Corfu Town is unlike anywhere else in Greece. Four centuries of Venetian rule left the island with an architectural character that belongs more to the Adriatic than the Aegean — tall narrow houses in ochre and terracotta, arcaded streets modelled on Venice’s Procuratie, and fortresses built by the Serenissima to hold back the Ottomans. Walking the Campiello district in the old town on a warm August evening, it’s easy to forget which country you’re in.
The Old Fortress sits on a rocky promontory at the east end of the old town, separated from the main settlement by a moat. The views from the top out over the Ionian Sea and towards the Albanian coast are exceptional on a clear day — which in August is reliably most days. The new fortress to the north-west of the town is less visited but equally interesting architecturally.
The beaches on the north and west coasts — Paleokastritsa, Sidari, Agios Georgios — are properly beautiful, the water is clear and warm, and the tavernas along the waterfront serve grilled fish with a directness and simplicity that’s exactly what beach holidays are supposed to be about. Corfu is busy in August and unabashedly so, but the old town absorbs it well and rewards anyone who gets up before the crowds to walk its lanes in the morning light.