spa

verona’s spring waters have attracted visitors

for centuries, but today contemporary spa lovers

find their way to aquardens, a giant thermal

water centre 20 minutes from verona. attracting

300 000 visitors during its first year in 2012,

aquardens is open until midnight and features

outdoor and indoor pools, lagoons, waterfalls

and whirlpools as well as a dedicated centre for

massages and spa treatments.

‘We see a lot of romance here because we only of-fer communal seating,’ says chef Alessandro Vignola, over a serving of traditional Veronese horse stew, pastissada de caval. ‘Strangers sit together, chat and before you know it, there’s a spark. We have seen a few romances start here and end in marriage.’

Romance is at the heart of Verona, but the city’s soul is its 2 000-year-old Roman arena and the 58-per-formance Opera Festival held here every summer. Incredibly, on up to three consecutive nights, there can be three different performances.

‘The festival started in 1913, attracts up 15 000 peo-ple a night and is the biggest outdoor opera in the world,’ says the festival’s art director Paolo Gavazzeni, strolling the vast ancient stage.

‘The acoustics are so perfect there are no micro-phones. But it is not just about music. Beneath a dra-matic magical sky at night, you really feel connected to the power of nature.’

But it is the power of love that brings people back to Verona.

Outside the arena, watching the delivery of giant props for Verdi’s Aida, is Monica Viviani from Verona’s tourism organisation:

‘Do you remember the 1990s film version of Romeo and Juliet? Well, the actor who played Romeo, Leo-nardo DiCaprio, is said to own that beautiful house across the square. It’s wonderful to think that mod-ern day Romeos are still falling in love with Verona.’

At the city’s popular Caffé Dante in the medieval Piazza dei Signori, Pierangelo Tommasi sets an atmos-pheric scene. ‘This restaurant is very popular, but it really comes to life at night. Imagine candlelight glow-ing, a couple in love, delicious plates of gnocchi with fresh truffle and, of course, a bottle of full-bodied red wine Amarone from the nearby Valopolicella area. You can’t say no to that.’

It’s also impossible to say no to the rustic charms of nearby Osteria al Duca, one of the city’s oldest tav-erns based in a creaky 13th century crenelated castle. Legend has it that this was the home of the Montecchi or Montague family and the birthplace of Romeo.

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latvia

some of the most romaNtic forests aNd beaches iN europe are Just

a short drive from the latviaN capital of riga. the legeNds of this

eNchaNted laNd will capture your heart.

latvia foR loveRs

Suspended 43 metres over the lush forest of Latvia’s Gauja Valley is the only cable car in Latvia. It is an unlikely symbol of romance. ‘In the 1960s, a local man Aivars Janelsītis fell in love with a girl who worked in the sanatorium the other side of the valley from him,’ says guide Dana Spulle. ‘So he decided the only way he could spend time with her regularly was by having a cable car link.’

Janelsītis researched his subject carefully, lobbied for local financial support and even managed to secure technical expertise from engineers in Georgia.

Long story short, the cable car opened in 1969. Janelsītis married his true love and tourists have been enjoying stunning valley views ever since. ‘Sweet story don’t you think?’ smiles Spulle. ‘The couple still live around here.’

Spulle’s story may be sweet, but no story melts Lat-vian hearts quite like the tale of the Rose of Turaida.

Just minutes from Gauja Valley, in the shadow of the 800-year-old gothic towers of Turaida castle, newly-weds regularly pay homage to the tomb of Latvia’s tragic lover. ‘On some occasions we have up to 20 wedding couples in a day,’ says museum guide Gunta Zaķīte. ‘Everyone in Latvia grows up with this legend.’

And this is how it goes. A baby girl, Maija, was res-cued from the carnage of a 17th century battle and raised to become the great beauty known as the Rose of Turaida. Rose, appropriately, fell for the local gardener, Victor, and they would spend nights culti-vating their love in nearby Gūtmanis cave.

wooded bliss

with 54 per cent of latvia covered in lush

forest, 633 protected areas and four distinctive

seasons, nature is close to every latvian’s heart

and a stroll in the woods is an essential romantic

activity. among the ancient pines of Jūrmala at

raga kāpa Nature park, there is an attractive

open-air rustic museum.

