Ithaca Island

Ithaca lies in the Ionian Sea just east of Kefalonia's northeastern coast, a slender island roughly 23 kilometres long that narrows to a thin isthmus at its centre. The regional unit covers 117.8 square kilometres and, according to the 2021 census, was home to 2,862 people, making it the second-smallest of the seven main Ionian Islands.

The island owes its fame chiefly to Homer, whose Odyssey identifies it as the homeland of Odysseus. Archaeological evidence shows the island has been continuously inhabited since the 4th millennium BC, through Mycenaean, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian rule, before joining the modern Greek state in 1864. Scholars still debate how closely Homer's description matches the island's actual geography, but the identification has held since antiquity.

Vathy, set deep inside the sheltered bay of Molos, is both the capital and the main harbour, with the smaller village of Stavros serving the northern half of the island. Its calm anchorage and proximity to Kefalonia make Vathy one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Greece, usually paired with a stop in the surrounding bays.