The Ionian islands lie off the west coast of Greece. There are six main islands : Corfu, Paxi, Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos. They have a different The Ionian islands lie off the west coast of Greece.   There are six main islands : Corfu, Paxi, Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos.   They have a different climate to the Aegean islands which lie off the east coast between Greece and Turkey.   The winter rainfall is much higher and as a consequence the islands are greener all the year round.   They do not suffer the winds of the Aegean nor do they become so parched in summer.  

Since prehistoric times the Eptansia, as are called the islands of the Ionian sea, have been linked.   Cephalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos constituted the kingdom of Udysses, while Corfu was a friend and ally.   Zakynthos has been under constant occupation through the ages.   The Romans (146 BC to 337 AD) gave way to the Byzantines (337 AD to 1204 AD) who allowed the island repeatedly to be plundered by invaders.   The Franks (1204 AD to 1479 AD) imposed the feudal system which was then followed by aristocratic rule under the Venetians (1479 AD to 1797 AD).   The French took possession of the island for a short time (1797 AD to 1798 AD and 1807 AD to 1815 AD) until the British ruled Eptansia from 1815 AD to 1864 AD.   The islands were then united to the new state of Greece (Hellas).   The Germans occupied it in the Second World War.  

Zakynthos, the southernmost of the Ionian islands, owes its name to the son of Dardanos, the king of Troy, who according to myth built the first city here.   It is also mentioned in ?The Iliad? (Homer?s epic poem dealing with the 10^th and last year of the siege of Troy pre 800 BC) and in the Odyssey (Homer?s other epic poem about the 10 year wanderings of Odysseus on his way home after the fall of Troy, when he returned safely home to Penelope, his wife, in Ithaca).   All who have come to this island have been enchanted.   The Venetians baptised it ?Fior? di Levante? (the Flower of the Levant).   Others gave it evocative names like ?earthly paradise? and ?perfumed isle?.   ?Zakynthos could make one forget the Elysian Fields? wrote the nineteenth century poet Dionysis Solomos, the father of modern Greek poetry and a native of the island.   He wrote ?Hymn to Liberty? which became the Greek National Anthem.  Goethe christened him the ?Byron of the East?.  

Zakynthos town was rich in its heyday.   Under the Venetians there was an accumulation of wealth by a small number of aristocratic families who ruled the island and were extremely unpopular with the islanders, whose various protests and uprisings they ruthlessly put down.   Zakynthos never really fell under Turkish rule, so the biggest visible influence on the island is that of the Venetians.  For example, the hillsides abound with the wonderful remains of Venetian terracing.   Take a walk down the garden of Askalia to see how extensively the Venetian terracing was constructed and how well it has lasted.  

The only remains of the formidable Venetian fortress on the hill above Zakynthos are the gates, outer walls and battlements.   The picture in the kitchen at Askalia will give you an idea of the scale of the fortification.   The town was Venetian in aspect until the earthquake in 1953, when it lost all but three of its buildings.   After that it was completely rebuilt.   The ?Museum of Post-Byzantine Art? on Solomos Square contains much of what was salvaged from the island?s churches after the earthquake in 1953. 

*      AVERAGE TEMPERATURES (F)       

                                  Min            Max            Av        

May                            68            76              66      

June                           74            84              71        

July                            78            88              75        

August                       80            90              76        

September               76             86               73        

October                     68            76               72        

The island enjoys some of the wettest weather in Greece in the winter and some of the best sunshine in summer, which is why it is green all the year round.   The prevailing wind blows across the island from the north west.   It gets up at midday and dies away in the evening.   It is caused by the mainland heating up during the day and creating an onshore wind.   See ?Peligoni? for the average wind strengths for sailing and windsurfing.   If the wind veers round so that it comes from the south that is a sure sign of bad weather and strong winds.  

MAP                                     

The only accurate map of the island is ?305 Zakynthos 1:60,000? made with the cooperation of the Hellenic Army Geographical Service (and any map copied from that).   Most other maps are incomplete/inaccurate.

AREA                                  

It is the third largest Ionian island, 24 miles long and 11 miles wide    

POPULATION             

30,000 people live on the island.   3,000 of them are British, mostly serving the tourist trade in the south of the island. 

ROADS                                 

Zakynthos has one of the most extensive metalled road systems of any Greek island.   Even in the mountains, there are good metalled roads.

Visitors from the UK to Greece have increased from 1,500,000 p.a. to 2,500,000 p.a. in the last three years.   A significant proportion of them visit Zakynthos.   Tourism is the island?s major trade.   It is the third most visited Greek island, after Corfu and Crete.   Nearly all the tourists go to the southern sandy beaches along the Laganas coast and only venture out in coach trips around the island.   If you want round the clock neon signs, discos and noise then Laganas is the place to go.  

Since the coast road was built, the north end of the island has opened up.   There is quite a lot of development along the coast towards the port and a new marina is being built with European money.   However the hills behind Askalia are totally unspoilt and undeveloped.   The local inhabitants graze their goats, their sheep and their cows all over the hillside.   They have apiaries to tend and extensive olive groves to work.   The monastery at Aghois Giorgiou has been inhabited since 1530 and today has three resident monks who still live and worship there.  

Our local English community started with the Peligoni club in the 1980s and there are now over two dozen English families with properties hereabouts, most of them having arrived in the last three years.