The Venetian front
Original coloured houses with iron balconies around the harbour.
**Free** โ an open village. โ **โ Clearly the dearest place on the island**: the quayside restaurants are designed for the yacht crowd โ **prices are high and fish is by the kilo**; ask the weight and price before ordering, and **the back lanes are much cheaper**. โ **Parking is very difficult** at peak and the village is small โ park at the entrance. โ **It is far**: about **50 km from Argostoli** (an hour and a quarter) on a winding coast road. โ **The beaches around it are small and pebbly** (nearby **Emblisi** and **Foki** are the best known, lovely but small). โ **The lanes around the harbour are relatively level** โ much easier than Assos. โ **Ferries to Ithaca and Lefkada** leave from here โ โ seasonal, so check the schedule. โ **A short walking path** leads to the two lighthouses and the Roman remains on the point โ 20 minutes and free. Allow **two hours**.
๐ฌ Ask on WhatsAppOpen in Google Maps โ**The one village on Kefalonia that survived the 1953 earthquake** โ and that alone makes it unlike anything else on the island. Where all of Kefalonia was rebuilt in the 1950s with low modern buildings, Fiskardo kept its **original Venetian houses** of the 18th and 19th centuries: fronts in ochre, pink and yellow, iron balconies and tiled roofs โ ranged around a **sheltered natural harbour**. That harbour has made it **the leading yacht marina in the Ionian**: expensive boats moor directly in front of the restaurants. โ Which means it is **the most expensive place on Kefalonia** by a clear margin. Around the village are **Roman remains** and a cemetery, a **Venetian lighthouse** and an older one on the point, and pine woods running down to the water. โ Ferries leave from here for **Ithaca** and **Lefkada**.
Original coloured houses with iron balconies around the harbour.
A Venetian one and an older one on the point, by a short path.
Yachts moored directly in front of the restaurants in a sheltered bay.
Fiskardo, 28084 Kefalonia, Greece
**Because of distance from the epicentre and the geology beneath it โ not because of how it was built.** โ **The geography**: the **1953 shocks were centred in southern Kefalonia** and the sea area south of it, **and Fiskardo is in the far north** โ the point on the island furthest from the centre. **Shaking intensity falls with distance**, so what reached it was far weaker than what struck Argostoli and Lixouri in the south. โ **The geology**: rock and soil differ between the island's north and south, **and firm ground transmits shaking less destructively** than soft soil, which amplifies it. โ **Not because it was better built**: Fiskardo's houses are traditional Venetian, like the rest of the island's before the earthquake โ **the difference is in what reached it, not in how it was made**. โ **The result today**: Fiskardo **is Kefalonia as it was** before 1953 โ a window onto the lost island. โ **Hence it is architecturally protected**, and building there is permitted only in the traditional manner.
**Yes as part of a northern day โ not as a separate trip.** โ **There and back**: an hour and a quarter each way for a village you cover in half an hour with expensive restaurants โ **a weak deal**. โ **As a full northern day**: excellent, and it is the best day on Kefalonia. **The order**: leave Argostoli northwards, **stop at the Myrtos viewpoint** (minutes; the best view on the island), then **Assos** for two hours and a walk round the village, then **Fiskardo** for a late lunch, the harbour and the lighthouse path, and back at sunset. โ **That day covers the three most famous sights on Kefalonia** along one coast road. โ **Allow the whole day**: the road is slow mountain driving and the distances are longer than they look. โ **An excellent alternative**: **spend a night in Fiskardo or Assos** instead of returning โ the north is far prettier than Argostoli, and the villages in the evening without day visitors are an entirely different experience.
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