Ithaca, the home of Odysseus is a beautiful, small island in the Ionian Sea, in the east of Cephalonia. It corresponds to the description of Homer in the Odyssey. It is composed of two mountains joined by a narrow strip of land. The west coast is steep while the eastern shoreline is more welcoming.

The capital and port of the island is Vathi, the Homeric harbour of Forkis, where Odysseus landed on his rerurn home. It lies at the head of a deep and narrow inlet and it is just like Homer described it.

The houses you see in the town of Vathi, on the green slopes on either side of the port were rebuilt in the traditional style of the Ionian islands after the disastrous earthquake of 1953. It was here that the Phaeacians – the inhabitants of Corfu- set down the sleeping Odysseus.

You can walk to the Cave of the Nymphs where Odysseus is supposed to have hidden the treasure given to him by the Phaeacians.

You can not see the palace of Odysseus, where Penelope waited for her husband to return from Troy, but if you go to the village of Stavros north-east of Vathi, you can walk from there for about half an hour to the hill where the palace probably was, find a shadowy tree and read the Odyssey again, especially the last part in which Odysseus appeared before his wife disguised as a beggar.