An idyllic village of green-shuttered, orhre-coloured houses has become a millionaires' hideaway in the shadow of the Teix mountain.

Deia could have been just another pretty Mallorcan village had Robert Graves not decided to make it his home. The English poet and novelist first moved here in 1932 with his mistress Laura Riding and returned in 1946 with his second wife. Muses followed, friends came to stay, and before long Deia had established a reputation as a foreign artists' colony. Now it is on every tourist itinerary as the prime example of 'the other Mallorca' and this small village contains two luxury hotels. Rich foreign residents, like the actor Michael Douglas, are apt to bemoan the arrival of tour buses; the few locals who remain are philosophical about outsiders. Graves was hardly the first to discover Deia. An 1878 guidebook noted its 'collection of strange and eccentric foreigners' and it has stayed that way ever since. Climb the Carrer es Puig, Deia's only real street, passing ceramic Stations of the Cross, to reach the parish church and the small cemetery where Graves is buried. His tombstone, like many others, is inscribed in simple handwriting set into the drying concrete - Robert Graves, Poeta, 1895-1985 if you want to know more, read Wild Olives - Life In Majorca with Robert Graves by his son William Graves. From Deia you can scramble down to Cala de Deia, a small shingle beach set in an attractive cove, where local artists still continue the Graves tradition of naked swimming and long parties at weekends.