The Ionian Islands stretch south from the Adriatic, where Corfu's Pantokrator mountain overlooks Albania across narrow straits, along the western coast of mainland Greece through Paxi, Kephalonia, Ithaca, Lefkada and Zakynthos, to Kythira, midway between Athens and Crete. Three crucial sea-battles were fought here - Sybota (the first recorded), Actium and Lepanto - an indication of the Ionians' role as an East-West crossroads, between Western Christendom and the Orthodox and Islamic East.Ruled by Venice in her Stato da Mar (sea-empire), the islands became an independent state, as the...