As I sit gazing out the window at a gray and dripping Chicago sky, it comes as a bit of a shock to realize that just three weeks ago I was basking in the warm sun under blue skies on the island of Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea. We sailed into the large port city of Argostoli on a quiet morning, our string of perfect weather days intact. Julie and I chose to take a bus excursion to view more of the island, while Barb and Ann chose to poke around town and do some shopping. Kefalonia was the setting for the book and movie, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (read the book, didn’t see the movie; now I want to review the book for references to the places I saw). The entire island was rocked by a severe earthquake and its aftershocks in 1953, and much of Argostoli was destroyed. Although a few old structures survived, the city’s current face is clean, neat and modern, with a lovely promenade along the waterfront. Our tour took us east across the island to Melissani Lake, situated in a limestone cavern whose roof collapsed millenia ago, allowing sunlight to pierce the water and expose brilliant colors in the clear, spring-fed depths. We follow a steep tunnel dug through the rock to a small platform at the water’s edge, where we then step into small row boats for a quick trip 150 yards across to where a narrow channel leads back to a still-intact portion of the cave. Modest stalagtites drip towards the lake’s surface, and swallows dart here and there. It is cool and quiet except for the echoes of the visitors’ voices and the occasional boatman who will sing a verse or two of a traditional song. As our coach follows the coast road north along the eastern shore of Argostoli, our guide points out the island of Ithaca, home of Odysseus, lying just opposite across a narrow strait. It pleases me more than I would have guessed to be here. Having taught The Odyssey to my English students for several years, I wish I could have been able to describe to them then, from my personal experience, what I am at last seeing and experiencing now. We stop in the modest fishing port of Fiskardo and enjoy an hour or so on our own, wandering the quiet streets as we munch on pastries from a local bakery. Our return journey takes us winding along cliffs which tower hundreds of feet above the impossibly blue sea far below. We pass the ruins of Assos Castle, a Venetian fortification built in the late 16th century on a knobby, picturesque peninsula. Further on we pull over at a viewpoint, affording us vistas to the north and west, far out over the sea and far down to a gorgeous crescent of white-sand beach — Myrtos — 500 or feet more below our feet. It has been called the most beautiful beach in Greece and one of the five most beautiful in the world, and it gives me a reason to return here again some day. As we drop down towards the port on our return, we pass the ruins of old windmills and a bridge support boasting the “Venetian lion” — the Lion of St. Mark — another sign that the Venetians ruled this part of the world for three centuries. Kefalonia has surprised me, as did Corfu, with its lush forests and cultivated fields across the interior, belying my mental image of rocky, forbidding Greek islands. And it has provided me with a new reference in which to picture Odysseus in his striving to reach his lovely homeland of Ithaca and ever-faithful Penelope. –Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader