North of Mount Ainos, the scenery stays dramatic all the way to the northern tip of Kefalonia.

Sámi and around

Affable low-key Sámi, looking out towards Ithaki, is Kefaloniá’s biggest port, replaces ancient Same; on the hills above are the ancient walls, where the citizens put up a heroic four-month resistance to the Romans in 187 BC before their inevitable defeat and sale into slavery.

In 2000, Sámi endured a modern siege for the shooting of the film version of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. A mock-Venetian waterfront façade was constructed to recreate old Argostóli; for the first time in almost 60 years, Italian artillery was seen thundering through the streets.

In 2021, the village opened the well-curated four room Archaeological Collection of Sami, with local finds from the Bronze Age to Byzantine times, including Roman mosaics. Its proud nautical traditions have also recently found a home in the Nautical Museum of Sami, full of intricate models of Greek ships through the ages constructed by retired shipbuilding Sotiris Marketos—plus a model of the Titanic.