Corfu

The Venetians built on two rock peaks, cut off from the town by a canal. Climbing to the lighthouse at the top opens the whole eastern coast.

An arcade copied from a Paris street during French rule, now a line of cafes. On the green in front of it cricket matches are played through the summer.

An Austrian empress had this built in 1890, with a statue of Achilles in the garden. The hill it occupies turns the balcony south over the island.

Six small bays sit between the cliffs, and the depth turns the water dark. Tickets for the boat round the sea caves are bought at the jetty itself.

A split in the sandstone cliff makes a channel about four metres wide. People jump from the top, which is dangerous without knowing the depth.

Two small islands lie offshore beyond the end of the runway. The nearer one is reached on foot and the far one by a five minute boat.

Trees planted under Venetian orders have grown for centuries into twisted trunks. Walking the paths between them you hear the fruit dropping.

A narrow road climbs to the 906m summit, and on a clear day the Albanian coast shows. A monastery and a transmitter mast share the top.

A route of 220km runs the island from south to north over about ten days. Villages fall along each section, so most walkers take it a day at a time.

A village abandoned on the mountainside keeps 130 stone houses. A handful have been turned into tavernas, and people have started coming back.

The island's patron saint lies here in a silver casket, beneath the old town's tallest, red-capped bell tower. Four times a year his relics are carried round the streets and Corfu stops for the day. Pilgrims queue to enter the side chamber and kiss the casket.

Venetian engineers piled it onto a western hilltop above the old port as the 1500s closed. Tunnels twist through its walls, and up top the rooftops and the Old Fortress fit one frame. It draws far fewer visitors than its older sibling.

Housed in the Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George, built in the late 1810s for the British Lord High Commissioner. It began with the Chinese and Japanese ceramics and armour of diplomat Gregorios Manos. Few Greek museums deal in Asian art alone.

A neoclassical villa built around 1830 for the British High Commissioner and his wife; Prince Philip was born in it in 1921. It now shows finds from the ancient city of Palaiopolis. Temple of Hera ruins lie scattered through the wooded park.

A 13th-century Byzantine castle clings to a crag over 300m above the northwest shore. It held out against Ottoman sieges in the 16th century, and the chapel on top overlooks Paleokastritsa. Walkers leave cars at Krini and tackle a steep path.

Fishing boats fill this northeastern harbour; past its ruined medieval castle, Albania's mountains loom across the strait. Tavernas wrap the harbour; swimmers use the rocks below the castle. Budget upward of an hour on the winding coast road from Corfu Town.

Its star is the Gorgon from the pediment of an early 6th-century BC temple of Artemis, counted the oldest surviving stone pediment in Greece. Panthers crouch either side of the tongue-poking Gorgon. With only a few rooms, it fits between ferry times.

Lawrence Durrell spent the 1930s in the White House on this northeastern pebble bay, right by the water. Its ground floor is now a taverna with tables at the sea's lip. Clear, calm water draws snorkellers between the rocks.