As I made my way towards the old town, they were lying in wait for me, their gorgeous brown coats glossy and glistening. I found them increasingly hard to ignore as I walked past, eyes firmly fixed on the harbour. I concentrated on trying to imagine the harbour straddled by a colossal statue over a hundred feet high. But Helios is long gone. These days the harbour entrance is guarded merely by an inoffensive bronze stag and a doe, destined to eternal separation and looking slightly forlorn atop their columns.

My attention wavered as the waiters, with an unerring knack for stating the obvious, did their best to distract me “Hello Miss! Chocolate cake!” they cried, and I turned to feast my eyes on the window displays of calorie-laden gateaux, some topped merely with cream, others with chocolate flakes or plump strawberries.  It would be so easy to sink into one of the cushion-laden chairs and give way to temptation.

But I pressed on.  The restaurants in the old town tried a different approach.  Here, there were brightly coloured feathered guardians, welcoming potential customers with a friendly squawk. I paused to exchange a greeting with a magisterial blue and gold macaw, and continued on my way.

The old town was bustling and busy, filled with day trippers and cruise passengers jostling each other in their eagerness to snap up bargains in leather goods, embroidery and woodwork.  A group of art students sat in a café, putting the final touches to their watercolours of the scene.

The Palace of the Grand Masters looked remarkably well-preserved. And so it should, for it was largely rebuilt to serve as a holiday home for Mussolini, though he never got around to using it.

Eventually dusk fell, and the crowds disappeared, returning to their floating palaces out in the bay and the villas down the coast, and at last I had the place almost to myself.  I walked down the Street of the Knights, where the Knights of St John used to live – each nationality in its own inn.  As my footsteps echoed on the cobbles, I could almost hear them calling to me.

I retraced my steps towards the harbour, running the chocolate gauntlet once again. 

I visited Rhodes Town in 1998.