I went to Cyprus knowing nothing about its history; came back gulping the “historical context” section of the Rough Guide: how, I wanted to know, despite the Cypriots’ evident benevolent nature and seeming respect for one another- on a personal level at least- did this beautiful island come to be divided with buffer zones et al?

Horrified by the hordes of beer-drinking, lobster-coloured, culture-blind tourists who greeted us on our first night in Pafos, we had left the town far behind us by the time most of them woke up with a hangover and vague recollections of out-of-tune Karaoke singing and thong-flashing, fat-wobbling, terribly unsynchronised dancing. As we left the hideous tourist coast behind us and started driving inland towards the less developed Arkamas peninsula, I realised the extent of the damage inflicted by mass tourism on this beautiful island- vast parts of the coast have been turned into soulless “Croydon-Upon-Sea” and the sheer number of construction sites suggest characterless unsightly mass development is not about to stop; but, for those prepared to go off the beaten track, the island has much beauty and incredible variety to offer- from 2000m high mountains, to unspoilt beaches, world-class Byzantine paintings, Roman ruins, wild donkeys, alpine resorts, Mosques, Abbeys, exquisite flora, arid sceneries, fertile fields, picturesque villages, shepherd-lead goat herds, Moresque towns, Venetians walls, perched castles, faith, Muezzin rhythm, Mediterranean scent, citrus orchards.