Zacinto (37o47’22.24’’N – 20o47’49.36’’E)

Zacinto, commonly called Zakynthos by the past poets, is the southern and third biggest island belonging to the Ionie’s group of islands. Zakynthos, island of big contrasts for the presence of golden beaches and massive rocky coasts, benefits from a Mediterranean temperate climate with mild winters and cool summers; the generous winter rains favour the growth of thick vegetation and assure a remarkable water reserve. That is why the island is very “green” and in the past both Homer and the Venetian rulers used to call it “wooded” and “Levant flower”.The very warm waters that wash the coast favour a particularly long tourist season (from May till the end of October) made Zakynthos an object of international interest especially because in the southern part of the island the CARETTA-CARETTA turtles breed; they are a rare specimen protected by the Greek legislation with a new marine park. Along the rocky, western coasts the seals Monachus Monachus breed too and they are also protected by the local administrative authorities. Artemis, goddess of hunting, used to wander around the green woods of Zakynthos whereas her brother Apollo used to play the lira under bay trees to chant the beauty of the island.
News about the island founder are from Homer and concern Zakynthos. Zakynthos, as island founder, is represented in various coins and symbol of the entire island. In the symbol Zakynthos is holding a snake since, according to some legends, he freed the island from snakes. There is also another theory according to which the Arcades, in the first millennium before Christ, reached the island with the intention of founding new colonies and to confirm those origins there is the prove of the inhabitants’ talent for music and the cult of the goddess Artemis typical of Arcadia.