Ithaca Trail 01B

Wonderful route on the south-eastern slopes of Ithaca that leads to the Homeric Arethousa Fountain, an integral part of the visit of all the travelers of the previous centuries who were looking for spots of Homeric Ithaca. Arethusa Krini is listed as Arethusa Fons on all 17th century maps of Ithaca, as one of the main toponyms of the island. The path has a smooth downhill slope and crosses a landscape that nowhere shows the presence of man. Even the xeroliths are absent, a sign that the area was not suitable for crops and was only suitable for pasture. The slopes are overgrown with low bushes and offer a wonderful view towards the south-eastern coastline of Ithaca, the deep blue waters of the Ionian Sea and the green islet of Pera Pigadi. The path after five bends, which pass through the same number of ridges of the mountain, will suddenly lead you to a breathtaking landscape! You are in front of an imposing precipitous rock, the Korakos Petra - a huge geological rift at the base of which the spring with the Homeric name has been carved.

Here Eumaeus used to water his animals. Up high you see the fertile plateau of Marathias abruptly interrupted by the vertical rock. On the left, the deep bed of the gorge, overgrown with vines, ligaria and myrtles. An evocative image, which always impressed the "high visitors" of Ithaca in the 19th century (William Gell, William Martin Leake, H.W. Williams, Edward Lear, Joseph Cartwrite, Ludwig Salvator) who would not miss coming  here, to be inspired, to record their impressions and depict the landscape in engravings, lithographs and sketches. A few meters before the spring, the path descends to the left towards the sea and brings you to the quiet beach of Pera Pigadi.