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MEETINGREECE
117
IONIAN ISLANDS
special characteristics of the islands thus enriching rather than
weakening the cultural characteristics of the inhabitants.
Corfu is the isle of the Phaecians, Odysseas’ last stop on his
journey back to Ithaca, and the most famous island of the
Ionians.
Kefalonia is the largest of the seven islands and despite the
annual influx of visitors it is still possible to escape to secluded
beaches.
Zakynthos is known for its sapphire coloured sea and green pine
forests and is the place where Dionysios Solomos composed
Greece’s National Hymn and many more renowned poems.
GA S T RONOMY & LOCA L CU I S I NE
The island of Corfu has large amounts of water and is very fertile,
full of olive and citrus trees, grapes and corn. Its distinct cuisine is
famous and includes Bourou-Bourou (Vegetable and Pasta
Soup), Bourtheto (Scorpion Fish in a Spicy Sauce), Pastitsatha
(Rooster with Pasta), Sorfito (Fried Beef in a White Wine Sauce)
and Sykomaitha (Spiced Fig Dessert).
Aside from being a leading centre for the Fine Arts, Corfu is also
the home of the first University of Greece, the Ionian Academy. It
is also home to the Ionian University, established in 1984 by the
administration of Andreas Papandreou in recognition of Corfu’s
contribution to Education in Greece as the seat of the first
University of Greece. The academy was founded in 1824, forty
years before the cession of the Ionian Islands to Greece, and just
three years after Greece’s Revolution of 1821.
A number of cinema productions have been filmed in Corfu,
including the 1981 James Bond movie, “For Your Eyes Only.”
Kefalonia island is covered by dense vegetation and offers a
great range of natural beauty, including beaches - many of them
inaccessible from land - and spectacular caves. Mirtos, the most
famous of these beaches, is a major tourist attraction, and has
been ranked fifth worldwide for its beauty. Kefalonia’s profile was
greatly raised in the late 1990s thanks to the novel “Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin” by English author Louis de Bernires. The love
story comprising the theme of the book is set during the Second
World War.
Zakynthos is the island famous for the rare and endangered turtle
“caretta caretta”. The beaches of Zakynthos are host to the last
and most important concentration of Loggerhead “caretta
caretta” nesting sites in the Mediterranean. Every year, from June
through the end of August, the female Loggerheads come ashore
at night to lay their eggs in the sand and then cover the nest. After
55 days, the hatchlings start to dig their way out of the nest to find
their way down to the sea. The island offers exceptional
attractions for divers. Many of the dive sites are cave dives
around the island where a wide range of marine life can be found
such as moray eels, monk seals and octopus.
ME E T I N E P T AN I S A
The Ionian Islands place emphasis on the development of
alternative forms of tourism - such as sea tourism, conference
tourism, cultural tourism and eco-tourism - through incentives to
attract business investment in the tourism sector, improvement
and the modernisation of transports and specialisation of tourism
related services. The ports and the airports have been
reconstructed and new tourist anchorages and marinas with
significant mooring capacity have been developed.
In Corfu, the marina in Gouva is able to berth 850 yachts provides
all necessary services and facilities. Corfu, Zakynthos and
Kefalonia boast a large number of excellent hotels, of which many
operate all-year round and offer a full range of facilities.
The Ionian Islands are home some of the very best quality deluxe
and a’ class hotels in Greece Most hotels offer meeting facilities,
while a number of tourist agencies exist to specifically catering to
the needs of business travel. New modern meeting centres are
currently being constructed both in Corfu and in Zakynthos. Both
locations offer a choice of conference and meeting venues with
all modern facilities that can host groups of up to 1,000
delegates.
T RANS POR T A T I ON - I N F RA S T RUC T URE
The Ionian Islands are easily accessible by air and sea. Corfu,
Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Lefkada have international airports that
host regular and charter flights. There are also regular domestic
flights to most of the other Ionian Islands.
Corfu is particularly well connected all-year-round. The Ioannis
Kapodistrias International Airport - named after I. Capodistrias a
distinguished Corfiot and European diplomat and the first
governor of the independent Greek state - is located around three
kilometres south of Kerkyra. Corfu airport is also connected to
European destinations via scheduled and chartered flights that
include scheduled flights from Germany and the United Kingdom.
All the Ionian Islands offer bus and ferryboat services and most of
them have efficient bus networks. From the port of Killini, on the
northwestern coast of Peloponnese there are regular daily
connections with the ports of Kefallonia, Ithaki and Zakynthos.