Venetian, French and British Corfu

Corfu is the Greek island that looks west. Venice ruled it for about four centuries, France built its arcade, Britain left cricket and ginger beer, and the Ionian Sea gave it its coves. This is the short guide to the layers you will see on any walk.

Visiting the forts and museums? Opening hours, tickets and free days for 20 museums and historic sites.

An island of coves

The east coast is gentle and sheltered, with pebble coves and calm, shallow water facing Albania and the mainland. The west faces the open sea: bigger bays, long sandy beaches, more swell and the sunsets. Paleokastritsa, in the north west, packs six beaches into three bays under wooded cliffs. The Traveler Santorini Dave

Swim and eat: our beach guide, the boat in tavernas at Agni and the west coast beach bars.

Venetian Corfu

From the 15th century Corfu was under Venetian rule for some four centuries. Venetian engineers designed the town's forts, which defended Venice's sea trade against the Ottoman Empire, and the Old Town grew up behind them; today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. UNESCO

Venice is still on the plate. The island's best known dishes, pastitsada, sofrito and bourdeto, show the Venetian influence, and noumboulo, the smoked pork fillet, takes its name from the Italian nobile. Greeka Gastronomos

French Corfu

After Venice came France. The arcaded Liston, built under French rule, is still where the town takes its coffee, and one of its cafes is named after Josephine, Napoleon's wife. Greeka

British Corfu

From 1815 to 1864 the Ionian Islands were a British protectorate, and the British repaired and partly rebuilt the forts. They left cricket on the Spianada, tsitsibira, the island's ginger beer, which the Alkinoos taverna in Old Perithia still brews to a family recipe, and the kumquat, now made into liqueurs and spoon sweets by producers such as Lazaris. UNESCO Gastronomos

In the 1930s the Durrell family lived on the island, and Lawrence Durrell wrote Prospero's Cell at the White House on the point at Kalami. Beyond Riviera Greece Tours

Greek Corfu

In 1864 the islands joined Greece (Enosis). Every layer is still in use: you can watch cricket from a French arcade, drink ginger beer under a Venetian fort, and finish with kumquat liqueur.

More: places to explore, Taste of Corfu, the A to Z and the Beaches and places forum.