The first city founded was the Odyssean Asti . As for its location, the opinions of archaeologists are divided.

 In contrast to the rich History of Ithaca, the archaeo­logical research has been comparatively limited with the most important being done by foreign scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The small rocky island of Ithaca has become known worldwide through Homer’s epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”. Many people may not know its exact location, but they know Ithaca as the island of Odysseus since Ithaca and Odysseus are conceptualized together.

There is no indication from the very little ancient written information which has survived, that Ithaca is not the Homeric one. The ancient philosophers and writers Porphyry, Thucidides, Plutarch, Apollodoros, Cicero and Acousilaos, all refer to the island as Ithaca centuries after Homer’s time. The philo­sopher Aristotle writes about “The State of the Ithacans”, indicating that the island was autonomous, this was confirmed when coins of “The State of Ithaca” and “Odysseus” were found from recent exca­vations on the island. During the Roman era, the Greek geographer Strabo was the first to discover that several ancient writers disputed as to the geographi­cal position of Ithaca, unfortunately none of these documents are known to exist today.

In recent centuries many archaeologists and re­searchers came to Ithaca to investigate if it was the Homeric island.

Routes that connect Ithaca to Lefkas.

You can get to/from Ithaca from/to Patras with F/B Dionisios Solomos.

The museum collections include finds from the Geometric to the Roman years of excavations in the Aetos and the other locations.

 The island has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC. It was the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period. The Romans occupied the island in the 2nd century BC, and later it became part of the Byzantine Empire.

Dexa beach is narrow beach with shallow water, situated 1.5 km north from Vathi along the road to Aetos and northern Ithaca. The beach is ideal for families with children and it has been awarded the blue flag.

Vathy (or Vathi) is the capital of Ithaca since 1500 and has a population of 1700 people. Vathy’s is build like an amphitheatre around it's natural port (the Homeric Forkys port) which is 300m. wide and its length is 926m.