Perleas Mansion

Perleas Mansion Review

With its start back as an estate constructed by rich Genoese merchants in the 16th century, this house is a tough cousin to a "mansion," but today it is a striking blend of rough hewn stone, dramatic steel beams, and lovely medieval touches—including a Gothic-style stone water cistern—all surrounded by lovely gardens fragrant with orange blossom. Owners Vangelis and Claire Xydas have painstakingly restored the main house, from 1640, and two smaller buildings, which house guest rooms, all of which look out to the orchards and are filled with antique furnishings and the fragrance of jasmine. Common rooms have books and board games, and there are wonderful spots for walking, reading, and relaxing, especially in the gardens, where more than a thousand trees, mostly citrus, shade guests, who soon feel like aristocrats from a lost era.