The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: Ιόνια νησιά, Ionia nisia; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: Ἰόνιαι Νῆσοι, Ioniai Nēsoi) are a group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands"; Ἑπτάνησα), but the group includes many smaller islands in addition to the seven principal ones.
As a distinct historic region, they date to the centuries-long Venetian rule, which preserved them from the Muslim conquests of the Ottoman Empire, and created a distinct cultural identity with many Italian influences. The Ionian Islands became part of the modern Greek state in 1864. Administratively today, they belong to the Ionian Islands Region except for Kythera, which belongs to the Attica Region.
Western Greece Region is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It comprises the western part of continental Greece and the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It occupies an area of 11,336 km2 (4,377 sq mi) and its population is, according to the 2011 census, at 679,796 inhabitants. The capital of the Western Greece is Patras, the third-largest-city in the country with a population of about 280,000 inhabitants. The NUTS 2 code for the region of Western Greece is EL63.
The Peloponnese or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. From the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, the peninsula was known as the Morea, a name still in colloquial use in its demotic form.