This Argostoli shore excursion focuses on Cephalonia's history, from a 19th century lighthouse and a WWII memorial to a folk museum, before a boat ride through an underground lake and a photo stop at one of the island's best known beaches.
After meeting your guide, you begin with a scenic drive to the Lighthouse of Saint Theodoroi, a circular, 20-column structure on a man-made peninsula near Argostoli. It was built in 1828 under British administrator Charles Napier, destroyed in Cephalonia's devastating 1953 earthquake, and rebuilt to its original design in 1960.
From there you drive to the memorial for the Acqui Division, the site where thousands of Italian soldiers were executed by German forces in September 1943 following Italy's armistice in the Second World War, one of the largest massacres of prisoners of war during the conflict. The event later provided the historical background for the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin and its film adaptation.
You then visit the Folklore Museum, which displays traditional costumes, tools, and household items that illustrate life on Cephalonia in the 19th century, along with personal items from the island's period of British rule and photographs of Cephalonia before the 1953 earthquake.
Next you take the coastal road to the Cave Lake of Melissani, where a short walk through a tunnel leads to the underground lake and small wooden boats carry you across the water and into the surrounding chambers.
Before returning to the pier, you stop for photos at Myrtos Beach, known for its pale pebble shoreline and turquoise water framed by steep cliffs. At the end of the excursion, your driver-guide returns you to the pier in Argostoli.