The island has been a part of Greece only since 1864. Before that it was, for 50 years, a British protectorate… the British left the beginnings of a road and water system. They took over from the French, who were on Corfu long enough to make the famous Liston, reminiscent of Paris’s Rue de Rivoli. (The Liston was so named because you had to be on the "list of Corfiot well-born" before being allowed to sit there). The 300 previous years had been under benign Venetian rule and that legacy can still be seen today both in architecture and the millions of olive trees, which provide a supplement to income for many Corfiots.