We’ve spent over three years on the Cote d’Azur now, and have managed to see quite lot of this very beautiful part of the world. One place we’ve not had the opportunity to visit yet, though, is Corsica. Corsica has a reputation of being a very beautiful place indeed (the French like to call l it “L'Île de Beauté”). Some people also have less positive things to say about Corsica – some members of the nationalist movement give the island a bit of a bad name with their bombings etc. Some even say that Corsicans, on the whole, are not the friendliest lot around… So, for this year’s eastern holidays, we decided it was time for us to find out for ourselves whether the clichés hold true…
After a rather hectic morning of packing and cleaning up the house, we embarked on our journey on a very sunny Saturday afternoon, taking the ferry from Nice to Ajaccio (the capital of Corsica). The sea voyager was a rather pleasant one, since the weather really looked promising. We arrived very late, so didn’t really have time to explore Ajaccio that evening. We spent Sunday morning exploring the place, starting with the Napoleon monument, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. Napoleon is, I suppose, the most famous Corsican around (I suppose some fanatical Tino Rossi fans might disagree…); and he was born in Ajaccio. We then headed down to the town centre for a quick walk around. Turns out there isn’t that much to see in Ajaccio, actually. The old town is pleasant enough, but just covers a few blocks. An there is, of course, the imposing citadel, guarding the port of Ajaccio. After a visit to the local market in the port, where we stocked up on supplies for our trip, we headed out into the Ajaccian hinterland, into the Gravona valley.
Not far away from Ajaccio, we were met by some very pretty scenery indeed. We quickly noticed that the landscapes are quite different from those found on the Cote d’Azur. The hills just look a lot greener here. The fact that Corsica has (at least up until now) largely been spared of the property development boom which has given a rather ugly concrete façade to parts of the Riviera, also helps… We started off by visiting what is apparently a typical Corsican village, Bocognano. The villages struck as quite different from the Provencal ones we’re used to. The Corsican ones are kind of “less cute”, and can appear a bit run down. But they also seem like “real places”, with a lot of character and local colour. After a quick picnic lunch, we headed off to another charming little village called Vero. After a nice hike in the pretty surrounding hills, we decided to leave the Gravona valley and find our lodgings for the rest of our stay. After a very scenic drive along the Corsican coastline, we finally arrived in Serra di Ferro, where we checked into the apartment we’d rented for the week.
We started Monday by another excursion into the Corsican interior, doing a mini-road trip which took in a couple of more pretty Corsican villages – with the highlight being Olmeto. From there, we drove down to Sartène, which is known as the “most Corsican of Corsican towns”. Its history is filled with stories of vendetta (another well-documented “phenomenon” Corsica is famous for), and traditions hold firm here, apparently… It’s certainly quite an atmospheric place, with a sort of dour medieval feel to it (again, less flowery and pretty than some of the Provencal towns we’ve visited). We decided it would be the perfect place to try some traditional Corsican cuisine. We ended up in a place that was no doubt touristy, but still managed to feel somehow authentic (including the less-than enthusiastic service…). I had Corsican charcuterie as a starter, and wild boar with mashed potatoes as a main course, washed down with some nice local red wine. The cuisine can’t get much more Corsican than that ;-). After the filling meal, we joined Youcef and Warda, friends from the mainland who happened to be in Corsica at the same time, for a coffee on the main square. After a walk around Sartène with them, we headed together down to Propriano. Propriano is one of the more touristy places in Corsica (let’s not forget about that aspect of Corsica, it does get overrun by tourists during the summer…), without much cultural interest. But the port is nice enough for a stroll around, and the crepes we had weren’t bad either ;-).
