In May 1967, the Burtons chartered a yacht named the Oddyseia for a relaxing cruise of the western Mediterranean. By the time Richard penned his May 21 diary entry, which he wrote aboard the Oddyseia while docked in Portofino, they had already made up their minds to buy the yacht:

“We are going to buy this M.Y. It will cost $220,000 and we shall spend 40 or 50,000 dollars on it. It is old – 60 years – is 130 feet long, three engines, 260–80 tons. She will do 14 knots. There are 7 bedrooms two of them with large double beds and will sleep 14 passengers. There are 8 crew, though that includes a cook, maid, waiter. The boat itself needs only 4 – at the most 5 – crew to run it efficiently. I estimate it will cost $25–30000 a year to run it. Not too bad when one considers our last house (rented) cost $10,000 a month plus approx $1000 a week for food and staff etc! If we can use it as much as possible instead of hotels we could actually save money.”

Once the yacht was theirs, they decided a change of name was in order. It was rechristened the Kalizma, after their daughters, Kate Burton, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton (as Richard pointed out, “Elizabeth [is] included in Liza”).

Elizabeth worked with the artist, theatre designer, and interior designer Arthur Barbosa on the yacht’s redecoration. Chippendale mirrors and English tapestries were hung on the walls, as was the Burtons’ impressive art collection, which Richard described in his diary: “The Monet is in the living room or salon, the Picasso and the Van Gogh are in the dining room. The Epstein bust of Churchill is brooding over the salon and there is a Vlaminck on the wall of the stairwell to the kids’ cabins.”

They were thrilled with the result. “We didn’t go to bed until 3.30 because we were so excited at the joy of the boat,” Richard wrote. “I can’t as ‘twere stop touching it and staring at it, as if it were a beautiful baby or a puppy-dog. Something you can’t believe is your very own.”

The Kalizma, which played host to everyone from Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts to Mary Tyler Moore, could typically be found moored in some exotic location in the Mediterranean. A cold buffet of salmon, caviar, and chicken was laid on every night. The Burtons could regale their guests with romantic tales of the yacht’s eccentric previous owner, who had a penchant for “playing Bach on the organ” while wild storms raged at sea.

The Kalizma was eventually sold during Elizabeth’s marriage to John Warner for a reported $6 million.