About this time, Adam, a more predatory suitor also appeared on the scene and when Maija rejected his advances, he tricked her into a meeting in the cave. ‘Rather than be unfaithful, she told him her neck scarf would protect her from harm,’ says Zaķīte. ‘She told Adam to test its magic with his sword. He wounded her and she died. Tragic.’

Just a broken heart away from Turaida is the famous cave.

Guide Dana Spulle points out the romantic graffiti dating back to the 17th century. ‘Wealthy people would come here and commission personalised messages from artisans who would climb ladders looking for untouched stone to carve,’ she says.

For a small country, Latvia is big on love.

‘The nature is unspoiled, the culture is unique and Latvia offers good value for money for honeymoon-ers,’ says wedding organiser Agate Lūse. ‘Romance resonates in every mansion, forest and castle.’

Indeed. Ancient stones and romance go togeth-er like love and marriage in Latvia. For instance, the 900-year-old Livonian Order Sigulda Castle of-fers the romantically-minded the chance to boost their love life in a medieval style by throwing spears (to test a groom’s manhood) or through a com-petitive 13th century coin game (to decide who will run the household budget).

At Cēsis Castle, guide Liene Pelēkzirne reveals how marriage ceremonies are regularly held in one of the ancient ruined towers officiated by dignitaries costumed in medieval wedding wear. The ‘newer’ 18th century castle section with its soaring round tower is perfect for smaller intimate romantic cel-ebrations, she says.

‘We have anniversary, marriage and engagement events here,’ says Pelēkzirne. ‘But I think my favour-ite story is of a young man who held a candle-lit dinner for his girlfriend before proposing under the stars in the medieval tower. She said ‘yes’.’

latvia UsefUl website www.latvia.travel

graNd desigNs

the spectacular mālpils manor just 45km from the latvian capital of riga is a luxurious stately

home with a history that dates back to 1760. ‘the manor was in a terrible state when i saw

it in 2006,’ says owner līga uzkalne. ‘but i fell in love with it. so we restored it to its former

glory and transformed it into a romantic wedding venue.’ renovation work took two years,

but the stately home now offers a 125sqm ballroom and suites for 100 guests.

If that couple were looking for somewhere to escape for a romantic weekend, they would find it hard to beat the endless white sands and imposing villas of Jūrmala, a European Destination of Excellence that is just a couple of hours from the wooden houses of Cēsis.

At the local museum, a unique collection of swim-suits charts the area’s history as a chic Baltic seaside resort, from the full-body bathers of the 1800s to the tiny bikinis that followed a century later.

‘Spas have been popular here since my great-grandfather’s time, the beaches are exceptionally clean and the pine forests are a natural inspiration,’ says guide Anda Račiņa. ‘Jūrmala has always been famous as a romantic escape for couples.’

Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of hideaway options in Jūrmala from the Baltic Beach Hotel offering 400 different spa treatments and indulgent five-star suites to the quirky MaMa boutique hotel with its gold-upholstered dog-motif restaurant and eccen-trically stylish attic rooms.

At the beach restaurant of ‘36 Line’, Latvian celeb-rity chef Lauris Aleksejevs serves up dishes of grilled salmon, lamb and goat stew as the sun sinks into the warm Baltic. On the sands there is a tented wed-ding reception.

Linda Penka from Latvia’s Tourism Agency pauses over her sorbet. ‘I need to bring my boyfriend here,’ she smiles, looking at couples strolling the beach. ‘How did we meet? He gave me a lift and I prom-ised to meet him later to pay for the petrol. That was 22 years ago, he’s still waiting for that money.’

‘Jūrmala has always been famous as a romantic escape for couples.’

useful websites

cyprus

www.visitpafos.org.cy

italy

www.tourism.verona.it

latvia

www.latvia.travel

© Pictures: European Commission

www.readyforeurope.eu

www.visiteurope.com

european destinations of excellencehttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/eden/