Argostoli, Greece (Kefalonia Island)

After a lavish brunch on Vista, we tendered to Argostoli to meet Marcos, our tour guide. Argostoli (the capital of Kefalonia Island, the largest of the Ionian Islands) was ruled by the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages, by the Kingdom of Sicily after 1185, and by the Ottoman Empire after 1479. However, the Turkish (Ottoman) rule ended in 1500, when during the Second Ottoman-Venetian War, the city, then known as Cephalonia, was captured by a Spanish-Venetian army. In 1797, the Venetian Republic awarded all Ionian Islands, including Kefalonia Island, to France after the French captured Venice.

By 1953, the island of Kefalonia had survived the Italian and German occupation and the Greek civil war. But on August 12, 1953, it was hit by a 7.8 earthquake. In a period of 28 seconds, the island actually rose two feet and in the process demolished almost every manmade structure on it. Entire villages were flattened, and survivors who made their way to Argostoli hoping to find shelter and help were shocked to see the entire city, which had contained massive government buildings constructed by the Venetians and the British, leveled as well. The earthquake caused over 100,000 Kefalonians to leave the island for the United States, Canada, Australia, and other faraway places while the rest remained to pick up the pieces and rebuild their homes

Today, Argostoli is a modern town laid out in a grid pattern and easy to figure out. With a year-round population of over 10,000 people, there are shops, restaurants, cafes, and an active harbor with fishing boats. The main tourist attraction, the caretta-caretta turtles, feed at the nearby Koutavos Lagoon, as well as from the fishermen who toss their unwanted catch into the sea.

At the lower end of the harbor is the Drapano Bridge, which separates the lagoon from the harbor. Originally built out of wood by the British, it was later rebuilt out of stone and until recently was open to automobiles, but is now a pedestrian bridge.

Olive oils from here are among the world’s finest. We stopped in Fiskardo, where we bought an oil and spice gift for the Virants and olives for us. Our tour also included a short rowboat trip into a massive cave off Lake Melissani. One final note, there’s a geological phenomenon here in which sea water disappears underground and travels beneath the island to re-emerge some two weeks later on the other side! Scientists made that discovery by putting dye in the water!Read more