Cephalonia

(Local Name: Kefalloniá (Kefaloniá) / Kefallinía) Area of island: 781 sq. km/302 sq. mi

Altitude: 1,628m/5,341ft

Population: 31,000

Chief town: Argostóli

Kefalloniá (or Kefallinía; Italian Cefalonia), the largest of the Ionian Islands, is an island of bare limestone hills rising to 1,628m/5,341ft in Mt Aínos and slashed by fertile valleys with luxuriant subtropical vegetation. It is generally accepted as being the Homeric island of Same (but for Wilhelm Dörpfeld's divergent view). The island's main sources of income are agriculture and the tourist trade.

In the "Odyssey" the two islands of Same and Doulichion are described as belonging to the kingdom of Ithaca, but Odysseus's subjects are also called Cephallenians. In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. the island, like Corfu, was under the influence of Corinth; then in 456 B.C. Tolmides compelled it to submit to Athens. At that time there were four city states on Kephallenia - Kranioi, Pale, Pronnoi and Same - which Thucydides refers to as a tetrapolis. The cities were members of the Aeolian League, and Cephallenian vessels fought against Philip V of Macedon (220-217 B.C.). They fought, too, against the Romans, but eventually the islands fell into the power of Rome. Thereafter Kephallenia shared the destinies of the other Ionian Islands.

Airport 9km/5.5mi from Argostóli. Daily flights from and to Athens.

Daily boat services Patras-Sámi (cars carried).