On Tuesday, we decided to stay local, since the area surrounding our little village is very pretty as well. We started the day with a brisk walk down to the local “resort”, Porto Pollo. I put quotation marks, since Porto Pollo is a pretty sleepy place for a tourist resort – and all the better for it. After a stroll across the nearly deserted beach, we found ourselves in the port, where we decided to have lunch. The place we chose wasn’t the cheapest in town, no doubt, but the freshly caught fish they served was absolutely delicious, and the desert wasn’t bad either… And the white wine we had was a real delight as well, just perfect for the sunny weather we were blessed with. After the rather long lunch, we carried on walking along the stunning coastline, until we found a nice little private beach, where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon, just relaxing. As you may have guessed, we were seriously falling for the beauty of Corsica…
After a rather hectic morning of packing and cleaning up the house, we embarked on our journey on a very sunny Saturday afternoon, taking the ferry from Nice to Ajaccio (the capital of Corsica). The sea voyager was a rather pleasant one, since the weather really looked promising. We arrived very late, so didn’t really have time to explore Ajaccio that evening. We spent Sunday morning exploring the place, starting with the Napoleon monument, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. Napoleon is, I suppose, the most famous Corsican around (I suppose some fanatical Tino Rossi fans might disagree…); and he was born in Ajaccio. We then headed down to the town centre for a quick walk around. Turns out there isn’t that much to see in Ajaccio, actually. The old town is pleasant enough, but just covers a few blocks. An there is, of course, the imposing citadel, guarding the port of Ajaccio. After a visit to the local market in the port, where we stocked up on supplies for our trip, we headed out into the Ajaccian hinterland, into the Gravona valley. 
Not far away from Ajaccio, we were met by some very pretty scenery indeed. We quickly noticed that the landscapes are quite different from those found on the Cote d’Azur. The hills just look a lot greener here. The fact that Corsica has (at least up until now) largely been spared of the property development boom which has given a rather ugly concrete façade to parts of the Riviera, also helps… We started off by visiting what is apparently a typical Corsican village, Bocognano. The villages struck as quite different from the Provencal ones we’re used to. The Corsican ones are kind of “less cute”, and can appear a bit run down. But they also seem like “real places”, with a lot of character and local colour. After a quick picnic lunch, we headed off to another charming little village called Vero. After a nice hike in the pretty surrounding hills, we decided to leave the Gravona valley and find our lodgings for the rest of our stay. After a very scenic drive along the Corsican coastline, we finally arrived in Serra di Ferro, where we checked into the apartment we’d rented for the week. 
We started Monday by another excursion into the Corsican interior, doing a mini-road trip which took in a couple of more pretty Corsican villages – with the highlight being Olmeto. From there, we drove down to Sartène, which is known as the “most Corsican of Corsican towns”. Its history is filled with stories of vendetta (another well-documented “phenomenon” Corsica is famous for), and traditions hold firm here, apparently… It’s certainly quite an atmospheric place, with a sort of dour medieval feel to it (again, less flowery and pretty than some of the Provencal towns we’ve visited). We decided it would be the perfect place to try some traditional Corsican cuisine. We ended up in a place that was no doubt touristy, but still managed to feel somehow authentic (including the less-than enthusiastic service…). I had Corsican charcuterie as a starter, and wild boar with mashed potatoes as a main course, washed down with some nice local red wine. The cuisine can’t get much more Corsican than that ;-). After the filling meal, we joined Youcef and Warda, friends from the mainland who happened to be in Corsica at the same time, for a coffee on the main square. After a walk around Sartène with them, we headed together down to Propriano. Propriano is one of the more touristy places in Corsica (let’s not forget about that aspect of Corsica, it does get overrun by tourists during the summer…), without much cultural interest. But the port is nice enough for a stroll around, and the crepes we had weren’t bad either ;-).
On Tuesday, we decided to stay local, since the area surrounding our little village is very pretty as well. We started the day with a brisk walk down to the local “resort”, Porto Pollo. I put quotation marks, since Porto Pollo is a pretty sleepy place for a tourist resort – and all the better for it. After a stroll across the nearly deserted beach, we found ourselves in the port, where we decided to have lunch. The place we chose wasn’t the cheapest in town, no doubt, but the freshly caught fish they served was absolutely delicious, and the desert wasn’t bad either… And the white wine we had was a real delight as well, just perfect for the sunny weather we were blessed with. After the rather long lunch, we carried on walking along the stunning coastline, until we found a nice little private beach, where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon, just relaxing. As you may have guessed, we were seriously falling for the beauty of Corsica…
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