| Show greek island played important role in ill many wars the greek island ol of corfu ker kyra to the greeks took the leading place in news headlines when italy as a part of her albanian adventure seemed bent on seizing it and when great britain demanded hands off the island 40 miles long and 20 miles across at its widest point resembles a huge cornucopia slightly squeezed out of shape by a bant giant hand corfu lies ees at the head of the ionian sea like a watch tower over the strait of otranto door to the adriatic the northern or wide end is but two miles from the albanian shore while the southoe south nd is about 10 miles off the coast of greece corfu should be callous to wars and rumors of wars for 26 centuries it has played a part in many of the major political upheavals in europe and the mediterranean romans roans venetians genoese persians the normans of sicily british french turks and even mediterranean pirates at one time or another have had long or short control of the island once american naval base during the world war it was an imp important octant naval base with british french and italian ships thwarting any attempt of german or austrian submarines to venture out of the adriatic sea at one time 39 american can sub chasers temporarily were assigned to corfu waters to aid the allied fleet the most recent military occupation of corfu was by italian forces in 1923 several italian officers were sere killed near the then vague greco albanian border italy demanded an apology and an indemnity ol of the government of 0 greece submitted counter proposals which were refused for five days italian troops poured on onto to corfu italy and greece came to terms before the occupation was a month old and the fascist troops evacuated in range of altitude as w well ell as in plan corfu resembles a cornucopia the northern part of the island is is a 3 region of high mountains the midsection undulating hills and the southern extremity low plains bathed in mediterranean sunshine corfu has long been between wars a pleasure ground one of the ile isi is i lands prominent was wal kaiser wilhelm of germany wha purchased in 1907 the Achil AchiU leion eion a palace villa built for the unhappy empress elizabeth of austria idyllic lotus land homer described corfu as an idyl lie lic lotus land of beautiful people and a and nd othi otner i scenery where figs grapes fruits grow in abundance one of those other fruits today is olivean olive sn sll which cover large areas of the island when the venetians held sway for years from 1401 a b bouncy ty was paid for each olive tree plant ed this aroused in corfu agri agrical cul jurists and their descendants an in terest in olives that persists today the town of corfu is ab about out n anid side of the island illana way the eastern ersOll 01 reminders remind while there are a few the occupation of the island by its 1 numerous landlords the lower part pa of the town does take take the traveler back to the middle ages A laby jaw and linth of streets some too steep a wind vehicles ww narrow for wheeled aad i a through this section french italian architecture predominates predo minai but there is a bazaar that recalls acca the flavor of the east when turkey neigh nei i had her heel on corfu and its boring islands and mainland |
