Meet the real Donna
Charlotte Metcalf finds a friend on the Mamma Mia! island
To the north of the island of Skopelos is a huge rock topped by a tiny monastery. Below it lies a bay of sparkling, turquoise sea. It used to be a beautiful, quiet place to swim. Then Mamma Mia! hit the screens. The monastery was the site of the movie’s big wedding finale so now the bay heaves with boats and the rock swarms with pilgrims climbing to gawp at the ‘Mamma Mia Church’. All rooms in Skopelos are now booked up two years ahead.
Mamma Mia! was shot partly in Pelion, Greece’s ‘heel’, and on the islands of Skopelos and Skiathos in the northern Sporades. My husband has been holidaying in Skiathos since 1962 when his parents built a house there. Now we have our own house, so I was curious to see how the film portrayed the island.
I hardly recognised the paradise of deserted golden beaches, unspoilt forests and charming villages inhabited by donkeys and smiling people. Donna, the character played by Meryl Streep, owns a guesthouse. She may be struggling financially but her lifestyle is enviable. All her guests are good-looking and fabulously, expensively dressed. In her world there are no tourists, sun-reddened and beer-bloated, who spill off the ferries and charter flights (on Fridays alone, 24 planes land on Skiathos, 15 from Britain). There are no concrete hotels, building sites, overflowing dustbins, ugly supermarkets, ‘poolside bars’ or crowded tavernas selling egg and chips alongside the tired souvlaki and moussaka. Neither are there endless tatty shops flogging flip-flops, lilos, tawdry trinkets and suntan lotion. It never rains.
More articles from: Charlotte Metcalf | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
Spain’s secret kingdoms
Simon CourtauldFew tourists see the buildings, birds and flowers of Leon and Burgos, says Simon Courtauld
Climb every mountain
Jeremy ClarkeJeremy Clarke tries the high life at the Carlton hotel, St Moritz
The mad hatter
Joseph ConnollyJoseph Connolly reveals a life-long obsession with hats
Celebrity is not enough
Christopher HowseAnnie Leibovitz at Work, by Annie Leibovitz, edited from conversations with Sharon DeLano
Diary of a Notting Hill nobody
Tamzin LightwaterTamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week
Only Abba can save the world financial markets
Martin Vander WeyerMartin Vander Weyer says that the collapse in the markets reflects a loss of confidence that is out of proportion to all reason: a trip to Mamma Mia! is the answer to this hysteria
The pity of it
P.J. KavanaghP.J. Kavanagh on the new book by Robert Edric
Super trouper
Deborah RossMamma Mia
PG, Nationwide
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
Free Sky Digital Offer - Order Now
Subscribe to Sky from £16 a month. Get free equipment and free broadband - Join Now. Sky HD - be amongst the first to have it - order now.
Free Sky Digital Offer - Order Now
Subscribe to Sky from £16 a month. Get free equipment and free broadband - Join Now. Sky HD - be...
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
City Breaks. ROME and PARIS
ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit www.romanreference.com and www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.
Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).
Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs! You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Nigel Haywood
September 5th, 2008 11:56am'All rooms on Skopelos are booked up for the next two years' - Where did you get this from? It's absolute nonsense.