From the moment you step through its wrought-iron gates, Villa Igiea feels like a world apart. The Art Nouveau façade, designed by the Florio dynasty’s chosen architect Ernesto Basile, rises with stately grace amid terraced gardens scented with jasmine and citrus. Inside, frescoed salons and marble staircases recall Palermo’s golden age, yet the interiors—revitalized by Olga Polizzi—speak a language of contemporary luxury: soft Sicilian tones, custom-made furniture, and curated artworks.

Set against Serifos’s rugged hillsides, with the Aegean stretching endlessly below, Perma is a study in simplicity done well. Geometrical forms emerge from the landscape as if they’ve always belonged there, softened by natural stone, pale wood, and linen textures that echo the island’s raw palette. The architecture feels elemental, designed less to impress than to dissolve into its surroundings, allowing the island’s own wild beauty to take center stage.

Some places on the Greek islands feel destined for discovery, others for return. Nostos, on the wild and unpolished island of Serifos, is both—a retreat whose very name evokes “homecoming,” a return not just to a place, but to a way of being. This is where Cycladic authenticity meets considered design, where the Aegean is more than a view: it is the pulse of daily life.