Isabella Zampetaki

Isabella has traveled Crete’s mountains and plains in search of unique culinary experiences. She’s visited ancient Tsounati olive groves where the world’s first high phenolic olive oil to be globally certified as a food supplement is being produced. She’s watched men whip wild rock-rose bushes as they collect labdanum, and she’s discovered its healing secrets. She spent a night in a cave in the Samaria Gorge to witness a unique honey harvest and she has sat in a shepherd’s hut in the White Mountains all through the long hours of stirring it takes to make graviera cheese. In the course of these culinary journeys, she has made some unexpected discoveries and would love to share some of her most important finds, inviting you to redefine the way you look at food.

What does an 18th-century loom have to do with digital wellbeing? Why is a high phenolic extra virgin olive oil better for our mood than Instagram? Why would a group of volunteers hike for 5 hours and spend a night in a cave inside a gorge – with no phone coverage at all – in order to help out a friend with his honey harvest? Working in front of screens, we often forget we have a real presence in the physical world. A journey through Crete’s interior, where many people continue to embrace a very analogue daily routine, helps find the key habits we can all adopt in order to be healthier, happier and more satisfied with our digital-vs-physical life balance.