The Kanoni viewpoint
The island and Vlacherna in one scene on still water.
Dimitris Pachakis โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Marc Ryckaert โ CC BY 3.0 ยท Catsimpoolas, Nicholas โ Public domain ยท
**Mouse Island** โ a very small island covered in cypresses, with a little white Byzantine chapel rising out of them, in still water off Kanoni. The name comes from *pontiki*, "mouse" โ said to derive from the white stairway up to the chapel, which from a distance looks like a mouse's tail. But its best-known story is mythical: the **Odyssey** has the Phaeacians โ the people of this island in the epic โ carry **Odysseus** home in their ship, at which **Poseidon**, angered, turned the returning vessel to **stone**. Local tradition points at Pontikonisi as that petrified ship. โ And the practical reality: **most people never set foot on it** โ it is essentially **a view to be looked at** from the Kanoni terrace, where the island sits beside Vlacherna Monastery in the single most photographed scene on the island.
The island and Vlacherna in one scene on still water.
A stairway among the cypresses that gave the island its ยซmouseยป name.
The approach path passes right overhead โ a sight many people love.
Kanoni, 49100 Corfu, Greece
**Just look โ unless you collect places.** โ **What you see from the Kanoni terrace is the picture** that brought you here: the island, the cypresses, the chapel, Vlacherna and its narrow causeway, all in one frame โ **and it is free**. โ **What you find if you cross**: an island you cross in **five minutes**, a chapel **usually locked**, a short stair, and no explanation or facilities โ while losing the angle that makes the place beautiful in the first place, because you are now **inside** the picture rather than in front of it. โ **When is crossing worth it?** If you have children who enjoy the boat ride itself, if you want to swim off the nearby water, or if you like standing in a place you have read about. โ And note: the boat is **seasonal and stops in wind** โ check on the day.
**Corfu is the traditional candidate for Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians in the epic.** In the **Odyssey**, Odysseus is washed up wrecked after a storm on the shore of an island ruled by King Alcinous; the princess **Nausicaa** finds him on the beach and takes him to her father's palace, where he is honoured and tells his whole story โ one of the best-known passages in the poem. The Phaeacians then carry him home to Ithaca, and **Poseidon** punishes their ship by turning it to stone at the mouth of their harbour. โ **The identification with Corfu is old** and traditionally accepted since classical times, โ but it is **not an established archaeological fact** โ Homer's geography is poetic, and other islands have competing claims. โ **As a visitor**: take it for what it is โ a fine literary layer over the place, which lets a small rock in the water carry three thousand years of story.
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