The Ionian sits off Greece’s western coast, closer to Italy than to Athens. With more rainfall, it’s greener, with plane trees over village squares and wildflowers in spring. The sea is calmer too, and the light is softer, filtered through leaves as it falls on stone.

Corfu has a grand Venetian town of pastel façades and arcades, an interior of olive groves and cypress hills, quiet coves along the northeast coast and long beaches on the west. Kefalonia is wilder: forest-clad mountains rise to nearly seventeen hundred metres, and white cliffs frame bays like Myrtos. The lively Zakynthos has a quieter north of cliff-edge trails, sea caves and long stretches of sand where the loggerhead turtles still nest.

Across the Ionian, days move slowly. Swim in water that stays warm into October, walk old donkey paths, sail between islands in a single day, then dine with a view of the water. Stay at a luxury wellness hotel or a yoga retreat, or let the sea, the gentle light and the island paths do the work. The Ionian is Greece at its greenest, and easy to settle in for weeks at a time.