villa christina

Animals, Holidays and Villa Christina

2009-12-12T21:26:00.000-08:00

When we started building Villa Christina back in the 80’s we found a little black dog tied to a tree on our property. Someone had left her there to die and she became Spirtha, our first “hotel” dog.
She was joined by Sonia the Golden Cocker who became a great friend of whoever was doing a barbeque..and then Little Myrto who someone tried to steal in their suitcase.
Cats arrived by themselves and I’ve now given up trying to control them or even name them. I leave that to the children who are allowed to name one cat while they are staying (if we have new or unnamed ones). This has resulted in Cora, Chilla and lots of Mikes!

We also have an aviary with about 60 Budgerigars, 3 linneolated Parakeets and Ringo the Ring-necked Parrot. A fishpond with goldfish and Max the hedgehog are also members of our extended family but are rarely noticed or complained about.
Over the years the dogs came and went and now we have Rita, Chookie and Pluto plus a moving population of about 10 cats.
If you are an animal lover then you wont have a problem with this menagerie but if you are nervous around dogs, and cats are a nuisance, then Villa Christina is not for you. The dogs will run up barking and swinging their tails wanting to play and the cats will sit outside your door, staring at you and hoping for a free meal.
Pluto my largest dog usually approaches people with a “gift” in his mouth. He is part retriever and this is his way of saying he likes you.
We ask our guests not to feed the animals but with the cats it’s different as many are strays or wild cats who only come here in the summer months looking for a meal BUT we ask you not to feed them on your balconies as the next person who arrives may not be happy to find them waiting to share breakfast.
Many of my dogs were homeless or abandoned and I wish I could help more but it’s impossible.
The Animal Welfare of Zakynthos does a wonderful job with very few funds and there is also a program to take street dogs back to Germany. You can help by putting them on your passport and they fly back with you where an adoption family waits for them.
This costs you nothing and you would be rescuing animals that otherwise are condemned to a life of starvation on the streets.
If you would like to know more about this please go to the animal welfare site belowhttp://www.zawf.gr/index-en.php

Visit the Villa Christina page on Facebook

2009-12-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

There is now a "page" for Villa Christina on Facebook so if you are a member drop in and have a look at my photos and see what the fans have to say.

This is a great way for me to get photo and info out there and I'm uploading pics not only from the apartments but of Keri Lake, our gardens, local wildflowers and of course other areas of interest in Zakynthos.

If you are having trouble finding it you can access it also through my personal page which is open for all to visit.

Christina Riganeli.

Walking Holidays at Villa Christina Keri Lake

2009-12-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Walking holidays In Villa Christina, Keri Lake, Zakynthos.

When Villa Christina first opened for business in 1990 we sat back to see what type of holidaymakers we would attract. There was not much tourism in the area back then and our clients in the first years were mostly Italians who wanted to swim, get a great tan, eat, talk about food, relax and be around other Italians who also wanted the same thing.

That was great as there are no better and more interesting clients than Italians with money to spend. Even if Sconto! was a word we heard a lot. Discount or not we enjoyed every minute of them..made wonderful barbeques, wonderful friends and cried and hugged when they left to go back home.
The problem then was although we filled the place for the Southern European holiday season (15 July until 28th of August) it was pretty quiet all the other months and with all that sunshine going to waste we ventured into the group “tour operator” holiday thing beginning with Germans and a little later, Swiss.
Many of our new Northern European clients came with hiking boots and great expectations of roaming the rugged hills in the area and were disappointed to find very few walking paths and ever fewer maps detailing those that were available.

These last years though, fire roads have been opened to give the firefighters better access to the mountainous areas and tracks have been gradered to give access to remote olive groves and lookouts, so it may be time to consider a walking holiday at Villa Christina.

Keri Lake is a small harbor surrounded on three sides by rugged hills and Keri village is situated 5 kilometers away, built into the sheltered side of very high cliffs with stupendous views and many paths and tracks leading to the lighthouse, Marathia and the village of Agalas.
Zakynthos is famous for it’s wild flowers and we have many types of wild orchid that occur nowhere else in Greece. The hillsides in April and May are a mass of colour and September and October see the first rains which are soon followed by a carpet of Cyclamen, wild Iris and Crocus.
Migrating birds make a stopover here and in my area it’s not unusual to see Hoopoes, Golden Orioles, Kingfishers, as well as many owl types, Turtle Doves and Eaglehawkes.

Thanks to the wonderfully informative book by Gail Schofield “Sunflower Complete Guide: Zakynthos (Zante)” available from Sunflower books or Amazon we now have some excellent walking paths and heaps of information about the local flora and fauna.
It is cheap and easy to get to Zakynthos in April and May also in Sept and October as charter flights at this time are never usually full and operate from most capital cities in Europe. Easyjet is also including Zakynthos in list of destinations this year so we would love to have you visit Villa Christina and the beautiful are of Keri Lake Zakynthos.
Christina.

holidays

2009-09-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

Villa Christina blog has been created to talk about what you would like from your holidays and how your experience has been with us.

I'd like to hear how we can improve things or add services and maybe give advice about how to get the best from your stay on Zakynthos.

Christina.