Ionian Islands Attractions
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The Ionian Islands, also known as the Eptánisos (Seven Islands), are strung out along the west coast of Greece from the Albanian frontier to the Peloponnese. In this westerly situation, with more rain than most other parts of Greece, the islands have a mild climate and a luxuriant growth of vegetation, with the exception of Kythira, which lies apart from the others off the southern tip of the Peloponnese.
The Ionian Sea, which was equated by ancient authors with the Adriatic and is now seen as its southern continuation, and the Ionian Islands owe their name, according to Aeschylus, to the wanderings of Io or, according to later sources, to the Illyrian hero Ionios (spelt with omicron, the short o). They have thus no connection with the Ionian Greeks (derived from Ion, with omega, the long o), who left Greece in the 11th and 10th centuries B.C. and settled on the Anatolian coast, giving this eastern Greek territory its name of Ionia.
The Ionian Sea, which was equated by ancient authors with the Adriatic and is now seen as its southern continuation, and the Ionian Islands owe their name, according to Aeschylus, to the wanderings of Io or, according to later sources, to the Illyrian hero Ionios (spelt with omicron, the short o). They have thus no connection with the Ionian Greeks (derived from Ion, with omega, the long o), who left Greece in the 11th and 10th centuries B.C. and settled on the Anatolian coast, giving this eastern Greek territory its name of Ionia.
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