Kefalonia

Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian islands, and the only one where the drive between two interesting villages can take an hour. Distances matter here in a way they do not on Paxos or Ithaca. The biggest planning question is whether to stay in the south, near Argostoli and the airport, or in the north around Fiskardo and Assos. We would say the north, for two nights at minimum. The south works for one. Splitting your stay between both means a lot of time on the road.

The 1953 earthquake destroyed almost every settlement on the island. Fiskardo, on the northern tip, was the only village to survive intact, and its pastel Venetian houses on the harbour are why most photographs of Kefalonia start there. Assos, just south of Fiskardo on a slender peninsula below a Venetian fortress, was rebuilt so patiently that it now looks as if nothing happened. The walk up to the fortress and back takes an hour and is the best short hike on the island.

Most visitors miss three things in the interior. Mount Ainos rises to over 1,600 metres, and its dark forests of Cephalonian fir, Abies cephalonica, are a national park. The species is endemic to Greece, meaning it grows wild nowhere else, and its main stand is here. Melissani is an underground lake whose roof partly collapsed in antiquity. Visit between 11am and 1pm, when the sun reaches the water and turns it a blue no photograph shows truly. Myrtos Beach, between two limestone cliffs, is the long view from the road.

Robola, the white wine grown in the Omala valley since Venetian times, is worth tasting at the Robola Cooperative rather than in a restaurant. Louis de Bernières set Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in the south of the island. The film’s beach scenes were shot at Myrtos and Antisamos, and too many tavernas carry tribute menus. Skip those and find a fish lunch at Fiskardo or Sami instead.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    EFL (Anna Pollatou International) takes private jets, and Signature Aviation holds the FBO, the private-aviation terminal. By ferry, Levante Ferries crosses from Kyllini to Poros in roughly 90 minutes, several times a day through summer, landing in the south-east for the road up to Argostoli and the north.

  2. The address

    Emelisse Nature Resort sits above Emblisis Bay on the Erissos peninsula, with rooms and private villas set among native cedar and cypress, a 15-minute walk from Fiskardo harbour. The position gives the advantage of a northern base and direct access to the sea, without sharing the quay with the village’s evening crowds.

  3. The kitchen

    Tassia, on the Fiskardo harbourfront, opened in 1972 as Friends, the first taverna in the village, under George Dendrinos. His daughter Tassia Dendrinou took it over ten years later, gave it her name and has published two cookbooks on Kefalonian cooking, Recipes of Tasia and Tastes of Tasia. The menu starts from the garden behind the kitchen; order the octopus and the local cheese board, and book several days ahead in July.

  4. Vino di Sasso

    Evriviadis Sclavos runs a biodynamic estate in Lixouri, Demeter-certified since 2019, on the slopes of Laskaratos Hill, where his family has planted vines since 1919. His Vino di Sasso is an unfiltered Robola grown at 650 to 700 metres on broken limestone, named after the English commissioner Napier, who first called it “wine of the stone”. Tastings are by reservation at the winery.

  5. The library

    The Korgialeneios Library in Argostoli holds around 60,000 volumes and is among the three largest libraries in Greece. It was founded in 1924 under the will of the benefactor Marinos Korgialenios and rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake, and its oldest piece is an edition of the Souda Dictionary from 1499. The folklore museum below covers Kefalonia from the Venetian conquest to 1953; opening is Monday to Friday, mornings only.

  6. Drogarati

    The Chamber of Exaltation inside Drogarati Cave, 65 by 45 metres and 20 metres high at a constant 18°C, has been used as a concert hall for its acoustics since the cave opened to the public in 1963. The cave is reckoned to be more than 150 million years old, and it lies 3 kilometres from Sami on the road towards Argostoli.

  7. Foki, on foot

    From Fiskardo, walk 1.4 kilometres north along the harbour road, past the Roman graveyard and keeping left, to Foki, a sheltered pebble cove named for the Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus) that still visit. On the right of the bay, limestone caves lead into the tunnels of a disused mine. On calm days you can swim into the cave mouth, and the inner beach is pebbled and almost always empty.

  8. The monastery

    The Monastery of Saint Gerasimos stands on the Omala plateau, 15 kilometres from Argostoli: the convent of nuns the saint founded in 1560 and named New Jerusalem, rebuilt in Byzantine style after the 1953 earthquake levelled it. His underground hermitage survives beneath the older church, reached by a 3-metre iron staircase into two stone chambers, and the three plane trees he planted himself still stand in the courtyard.

  9. Fiscardo Sailing

    Captain Fotis runs a 46-foot Bavaria Cruiser out of Fiskardo for full-day private charters, for up to ten guests, leaving the Fiskardo quay around 10am. The usual loop takes in the Ithaca coastline and Atokos, the uninhabited islet of the northern Ionian, with two protected bays and no other infrastructure. Half-day and sunset trips can be booked at shorter notice.

  10. Gentilini

    Gentilini, in Minies just south of Argostoli, has worked the indigenous Robola grape since Spiros Cosmetatos planted his first vines in 1978, and his daughter Marianna and her husband Petros Markantonatos now hold the estate. The Robola grows above 650 metres on the slopes of Mount Ainos, citrus and mineral, low-yielding and increasingly rare. Taste it in the winery’s tasting room rather than from a harbour wine list.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Sami

    Sami stands on the central east coast, facing the Ithaca channel. It is the port a yacht takes coming up from the south and the simpler way into the island’s interior: west of the town lies the Melissani cave, an underground lake toured by boat, and the road runs on to the caves and the mountain. Sami is a working ferry town and the gateway to the island.

  2. Argostoli

    Argostoli, the capital since 1757, sits on its bay on the west coast. It was once one of the busiest ports in Greece and is still the island’s commercial and cruise harbour, and behind it the De Bosset stone bridge, now closed to traffic and in the care of the Ministry of Culture, crosses the Koutavos lagoon, a feeding ground for loggerhead turtles. A yacht lies at the capital, along the town quay.

  3. Assos

    Assos is a village on the northwest coast, 36 kilometres north of Argostoli, on a neck of land beneath one of the largest castles in Greece. Marino Gentilini built the fortress for the Venetian Senate in 1593. A yacht lies in the small harbour below the walls, where the pine-covered peninsula closes the bay.

  4. Agia Efimia

    Agia Efimia, on the east coast north of Sami, is a traditional fishing village around a small harbour that has become one of the island’s sailing centres, home in season to the flotilla groups (fleets of yachts that sail together) of the northern Ionian. The 1953 earthquake destroyed most of the old village, and what stands now keeps its tavernas and bakeries along the water. A yacht lies here among the flotillas.