Tales of the mysterious and clever warrior king Odysseus from Ithaca had captured my imagination as a child and helped cultivate my curiosity for archaeology. It was an island that was swathed in the poetic mists of time, and somewhere that was firmly on my bucket list. The fact that I was finally heading there had me hopping with excitement (and the nefarious GPS Circe in hysterics).
Ithaki as it is known to the Greeks consists of two wide parts connected by an isthmus, with very few roads and mountainous enough to make much of it still untouched by civilisation. I am well aware that my own perceptions of the island are coloured by my love for the old stories, but I still hold firm when I say it was perhaps my favorite island out of all the ones I visited, and the one that I would most like to retire to, living on that azure seafront with olive groves behind me and a beautiful kitchen. One can dream right?
Due to its small size, we had booked an airbnb for the town of Vathy, which was a little harbour town built around the sea shore, and was just as cute as it sounded. Officially the capital of this small island since the 16th century, the buildings along the waterfront all had that traditional Venetian style, adding to their charm. Our own little house about a ten minute walk back from the waterfront was also very cute, as were the owners who, being typically Greek ate dinner very late. We discovered this when late one night as we were settling in to sleep I heard a knock on the door and opening it in my pajamas found them on the doorstep giving me homemade apple cake! (it was delicious by the way).
As usual our first priority was to go swimming. We soon discovered a little bay tucked away from the road and surrounded by pine trees. It was a tiny cove and fairly busy, but in the mornings we had it to ourselves, and even during the day there was always space for us.
The archaeology was of course something I was really excited about in Ithaca, so without much delay, we set off to find it all. We had long ago decided by then that if we saw a sign pointing to something archaeological that sounded interesting, we would follow it and see where we ended up. So when we saw a sign for the "School of Homer" I was beyond intrigued.
This dark entrance in the rock was clearly man-made and lead to a darker and longer cavern which I couldn't explore as it fell deeply away into cold water. Maybe it was once a well source?
The site had unfortunately fallen into total disrepair, earthquakes had brought about rockfalls and crushed much of the walkways and boards protecting the pits which had been dug in the excavations. It was a shame to see it in such a sad condition, and it was difficult to know what we were even looking at. After this site we spent rather a lot of time trying to work out where exactly the famed palace of Odysseus was, as signs within the nearest town had shown a scale model of the palace and comparative photos of the wealthy palace they had excavated.
We failed miserably and swore to return when we had more time. After researching at home, I found to my great amusement that the misleadingly named 'School of Homer' site was in fact the very same! Also known as Agios Athanasios, it was excavated in the 1990s where they found evidence of of ancient walls and a palace from the Mycenaean period, when Odysseus was supposedly the king of Ithaca. However the earthquakes had damaged it so much you could no longer safely reach further up the cliff, where the main site was located (though if I had known it was just there, I don't think that would have stopped me trying!)
Our next archaeological site was an old settlement where there wasn't much left at all to see, apart from steps and walls. I soon learned that the dastardly Heinrich Schleiman had been here too (where has he not ruined!?) and was very amused to learn he had grandly proclaimed this to be the palace of Odysseus, before waltzing off to destroy Troy. The fact that this site was far too early for such a thing to be possible clearly escaped his notice, for he had found pottery within which were surely human ashes, and thus must be the remains of Odysseus and Penelope, or at least their ancestors! Oh Heinrich, you fool.
We had apparently arrived on a festival day for Vathy, as the owners excitedly told us. They suggested we go down in the evening into the town to view the festivities, and the owners wife excitedly told us about a famous singer who would be coming (she was very disappointed when I had no idea who he was). We enjoyed the procession and chanting and so on all the same, having no idea what the festival was for, only that it was religious and of course all in Greek.
We soon discovered a little Carrefour of all things as our local supermarket, and so decided since we had a house to do a little cooking for once, and check out the local restaurants the following night. We had also discovered - to dads glee - the very same chocolate he and my mum had eaten a few decades before when hitchhiking across Greece and being forced to eat completely melted chocolate. The brand was still around, and I felt it was only fair to try it. The milk chocolate with whole almonds was especially delicious! Good choice parents, I shall follow in your footsteps and eat Greek chocolate.
The choice of places to explore on Ithaca was extremely limited due to the small number of roads on the island, however we did manage to head up to the mountains the next day, giving us extremely beautiful views over the island. We climbed as far as the roads allowed us, visiting the tiny village of Exogi, where many of the houses were abandoned and falling into disrepair.
It was such a gorgeous mountain village, and it felt sad to see it so visibly fading. The views from the top however, were simply breathtaking.
I had lamb for the first time I could remember in goodness knows how long, and enjoyed it very much. We washed down our delicious dinner with a rather lovely white wine from Santorini, and it was from here that my enjoyment in white wine started to grow (something i've never been overly fond of).
Our ferry back to Cephalonia (or is it Kefalonia? Confusing Greek spellings!) was in the afternoon of the next day, so we enjoyed our usual morning swim, packed up our belongings and went to the Carrefour to grab picnic ingredients before heading closer to the ferry. We had seen a sign for an archaeological museum in Vathy and decided we had just enough time to check it out in the morning before heading off. However, like so many of the signs we had tried to follow in the past, it was wonderfully signposted for the first few directions, and then promptly disappeared. The only building we found that could have remotely been the museum was this one, which looked like it had been abandoned sometime during the Cold War. Always keeping us on our toes Greece!
Giving up on our museum search, we said our goodbyes to the little town of Vathy. It was difficult to know we were leaving as it had become one of my favourite places. But new adventures awaited, and the picnic called, so off we went.
Just around the corner from the ferry dock we found this lovely bay, and it even had olive trees for shade! There were tonnes of fish in the water which made swimming enjoyable, and afterwards we enjoyed one of our bottles of Rose from the winery, nicely chilled by our car glove box. It went rather well with our biscots and feta and camembert. Picnic feast!
Then it was time to take the short ferry around the corner back to Kefalonia, ready to explore the northern end. It was hard to say goodbye to Ithaca, as although it's such a small island, two days didn't feel nearly long enough. Out of all the places I went in Greece, Ithaca is the one I would like most to return to. So many dirt roads, beaches, hikes and ruins are just waiting to be discovered, if only I had the time.
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