How to spend a long weekend on Cyprus

At breakfast time we were contemplating the catering options at Gatwick. The 1,406 calorie fry-up at Wetherspoonswas £12.99, pint of lager optional – with only a half-hour wait for a table. 

By lunch we were looking down at the birthplace of Aphrodite, eating grilled sea bream and sipping a chilled Xynisteri white. Petra tou Romiou is located both in myth, as the birthplace of the Greek goddess of love, and also in reality, just off the dual carriageway that links Paphos and Limassol in the southwestern corner of Cyprus. Her birthplace isn’t quite the dainty scallop shell depicted by Botticelli, though – it looks more like Durdle Door might if it were located in the azure waters of the eastern Mediterranean rather than the grey English Channel. 

I’ve lived among the Cypriot diaspora in north London for more than 20 years ­– Southgate reputedly has more residents of Cypriot heritage than anywhere else in the world outside the island.