GREECE: THE ISLAND OF ZAKYNTHOS

The Greek island of Zakynthos, brings back to our minds old school reminiscences and sonnets studied at high school.
Zante is in fact the homeland of Ugo Foscolo (a poet who personally also exhibited at the mature exams in the far post 1998). In particular, his sonnet "A Zacinto" illustrates the atmosphere of this beautiful island. From all this we immediately realize that this is a place full of history and culture and the same city of Zante with its harbor, the beautiful promenade and typically Venetian architecture, will give us many insights from this point of view.

But the island also presents remarkable opportunities from a naturalistic point of view. The enviroments are varied and you go from the beautiful beaches of the North Coast to the rugged cliffs of the South. The Laganà Gulf, nowadays almost all within a park, is practically a small, still calm sea with in the middle of an islet. The eastern beaches of this gulf are protected due to the many Caretta caretta sea-turtle that here come to nest.
In addition to the turtles, a large presence of this island is the monk seal still present in large numbers in these clear waters. If you are lucky you can also meet in areas very close to the resorts. Swimming with turtles is, instead, relatively common.
And in September it is easy to see the Queen falcon (Falco Elanorae) nest on the cliffs at the seaside and see it come back with insects and small mammals to feed the little ones.

I've been to this island several times but always many years ago when still photographed with the analogue. The few photographs, for this reason, have been retrieved and cleansed with great patience. I have been here in 2003, a research Campus on the Marine Bentofauna and Molluscs on behalf of the Tyrrhenian University of Natural Sciences of which I am vice-president and i counted, fish, sponges, algae and all organisms that live on the seabed.

Today the island is very touristy but in the less reachable eastern areas it has remarkable landscapes. You can not miss a visit to the famous wreck of the Panaciotis fishing vessel embedded in a beach of rare beauty but always very, very busy.

Zante is an island, so it can give us great photographic satisfactions and clear water where to dive, and where I will be happy to accompany you if you wish.

Visit the galleries and read the l'articolo that I wrote on Zakynthos Island.

For information on travel organization contact the author at the contact details provided in the "contacts" section.