Our beautiful home offers great panoramic views over the whole area with olive trees and the mountains in the background. It is located at the edge of Mavrikiano, a small settlement built on the top of a hill, over the Mirabello bay and the seaside village of Elounda. Even though this area lies, practically at the edge of Elounda, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, Mavrikiano village, manages to keep its character of a typical Cretan village and thus you, our visitor, can wonderfully combine, the simplicity of village life with the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Elounda. The beach lies just 8min walk away.
''Penelope'' used to be part of an old Church demolished by the Turks at the end of the 15th century. It has been rebuilt using only stone and wood. Reverence and respect of the old structure has been exercised with the help of the local people and their stories.
Going up the stairs you'll come into the front terrace. Here lies the kitchen of the house together with the dinning table for 6 people. Here you can dine while admiring the olive groves in the day, or the stars in the night. Up two steps is the main entrance, which brings you to a sitting area with two single beds and a fireplace. To your right is the bathroom with jacuzzi. At the room's other end you can either go up the wooden stairs to the Oddas (attic/loft) with a double bed, or open the door on your right to the master bedroom with a double bed and an arched patio door onto the balcony.
All rooms are laid out just as they were originally built in the old days for a Cretan family, meaning that you must walk through one space in order to reach the next. The rooms are separated with doors, unlikely most of the traditional houses in the past.
Kitchen utensils are copies of originals and the plates are of a type still in use in most villages of Crete.
All the furniture are copies of originals found in the Historical Museum of Heraklion, Crete, but the lamps and fittings are original. The tiles used for the house reconstruction are hand made, dated c 1920, and were taken from old demolished houses in the area. The marble sink was found in a Turkish Hammam. The taps are copies of those of the 1920's. The reddish plaster on the walls is made of ground tiles, the same material that was used in the monasteries of the period 14th - 16th century.
The pool and summerkitchen with the oven and BBQ are shared with the house Dimitra, at the ground floor, if it is occupied during your stay.