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The largest island, [[Kefallinia prefecture|Kefallinia]] (746 square kilometers), is due west of the Gulf of Patras, which separates the western Peloponnesus from the mainland. Mountainous and rocky, Cephalonia and its smaller neighbor [[Ithaca]] (Ithaki) grow mainly olives and currants. Thirty centuries ago, Ithaca was the homeland to which the legendary Homeric voyager [[Odysseus]] sought to return after the [[Trojan War]].
[[Corfu]] (Kerkira) is the northernmost of the main islands, lying off the coast of Albanian ([[Northern Epirus]] and [[Epirus|Greek Epirus]]. Corfu, with an area of 593 square kilometers, is dominated in the north by a mountain range that virtually severs its northern coastal plain from the territory to the south. The fertile southern lowland is cultivated intensively to grow olives, figs, citrus fruits, and grapes.
Settled by colonists from [[Euboea]] in the eighth century B.C., Corfu had a sporadically independent existence during the citystate era, participating on various sides in the wars among citystates in the fifth century and fourth century B.C. In the two millennia that followed, the strategic location of Corfu between Greece and Italy caused it to change hands many times; the capital city, [[Corfu (city)|Kerkira]], contains a citadel built by the Venetians in 1550. The island was finally ceded by the British to Greece in 1864.
