A family courtyard,
opened to guests.
Three generations of Papadakis have kept the same table, the same still, the same welcome. This is the story of how a private courtyard became a place travellers now call home.
Est. 1960s · Sellia
It started with a single still
and a handful of olive trees.
In the village of Sellia, twenty minutes above Plakias, the Papadakis family has lived on the same mountain for three generations. What began as a private courtyard — a copper kazani for raki, a few olive trees, a stone mitato for cheese — was never meant to be shared.
But the table was always too full, the raki always too good, and the door always open to whoever came up the mountain. Slowly, neighbours became guests, and guests became family.
Today, Rakidio is that courtyard, restored and opened — still private in spirit, still family-run, still exactly what it always was.
The hands that built it,
the hands that keep it.
The Grandparents
Manolis's grandfather built the first mitato from stones gathered in the fields. His grandmother shaped the tyrozouli recipe we still use — the same one, unchanged, every morning.
The Parents
Manolis's father kept the kazani burning through every autumn, and planted the olive groves that now shade the long table. His mother tended the gardens and taught the children that nothing good happens in a hurry.
The Family Now
Manolis and his family have restored the stone buildings, opened the courtyard to travellers, and kept every ritual exactly as it was. The raki is the same raki. The cheese is the same cheese. The welcome is the same welcome.
Four quiet promises
to every guest.
Nothing Staged
What you see is what we live. The raki, the cheese, the bread — all of it is what our family eats every day.
Nothing Rushed
Good things take time. Our cheese ages for weeks, our raki distils for hours, our meals last for afternoons.
Nothing Imported
Everything on the table comes from within sight of where you're sitting — our groves, our gardens, our neighbours.
Nothing Forced
You're not a customer here. You're a guest. Come when you like, stay as long as you like, leave when you're ready.
"We don't perform tradition.
Manolis Papadakis Founder · Rakidio
We just didn't stop doing it.
Fifty acres of
slow Cretan life.
Stone courtyards, copper light, olive terraces, and a long table that's never quite empty — a quiet preview of what's waiting up the mountain.
The Kazani at Dawn
The Farm Animals
Stone Courtyard
The Folklore Museum
The Long Table
Local Products
The table is set.
Come up the mountain.
Rakidio sits 20 minutes above Plakias, in the village of Sellia. Visits are small, hosted, and best booked a few days ahead — especially during harvest season.