Agios Petros (Greek: Άγιος Πέτρος) is a town in the municipality of Apollonii of the Lefkada Prefecture in the southern part of the Lefkada Island in Greece.

This village is 6 km northwest of Vassiliki and is linked with a roads to Vassiliki and Lefkada, as well as the GR-42, which leads to the mainland with a drawbridge.

Agios Petros, is a traditional mountainous village with a magical view to the south of Vassiliki.

It is built amphitheatrically on the verdant slopes of a mountain and offers an astonishing view. Kalamitsio has 13 old windmills and many beautiful churches which are scattered around the area, among which the most famous is the chapel of Panagia stous Kipous (Virgin in the Gardens)..
Accommodations built according to the traditional mountainous style, taverns and traditional cafes can be found in picturesque Kalamitsio.

The small village of Kalamitsio is located 23 kilometres south-west of the island’s capital on a green slope and enjoys a magnificent panoramic view.

Tsoulakades is a pleasant enough village with some pretty houses which are symptomatic of the design on the island: notice the orange curved tiles on the roofs of the houses which are almost uniform in their design.

There are a few hotels here, although it is mostly poplated by locals’ dwellings.
A road slopes down from here to Kaminia beach which is pleasant enough and fairly unpopulated.

Gyra is one of Lefkada’s most important natural beauties. This narrow strip of white sand embraces the lagoon on the north of the island and makes the landscape quite special. Gyra begins from the point almost behind the Kastro, creating Ammoglossa (sand tongue) and reaching as far as the other side, beyond the town.

Inside the lagoon is the ‘ivari,’ where fish are bred in special, traditional wicker baskets and which grow within natural conditions. Lefkada also has a large lake that welcomes large masses of fowl and fauna every year. You will be able to admire herons, Kalimanes, swans, wild geese and ducks.
You may also be interested in checking out the Folklore museum which has many fine hand woven materials and examples of traditional clothing, among other interesting exhibits. There is an archeological museum that has ceramics and other Greek exhibits from excavations in Nudri and also sculptures, vessels and a collection of icons. The demotic library includes a collection of icons of Byzantine art from the Ionian college of the 17th, 18th and 19th century.

The library also houses old, rare books and manuscripts. The Photograhy Museum, meanwhile, has many interesting photographs and souvenirs of romantic Lefkada.

Lefkada’s sights

Lefkada’s sights include:
•    Its churches (basilicas) with their unusual architecture influenced by the Venetians and their Ionian Island (post – Cretan school) wall paintings and delightful wooden carved iconostases, some of which are covered in gold leaf.
•    The Archaeological Museum of Lefkada, whose collection includes finds from Early and Mid-Bronze Age graves at Nydhri, the necropolis of the ancient city of Leucas and from various other areas on the island.
•    The lagoon includes one of the most remarkable wetlands in the Ionian region which is protected under the Ramsar Convention as an internationally important wetland, with an age-old fish farm. It is also home to a large number of charming bird species such as gulls, herons, swans, wild ducks, wild geese, etc.
•    The Gramophone Museum is a small private museum with gramophones, records, rare everyday objects, and decorative items. It was put together by a local dedicated collector.
•    The Municipal Library is housed in a neo-classical building. It has a large number of books and houses a rich collection of post-Byzantine icons primarily in the Ionian School by artists such as the Ionian Island hagiographers Doxaras, Patsaras, Roussos, etc.
•    The Santa Maura castle which protected the island capital from the first decade of the 14th century to 1684 as a defense against both pirates and other enemies.
•    The four windmills at Gyra (the only ones left of the orginal twelve which once stood here). Most bear Russian names such as Orloff, Metzikoff, Moscovas and up until the beginning of the 20th century ground large quantities of wheat, much of which came from Russia.
•    The Haramoglios Special Lefkadiaki Library houses a collection of books and other documents either written by residents of the island or referring to issues directly related to Lefkada. This collection has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
•    The Church of Panaghia ton Vlachernon lies amid an ash green forest of olive trees. On the last Sunday of the Orthodox Carnival, 1821, the chieftains and dignitaries of the Greek Mainland gathered there on the initiative of Ioannis Zambelios (eminent member of the ‘Filiki Etaireia’ in Lefkada). It was there that they confirmed they would participate in the national struggle for liberation and would immediately declare revolution in their areas by taking an oath on a copy of the Holy Gospel, which has survived to this day.
•    Kouzubey is home to two traditional coffee shops which have survived in the shade of the centuries old olive trees, towering plane trees, and poplars. These coffee shops serve up traditional Greek fruit preserves, delicious fried potatoes, a vanilla flavoured dessert and soumada. Amid the quiet reigning over the olive grove, time comes to a standstill at these coffee shops; the pace slows down as ad hoc backgammon tournaments are organized on the small metal tables to the sound of interminable conversations.
•    Faneromeni Monastery: on the lovely hill which crowns Lefkada town, lies the Monastery of Panaghia Faneromeni, the island’s patron. It is built on the site of the ancient temple of Artemis. The miraculous icon of the virgin which is housed by the monastery was made by the Athonite monk Benjamin Kontrakis in 1876 on Mount Athos.

