Beautiful Zante - Florence of Greece (Part One) [My Travel Blog]
Zakynthos or simply Zante is another beautiful island in Ionian sea. Paradise made of green hills and blue sea, it is stunningly beautiful pearl of Greece.
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Zakynthos is one of those islands - not too small to be boring and not big enough to really get lost. You will enjoy while exploring beautiful beaches and hills covered with olive trees and pine forests. With the length of the coastline of 120 km, it is a perfectly sized. For me, it was the ideal balance between being adventurous while looking for new beaches and lazy while enjoying them.
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Even though the official name of the island and the capital town is Zakynthos, the only name you will hear when you get there is Zante. Long and amazing history of this island is to be blamed for the short name used by the local population.
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Through history, this island was governed by many: Romans, Byzantines, Athenians, Macedonians, French, British, Germans... But one governance was very progressive, growing and prosperous - Venetian Period. Venetian name of this beautiful island is - Zante.
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Venetians included Zante into their provinces in 15th centuries, and all agree that it was beginning of the golden era. It was period of prosperity, harmony and freedom during which island was flourish from the cultural and architectonic point of view. In those days, Zante deserved the name of Greek Florence.
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From those days, roughly half of population of the island was Venetian. Centuries after, they did not forget their roots and the era of prosperity. It is quite normal to meet Greek who declare itself as Venetian-Italian or to meet Greek girl who looks exactly like Italian supermodel.
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Except for amazing Venetian architecture, this island is home to some of most beautiful beaches you can find in whole Greece. From small inlets hidden in the forest to spacious wide beaches. From those made of sand, small rocks to those where only bravest can swim - this island can offer everything. For sure you are going to find the perfect one just for you.
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If you can sustain spending day(s) in the small boat and if you are immune to seasickness, you must see the island from the sea. Let me just mention amazing marble beaches (yes - sand is white), and even more beautiful Blue Caves. Swimming in amazingly blue water in some of those caves is something you will never forget.
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On the very end, trademark of Greek beaches and most common photo on tourist guides - Navagio Beach also known as Shipwreck Beach is exactly there on Zante. But, this beautiful beach and legends vs true stories about that beach deserve a separate post.
Until then, enjoy Zante, another beautiful pearl of Greece.
Click on image for full sizeI hope you will enjoy in these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.
This blog entry is part of My Travel Blog series. All my posts are !originalworks and all my photos are @originalworks
I have many more travel stories in my bag, so stay tuned.
To see all entries featured on @SteemitWorldMap, click here to visit my author link.
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Hiya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in today's #TravelDigest!
That's great news, thank you very much @steemitworldmap :)
Beautiful photos! I want to visit Greece next year but did not know about this beautiful island. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Will definitely keep it in mind.
You're welcome, I am glad If I can help. You may find in my previous posts couple about Corfy - another beautiful island in Greece, and soon I may write about another one island - Thassos :) ... yes, I spend a lot of time there :D
I will find your other post about Corfy. And look forward to the post about Thassos. Keep the good travel ideas coming! haha
wow, what an absolutely gorgeous place- i'd for sure like to travel there! <3 thanks for taking us with you.
Thank you very much. Zakynthos is a very nice place, where you can choose between quiet places for the day and rich nightlife in the evening :)
Wow, these are incredible photos. I can't believe we missed this area when were in Greece. Thanks!
Thank you very much, very kond of you. Actually I believe that every island in Greece hides something worth visiting :)
Amazing photographs and a wonderful post about an island completely unknown to me. I'm guessing I'd like it, and a small boat trip around sounds great to me!
Thanks for a wonderful post!
Thank you very much, it is great to rent a boat - on almost every island I've been is worth extra expense :)
Beautiful GREECE ❤🔝
Yes, exactly :)
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Opa, naslovnica... :D
Izgleda da se WorldMap i ja vrlo dobro slazemo, vrlo cesto sam u njihovom izboru :)
Dobar fotograf
Hehe... puno hvala :)
This is such a beautiful post! Loved all the photographs especially that of the carpets hanging. People sell rugs, carpets and other items like this on the roadside here in Pakistan too. Enjoyed this post so resteeming it for better exposure and will also add it to my curation post later today or tomorrow. :)
Yes, I liked a lot. On the other side of the street, there was olive oil, cheese, wine and some local sweets. And that's village in almost middle of the island I found accidentaly while travelling across island.