Island idyll

Mykonos

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Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

Lying northward of the sacred island of Delos, Mykonos is as profane as it gets. Largely barren, it used to be a brothel during ancient times, or so Herodotus tells us, and it continues its erotic, carnal ways as the mecca of gay and lesbian love. Sir Elton and Lady John were just here, received like royalty by the gay community, which is comprised mostly of foreigners. The locals are very liberal in their acceptance of ‘foreign customs’, as they call them, ‘as long as nobody comes near my children’.

The place was known only to a few of us back in the late-Fifties for its whitewashed picturesque houses, 365 churches and its windmills. Then Cole Porter visited on a private boat, word got out about the clearest water in the whole wide Med, and then came the end: Jackie Kennedy arrived while her hubby was in the White House and went shopping.