Samos is one of the East Aegean Islands and the birth place of famous ancient mathematician Pithagoras. The picture above is a monument dedicated to him which is standing at the port of Pithagorio, a town recently renamed after him.
Amongst all the Greek island Samos is situated closest to the Turkish coast. Turkish element is, however, very scarse, except that there is quite a lot of tourists (including Greeks and Turks) come from and go to Turkey.
Different from many of the Aegean islands, Samos is relatively rich in water and fertile. It produces wine - well-known is its sweet, reddish (Moschato) wine -, honey, timber and olive oil.
The most noteworthy ancient site is the sanctuary of Hera (Heraion). There is a relatively large archaeological museum in Vathy (Samos) - capital city of the island. There is another one in Pithagorio, but it is no more than a large room; I heard that there was a plan to build a larger one that would include the castle of Logothethes.
The high-speed boats from Samos (to Patmos, Lispi, Leros, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos, Fourni, Ikaria) depart from Pithagorio; for the information about time table and ticket prices, see Pithagorio page.
You can rent a car in major towns like Vathy and Pithagorio. When we visited the island the summer 2006, the cheapest one costed €35 (price changes from agent to agent quite significantly; ask around). If you rent for a longer period, you can get a better deal. It was easy to drive.
