Summer of 1981. With friends, we were swimming in the small harbor near the rocks of Varkiza. At one moment, a friend tells me: ‘Do you see the one swimming near you? That’s Odysseas Elytis.’ I was pleasantly surprised. I had always wanted to meet the poet, especially after he received the NOBEL prize. However, he was solitary and... hard to find, and I had been abroad for many years.

I seized the opportunity, approached him in the sea, and said: ‘For years I aspired to meet the poet of the Aegean, but not in the Aegean!’ He smiled, and then we exchanged a few words by the shore about my diplomatic odyssey and my literary concerns. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that quickly developed into friendship.