Nude locations in Greece with C. Michelle Lindley

Nude locations in Greece with  C. Michelle Lindley

A Greek island today. Oh imagine spending time here in real life! Summer holidays are here! However, today’s visit is rather more arty than that. We’re with an art historian on a quest to get a rare statue…

All photos are by the author:

Locations in The Nude

My debut novel—The Nude—takes place on a Greek island. The story revolves around an art historian and her quest to acquire a rare, female statue. Early in the process of drafting, I knew I wouldn’t be naming the exact location in which most of the action takes place. I wanted the creative latitude, the ability to shape the details in order to paint the novel with hues of a certain mood. But if I had to pick an island that most resembles that mood, it would be Naxos.

C. Michelle Lindley

Locations in The Nude

Arriving at Naxos, in the center of the Cyclades islands, on a windy day in January, I was swept away by the vast waters, the cobblestone roads, the smell of salt. Naxos is a popular island, one of the most fruitful of the Cyclades, with blue waters and powdery sand. but it is a place, too, where the tourists are less felt. Perhaps the bounty of sites, the monuments and ruins give Naxos that feeling of untouchedness. Take the Temple of Apollo. In the 6th century BC, Lygdamis sought to create a grand, one-of-a-kind temple, but its construction was interrupted by a war between Naxos and Samos. Now, all that’s left is the Portara, also known as the Great Door. Standing before it, with the wind coming in from the sea, feels nothing short of Orphic.

Locations in The Nude

Elsewhere on Naxos, you can find the prototypical cobblestone roads, the white buildings, and small shops. Narrow, labyrinthine lanes (through which, I got constantly lost). The smell of roadside bakeries. Fruit and vegetable stands, brimming with color. And potatoes. Rich, buttery potatoes—served best, steaming hot and drowned in olive oil. As the agricultural capital of the Cyclades islands, Herodotus impressed Naxos as the most fortunate of all the islands. I think it has something to do with the potatoes.

Locations in The Nude

It was important that I try to find some small museum while in Naxos and happened upon The Archeological Museum of Naxos, which served as vital inspiration for the book. A brochure featuring one of these Spedos figurines even made it into the novel. (There was something about the figurines that stayed with me. Perhaps it is their lack of eyes, the withdrawnness of their wrapped arms).

Locations in The Nude

On the recommendation of a local, I rented a car and drove up the mountains of Naxos, an exhilarating and quick way to get a sense of the terrain—the olive groves, and shady plane trees, the ancient stone walls, byzantine churches and grazing goats.

Locations in The Nude

In the mountain town of Apiranthos I bought honey and tea at a local shop—the honey made somewhere close by. (A honey farm does exist in the world of The Nude, but I wasn’t able to find such a place.) The village of Apiranthos rests on the incline of the lush Mount Fanari, located 600 meters from sea level, transporting you almost fully away from the scene of Naxos’s golden beaches. Since the 1700s, after a war with the Turks, Cretans fled to Apiranthos, and to this day, retain their own dialect, their own ecosystem separate from the rest of the island. (Apparently, Zeus’ childhood cave is located somewhere close by, but I didn’t get the chance to seek it.)

Locations in The Nude

I did visit some of the more tourist-heavy islands, such as Santorini, but In January, my perusal of them was a whole different experience. Many shops were closed, and the island was quiet, populated with more cats than people. Most of them, pleasantly suspicious.

Locations in The Nude

Back in Athens, an important scene in The Nude takes place at the Acropolis. Because the Acropolis is such a well traversed location, I wanted to defamiliarize it, to disarm the reader of its knowability, and capture the vertiginous feeling of being up so high, overlooking the city in all its grandeur. Some construction was going on during this time, the blending of the new and old, which made me question what it means, to try and hold the past in the present, or perhaps, the present in the past. I thought about that question often, as I drafted the scene. It’s one that continued to haunt the entire novel. In some ways, it is the question at the very heart of it.

Locations in The Nude

Lastly, a special shout out to the view from the Hotel Grande Bretagne. There’s a restaurant on the top floor that gives one of the most incredible views in Athens—and an equally excellent Greek salad. I’ve been thinking about their bread—perfectly crusty on the outside, gooey-soft in the middle—ever since.

C. Michelle Lindley is the author of The Nude published by VERVE Books.

BookTrail Boarding Pass: One Girl, One Summer