Corsica and Northern Italy

 

The city of Séte seen from the ferry, just as we pulled away.

My, it's been a while! But we're just in from a long road trip through Northern Italy, starting with a ferry to the island of Corsica.

There's a lot to this, so let's start with that ferry trip......

We've been to Corsica before (it's that big island in the crotch between France and Italy). Twice, in fact. The first time we flew in and rented a car; the second time we had our own car, and took it on the ferry.

But a new ferry port has opened, less than an hour's drive from Montpellier, and we could not resist this "easy" route. ("Easy" in that last time, we had to drive to Toulon—3 hours—and spend the night to be on the ferry early in the morning.)

Eight in the evening found three of us (for our friend Debra accompanied us) waiting in the gathering darkness at the ferry dock in Séte. Eventually we were let on board and settled into our respective cabins, for this was a long overnight passage.

Sunrise, seen from our lodgings on Corsica. "Our" beach is down there somewhere...

We arrived, well rested and ready, at L'Île-Rousse in north-western Corsica. It was the early afternoon, so we made the quick drive to our lodgings, a house overlooking the Sea a few miles down the coast.

"Our" beach, a few minutes walk from our apartment.

We quickly discovered a quite fantastic beach a short walk down the hill. Every day we made it a point to put up our umbrella and lay out our towels, although we spent most of our time in the water. The lovely, warm, breathtakingly clear aqua water, where we would just float enjoying the sunshine and the hills surrounding the bay.

On our way to the beach, through the rocks and the pines.

Sunset.

Oh, but we got around a bit, too, visiting some of the hill towns, and some other beach towns. One evening we took a "sunset cruise," hiking around the point near our lodging as the sun went down. Memorable!

View of the Mediterranean coast from the interior.

A colorful door in the hill town of Pigna.

Again in Pigna. It's a very colorful town, full of art and music.

Paula looking through an iron gate, also in Pigna.

Our "sunset cruise" evening hike took us to the entrance to the Baie d'Algajo

Debra on the hike.

The Baie d'Algajo, not far from our lodgings.

Wind sculpted rocks seen on our hike.

But like all things, our stay there ended. We had a ferry to catch on the other side of the island taking us to Livorno, Italy. Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that, since we got word that our afternoon ferry was cancelled; we would have to take the one at 8AM instead. That shifted our schedule!

We say a final farewell to our gorgeous beach, Plage de Sant'Ambroggio.

We considered several options, finally deciding to leave our fine house overlooking the Sea a day early, and spending our last night in Bastia, close to the ferry dock. We lost a night in that house, and a morning on the beach. Oh, and host wouldn't refund our money. But when circumstances change...

Seen from a viewpoint as we crossed the island, looking north.
It's a very rugged interior!

We made a day of it, crossing the island from near L'Île-Rousse to Bastia. And it was a good thing, too. We'd briefly considered staying in our lodgings for one more night, leaving at 4AM to arrive in time for the ferry, but that would have been a Bad Idea: Corsica is very rugged, with the whole interior being a long mountain range, home to the toughest hiking trail in Europe. We stopped often on that incredibly narrow, winding road (no, not the hiking trail!), to join other cars, tour vans (too narrow for buses!), and many many motorcycles to enjoy the fabulous views. (Motorcyclists love Corsica; something about those endless, narrow winding roads.)

Seen in one village as we crossed the interior: a whole veal roasting for dinner. (We were told this large outdoor restaurant charged about $55USD per seat...)

And, the restaurant!
It's the Ferme Auberge Chez Edgard in the town of Lavatoggio, if you're thinking of going...

(Photo from the restaurant's website on Google) 

And we were horrified to think what it would have been like to drive these roads in the dark! Endless curves, never knowing what lay beyond the next turn... Yeah, we'd made the right choice, driving during the day.

We stopped for a leisurely lunch in the coastal town of Saint-Florent and saw a poster featuring an interesting-looking church, made of black and white stones arranged in stripes. We'd seen something similar on Sardinia, so we made a slight detour on our drive to Bastia.

The Église Saint-Michel de Murato, near Murato, Corsica.
A black-and-white church like the one we saw on Sardinia!

A detail from the doorway of the church,

Interior of the church.

Our drive across the island was leisurely, relaxed, and got us to Bastia in plenty of time to find our AirBnB and settle in for the night. We were up early the next morning to catch the ferry; we never did see much of Bastia!

Our ride to Italy, still unloading vehicles at 8AM.

We finally got on board! In the cavernous hold of the Mega Regina. 

What we saw of Bastia; from the deck of the ferry as we left.

Most of what we saw of Bastia was what was visible from the upper deck of the ferry as we pulled away. But that was ok, we had a whole 'nother adventure in mind, visiting some of the cities in Northern Italy.

 But you'll have to wait for the next blog to read about that...

A fine sunset, seen during our evening hike on Corsica.
(The tower is one of the many defensive towers built by the Genovese, who ruled Corsica for 500 years.)