Lefkara and its Lace

Lefkara sits in the white limestone hills that gave it its name, a village of pale stone houses on stepped lanes, and it has made a particular kind of embroidery for so long that UNESCO recognises lefkaritika as intangible cultural heritage. It is cutwork rather than lace in the bobbin sense: threads are drawn from linen and the gaps filled with geometric needlework in white and ecru, worked slowly by hand, and the persistent local story is that Leonardo da Vinci visited and took a piece back for Milan cathedral. The other village trade is silver filigree, still worked in small shops. Women sit embroidering in doorways along the main street, partly for the tourists and partly because that is what they do, and a small museum explains the technique.

What you actually see

• Lefkaritika embroidery - the geometric cutwork made in doorways along the street.
• Silver filigree - the village's second craft, worked in small shops.
• The stone village - pale limestone houses on stepped lanes.
• The museum - the technique, patterns and history of the craft.

When to go

April to October is pleasantest for walking the steep lanes; the village is cooler than the coast in summer. Weekdays are calmer than weekends and coach-tour hours in the middle of the day. Allow a morning.

Honest expectations

Selling is persistent, and a good deal of what is offered in the village is machine-made and imported rather than local handwork, so ask directly and expect genuine pieces to be expensive, because they take weeks. The village is small and steep. Once you have walked it and visited the museum, a couple of hours is enough.

Nearby

Choirokoitia's Neolithic site is nearby; Larnaca and Limassol are both about 40 minutes away.