Bochali occupies the highest hill to the west of downtown Zakynthos. It is one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods and the first area to be settled outside the castle. It is a verdant suburb, with houses appearing among pine and olive trees. The nobles of Zakynthos selected Bochali to build their elegant mansions, but the many earthquakes that have struck Zakynthos have destroyed almost all of them. In fact, the whole area could be considered the child of Enceladus, the ancient Greek monster said to be the cause of earthquakes. Dionysios Solomos captured the beauty of this place when he described it as “a chasm opened by an earthquake that immediately filled with flowers”.