Travel Corner
Issue 89. Vol 1- (December 2023)
Gaze out at its calm azure water, hike its challenging yet exhilarating peaks, or just soak up the history of this island in the Mediterranean.
Towering above crushing waves of the Mediterranean Sea like a mighty fortress, Corsica will capture you with its strikingly diverse landscape from hidden bays and amazing beaches, to imposing rugged interior hiding lush valleys and winding narrow roads leading to charming old mountain villages.
No wonder a holiday trip to Corsica can keep you busy with incredibly varied options from outdoor activities such as hiking, swimming, diving and kayaking to relaxing boat trips, and immersing in the island’s past fame as a birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte.
With seven ports dotting its rugged coastline, there are several regular ferry crossings per day to Corsica from either France or Italy, with the fastest route of just under three hours from Piombino in Italy to the northeastern port of Bastia.
Flying is faster, it takes around two hours or slightly longer from Paris, for example, but you will have to rent a car on the island since the public transport is limited.
HIKERS’ PARADISE
With breathtaking landscape all around, hikers will be in their element attempting at least a part of the iconic GR20 or Fra Li Monti hike, which stretches for some 200 kilometres (km) across the steep mountains from Calenzana to Conca, traversing a large part of the island from north to south.
Earning a reputation as one of the toughest treks in Europe, it can take some 16 days for an experienced hiker to complete, advancing from one night refuge to the next with the northern section the hardest due to its steep and rocky trails.
It is recommended to only attempt the gruelling, but spectacular hike between June and late August. Corsica’s highest peaks remain snow-capped well into the spring, which may make the paths impassable in places, while after the summer the water might be scarce in the mountains.
SCENIC DRIVE
Driving south from Calenzana on the west coast, you can enjoy not only a beautiful scenery but also endless head-spinning switchbacks before arriving at the spectacular Les Calanques de Piana after over two hours.
These red and pink steep and narrow granite valleys on the way to the southern island capital of Ajaccio will tickle your imagination as they are shaped like mystical animals.
From Calanques, you can either continue south to Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon, one of the greatest leaders and personalities in European history, or make a detour to experience another spectacular, if hair-raising, drive across the mountains from Porto to Francardo.
Driving along the narrow, ever-bending, 79-km-long D84 road takes just over two hours on paper, but much longer in reality as you are likely to take numerous stops to take in the dramatic landscape of massive granite towers, vertiginous gorges, Alpine meadows and beautiful lakes. The summer traffic, wildlife, and cows on the road will also keep your travel time in check.
NAPOLEON’S LEGACY
Arriving in Ajaccio, there is no hiding from Napoleon and his monumental legacy. Besides street names, museums, and the house where he was born, you will be dwarfed by his towering sculpture in La Place d’Austerlitz, a square named after his most famous victorious battle in 1805 in today’s Czech Republic.
Featuring a mighty 15th century citadel built by the Genoese, Ajaccio became Corsica’s capital on orders of Napoleon in 1811, taking over from Bastia and becoming the largest settlement of the rugged island.
The meteoric rise and eventual bitter downfall of an ambitious artilleryman from a poor Corsican noble family remains one of the most gripping stories in European history.
Shaped by ideas of the Enlightenment and navigating chaotic brutality of the French Revolution, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France after conquering much of the continent, thanks to his strategic genius, both in the military and civil sphere.
Only a short walk from the art museum at the Palais Fesch, housing the largest collection of Italian Primitives after the Louvre, you can visit a museum at Maison Bonaparte, where Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769, and lived until he was nine years old.
Perched atop towering white limestone and sandstone cliffs some 130 km further south, Bonifacio, the oldest town on the island, will take your breath away with amazing views across to neighbouring island of Sardinia.
The only way to view the massive cliffs with houses lining the edge is by taking a boat tour from the harbour, which may also take you to a charming coastal cave nearby.
Another amazing view not to be missed is from the ramparts of the imposing citadel, which used to be equipped with heavy cannons, and whose old gateway still sports an original 16th century drawbridge.
Walking through a maze of charming narrow paved streets, you can come across a stone plaque commemorating Napoleon’s life in one of the houses on Rue des Deux Empereurs.
On a clear day back north in Bastia, you can even spot the Italian island of Elba some 57 km away, where Napoleon spent his first exile after he was forced to abdicate following a disastrous invasion of Russia and defeat in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, in today’s Germany.
Escaping Elba in 1815, Napoleon landed on the southern coast of France with just 1,142 soldiers and two cannons in a daring attempt to seize power.
After a shockingly successful march to Paris when other units joined him, his luck ran out in a pitched battle at Waterloo against the British and Prussians, in today’s Belgium. The defeat led to an irreversible second exile on the remote island of St Helena, where he died six years later guarded by the British.
