The trek to Kefalonia is entitled "The Kefalonia I loved, Because it has a very personal character and is not a Kefalonia as touristy as we imagine it or as it became known from the film shot there "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", which gave the island an international radiation.

I shot it all, with the company and care of my friend Spyros Molfetas, a Kefalonian who lives in Athens and excels as a teacher (runs the ISA school), and his wife Katerina Iglesi (who owns a beautiful house in Mavrata). I visited them sights of the island, its beautiful cities, the Argostoli and Lixouri, its tourist resorts on Ace and Fiskardo and I was fascinated by the architecture of the only villages that survived the blow of Egelados in 1953, when he leveled most of the island.

And of course I bowed to the vendettas beaches of the island, starring Myrtos beach, which every year is characterized by the most beautiful in the world, and I discovered the unique Lake Melissani.

But my interest was focused on her part gastronomy and there Kefalonia has a lot to tell us.

First of all, the landscape of Kefalonia gives its stigma.

Gifted generously by nature, the island marries the green with the blue and the wild with the tame, as the north side of the island is characterized by rocky shores, while the south side by calm and lush hills and sweet, beautiful beaches. The vegetation of the island is lush, in the wooded mountain peaks of the mountain range of Ainos - which has been designated a national park - grows the Kefalonian spruce, while in the lower parts the pine, oak, cypress and in the lowlands the olive and the vine. THE livestock is highly developed -everywhere in the mountains you see flocks of sheep and goats- with parallel development of cheese-making, beekeeping in development, while viticulture thanks to the local varieties and especially its robolas gives winemakers the opportunity to make excellent wines.

The producers of Kefalonia optimistic, proud of their products, cooperate, talk. New units are created and extroversion targets are created.

Especially in wine, where progress is important, it would be very nice to present every year the new productions, the wines of the year, among them, to the public of the island, but also to the journalists of tasting, as is done in Santorini!

To wines from the 15 that exist I made a choice to find the most representative samples: Ο Robola Cooperative, first in strength but also with quality jumps, Kosmetatos with Gentilini with the highest quality and the greatest extroversion, the Slave with biodynamic cultures and interesting experiments and finally o Charitatos with its historic estate, the depiction of another perception of life.

Out of the dozens cheesemakers I met two, him Pantazato and Georgette Although their businesses are family owned, they have invested a lot in quality, they have become important producers managing to channel their products in the Athens market through the supermarkets of Vasilopoulos and Sklavenitis respectively.

We did not miss the opportunity to visit them fish farms of Kefalonia in Lixouri, which are pioneers both in the field of brood production, in the creation of new products and in export activities. And most importantly, to be a sample of a healthy business.

On cuisine of Kefalonia We met her both in the Kefalonian houses where we were hosted, but also in the few taverns and restaurants which we found open in winter, and which are ultimately what the people of Kefalonia prefer. Of course the protagonists were meat pies, The cod pies and cigarettes.

Warm thanks to Spyros Molfetta and Katerina Inglesi who hosted us and who helped us so much in the tour.