Argostoli

Argostoli has been built twice.

The earthquake of 12 August 1953 was magnitude 7.2 and it destroyed most of the town: the harbour quay collapsed into the water and the rest burned for three days. Kefalonia as a whole lost most of its buildings and a large part of its population, and the villages around the island were simply not rebuilt — some of them are still ruins, which is unusual and sobering to drive through.

What came back is a low, practical town built out of a lagoon: Argostoli curves around the east end of the bay with a long waterfront promenade, fishing boats moored below it, and the whole place laid out so it can be seen from the water. It is not beautiful in the way the rest of Ionian Greece sometimes is. It is a working port and the island's capital, and it has the services you need.

Behind the town the lagoon of Koutavos spreads out under the old Castle of St George, and it is a nesting site for the green turtle — a caretta caretta feeding ground that is now a nature reserve, and one of the more unexpected things about the Ionian.

Two things it is not: it is not the ferry port for Ithaca, despite being the island capital and main port, and it is not a base for swimming. The beaches are all several kilometres away, up the coast or round the bay.

The Castle of St George was the island's capital from the Middle Ages, and in 1757 the seat moved to Argostoli. The castle itself has Byzantine origins, became Venetian in 1500, and housed the church of the Evangelistria of 1580 — one of the finest Ionian Baroque buildings in Greece.

Kefalonia has a genuine classical history, though little of it survives above ground, and the island's four ancient cities are the point of departure for everything that follows.

The port became the island's main gateway when the deep-water harbour was developed. Argostoli now has ferry links to Kyllini on the mainland and to Zakynthos, and a car ferry to Lixouri across the bay.

The earthquake of 1953 is the defining modern event. It was struck by the Ionian subduction zone, the same fault that has devastated the island repeatedly — 1953, 1636, 1581 — and it killed thousands. The response of the Greek state and of New Zealand, whose disaster relief mission stayed for years, became a notable piece of post-war international cooperation. Most of the island's villages were never rebuilt, and that decision is still visible in the landscape.

Argostoli itself is a port town and has no beach worth swimming at — the shore is the harbour. Everything is a short drive, and most of it is south along the coast road.

The nearest of all is Gradakia, the small cove called Bouka, about a kilometre and a half out between Argostoli and Lassi. Lassi, about three kilometres south, is the town's beach suburb, and its two main sandy strands are Makris Gialos and Platys Gialos. Megali Ammos, about five kilometres, is a sandy beach beside the airport, and Ammes, at seven, is another, though it lies under the aircraft approach path.

Further out: Ai Helis at about nine kilometres is a quiet family beach, and Avythos, also about nine, is a small golden-sand cove under limestone cliffs. Lourdas, at fifteen to seventeen kilometres, is the best of them — about a kilometre and a half of white sand under Mount Ainos with waterfalls coming down behind it.

Myrtos, at around nineteen kilometres straight-line but nearer thirty by road, is the iconic one: a white-pebble bay in a deep notch of coast, the steepest and most demanding drive of any beach on the island, and worth it. Agia Efimia, a further few kilometres, is a picturesque fishing port.

Going the other way, Lixouri is ten kilometres by ferry across the bay, and it is the way to the red sands of Xi and Petani. And note the thing that catches people out: the ferries for Ithaca do not leave from here. They go from Sami, eight kilometres east, and seasonally from Poros and Fiskardo. Argostoli's own ferries serve Kyllini and Zakynthos.

Kefalonia has its own real food tradition and it is worth taking seriously, particularly for its cheese.

The local cheese is the standout — Kefalotyri, a hard pressed cheese made from sheep's milk and aged in wooden barrels, which gives it a distinctly nutty, dry character, and robata, softer and simpler. The island also has a sweet local cheese, and the honey is good.

As an island, it does seafood well, particularly in the coastal villages rather than in Argostoli itself — the octopus and the squid grilled simply, whatever came in that day. In Argostoli the waterfront tavernas are the obvious choice but the better cooking is a short way inland, in Lassi and in the villages.

Ask for a local wine with the cheese, and eat at a village table on the coast road if you can get there before dark.

May and June are the best months: the sea is warm enough, the meltemi has not yet blown itself out, and the tourists have not arrived. September and October are excellent and quieter, and October is the best swimming month. July and August are hot and busy — Argostoli is small and fills up, and the ferries are at their most crowded. November to April is mild and wet; it is the off season, accommodation is cheap, and the winter light on the channel between Kefalonia and Ithaca is remarkable. Earthquake season is nominally January to March, which is worth knowing but not a reason to avoid the island.

Argostoli is the island's gateway, with an airport served by regular flights and ferries from Kyllini. Sami, the port for ferries onward to Ithaca, lies eight kilometres east.

A car is worth renting — the beaches are all spread along the coast and the unserved villages are most of what is worth seeing. Take cash; the island's economy is still substantially cash-based, and the card infrastructure is uneven after the 1953 rebuilding. The earthquake villages are a sensitive subject and are not tourist sites — drive past respectfully. And if you are there in the last week of August, the Kefalonian wine festival is a genuine local event rather than a spectacle.