The central square is dominated by a huge plane tree, and the main street is lined with lace and embroidery shops. Come here for a cool evening in the middle of the summer and enjoy your dinner under the plane trees.

The small fishing harbour of Micros Yialos and its beautiful beaches are located in the area.

There is an annual celebration of the lentil with folk dances, lots of free wine and cooked lentils. The celebration takes place on top of the mountain by the small church of Profet Ilia

There are also opportunities to taste many traditional foods, go swimming on the beach of Vasiliki, or take the small boats for the beaches of Porto-Katsiki, Alektori and Agiofili.

The picturesque village is well-served with restaurants, small shops, and hotels, and the port supports ferries to nearby Ithaca and Cephalonia, making the town a minor centre for tourism.

Vasiliki Bay is reputed to offer excellent sailing conditions reliably from May through September and several companies take advantage of this by offering sailing and windsurfing excursions. The strong cross-shore wind is said to result from the interaction of the prevailing wind and the sea breeze. Sometime in the afternoon, heating of the hills to the east of the Bay accelerates the gentle sea breeze while turning it across the shore creating a strong, steady breeze. The Vasiliki Bay cross-shore breeze ranges between a strong breeze and a gale.

It combines the island’s largest fertile plain, Englimenos, with the mountain ranges of Platystoma, Vakeris, Neochori, Alatros and Fternos, with the beaches and tourist resorts that are visited by thousands of holiday-makers.

The large, leeward bay of Vlychos, which extends far into the dry land, constitutes an excellent natural harbour, hospitable to all the boats that sail in the waters of the Ionian Sea.

The whole of the Vlychos peninsular is a luscious green that hugs the coast and reaches round as far as the opposite side from Nydri.  And opposite, on the edge of the horizon, the coast of Akarnania on the Greek mainland, frames this unique and exquisite picture, a picture which differs during every hour of the day.

A few years ago, Nydri and its surrounding area was nothing more than a small fishing community. Most of the inhabitants lived in small, semi-mountain villages located higher up, at Rachi, Vavkeri and Platystoma, and were involved in agriculture, live-stock rearing and fishing, as were all the villagers of the island.

The rapid development of tourism gave the area a great push and won over the majority of the locals. Today, the place is very different from how it was in the past. In addition, the development of tourism also changed the demographic distribution. The residents moved from the interior mountain massifs to the coasts, where they became involved in tourism, while also continuing their winter agricultural occupations in the villages.

The whole of the coastal zone from the village of Periyiali as far as Vlychos has merged into one compact area. There are dozens of luxury hotels and rented rooms, restaurants, shops and tourist offices which offer up-to-date tourism facilities serving the most demanding visitor. The beautiful and immaculately clean sandy beach, which stretches out for kilometres ahead, provides bathers with the opportunity to try out all kinds of water sports. Even though the area is quite developed touristically, it has not lost its natural beauty.

Thick vegetation with olive trees, pines and cypresses provide a framework for the carefully constructed tourist infrastructure. The orderliness and cleanliness help to maintain exceptionally civilized surroundings. The region’s beauties are not just limited to its sandy beaches and to its cosmopolitan character. It also has many important historical, natural, as well as cultural monuments to show, both along the coast and inland.