Lefkara....the one place I would love to buy a home. Known as the Mecca for the making of traditional silk and lace, Lefkara is a paradise of quaint, winding streets, brightly painted houses and balcony gardens. I have more pictures of doors and shutters than lace!
What makes Lefkara's lace stand out from many of the other craft villages of the Mediterranean - including Burano in Venice - is its famous patron Leonardo da Vinci. He was greatly enamored by the lace and its intrinsic, painstaking patterns and commissioned a special altar cloth to be made for the cathedral in Milan.
Today, you can still buy lace with the same design and created in the same way as the one commissioned by the famous artist - just ask for the "da Vinci pattern."
I'm usually very good in avoiding tourist traps (except for a lookout tower in San Francisco) but, alas, Lefkara has many traps to fall into. The majority of the shops in Lefkara sell anything but the authentic lace - most of the tablecloths, doilies and silver jewelry are made in China or India and are not the real deal. Some of the shops (run by sweet little old ladies - don't be fooled) are really sneaky and mix in the handmade lace with china-made lace...making it difficult to decipher what is authentic and what is not.
I was one of the unfortunate visitors to buy a beautiful "handmade" tablecloth made by the sweetest old grandma-looking lady you ever laid eyes on who was sewing at the front of her shop....only to find out later that it was made by a machine in Greece. Luckily, I really like the tablecloth and didn't pay an exorbitant amount of money for it - so it wasn't a complete loss. SO - to avoid being swindled, look for the white tag (shown in the picture above), regulated by law to only be placed on authentic, handmade Lefkara lace. Another tip - if it is inexpensive, its fake.
The shop that sells the best, most authentic lace (including the da Vinci design) is Chris's Shop on a side road behind the restaurants. After stumbling upon this gold mine we found that the owner of the shop is the former Mayor of Lefkara and his wife and her mother make every bit of lace found in the store. They are the sweetest couple and have a wonderful selection. After our visit, Chris offered to show us around town and take us to his favorite neighborhood where he grew up .
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| Cris's wife showing Katelyn a table runner she made - the border design is the same one sought after by Leonardo da Vinci. |
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| A table cloth she spent two years making for her son's wedding. |
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| This is Cris! The former mayor of Lefkara and our own personal tour guide. |
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| This house (connecting to the other half by a catwalk garden, is the home of the former Greek Ambassador to the United States |
The history behind this village is special, not only for the lace, or the brightly colored buildings, or cobblestone streets, but because of its cultural history. Both Greeks and Turks used to live side by side in Lefkara - Cris showed us his family home when growing up and talked about how his neighbor was Turkish. According to Cris - there never was a problem in Lefkara when it came to religion or differences in cultural beliefs - he is firm in his understanding that it is politics, not the inability of the people, who keep these two cultures separate in Cyprus.
I could get lost in this village over and over again and still find something new and exciting. Interestingly enough - most of the homes along these streets are vacant. They are either in disrepair or belong to foreign families who visit them on holidays. Now if only I could get one....
