On the ferry to Corsica I was able to sleep very well in my sleeping bag. We arose quite early and it was so exciting to wake up to a sunrise over the water, while closing in on the island of Corsica.
We docked in Bastia, the biggest and most industrial town in Corsica. There was much in Corsica we would have liked to see, but since we only had a few days we limited our travels to driving through the north coast, down to the northwest side, where we spent most of our time.
Our ferry arrived at 7 am so we had some time before the car rental office opened and we wanted to get breakfast anyway. My guidebook had told of a market that was held every Wed. at 8 so we headed that direction. When we got to the market space there wasn’t anyone even setting up. So we parked ourselves on a bench and waited a while. It became clear that there would be no market any time soon so we bought a couple pastries, a baguette water and apples from local stores and walked back towards the port via Place du St Nicolas. As we passed by the cafes that lined this place we were seduced into trying a breakfast at one of them. We had already eaten a pastry, but this would be our first typical French breakfast --the kind that Jeremy envisioned and pined for, trying to produce them at home in SF by eating baguette with jam and hot chocolate for breakfast. We seated ourselves outside and ordered chocolate. They brought out big steaming cups full of perfect chocolate (not too sweet), along with a basket full of many warm croissants and pain aux chocolates. You are supposed to pick what you want from this basket and get charged for what you eat. We enjoyed this immensely and were totally content.
We made our way back to the port, where the Europcar office was. The lady didn’t speak any English and was annoyed at my elementary French comprehension, but we managed to complete the reservation process. We were given a silver Renault Clio, which we grew to love for how it handled the crazy Corsican roads. We decided to drive around the coast and stop along some of the beaches and towns on our way to the west coast of the island. I took my Dramamine as we set off, and thank goodness that I did.
We drove through Patrimonio, famous for its wine, and fell in love with the very old, but striking church that stood out among the buildings and trees.
Patrimonio church:
We drove through town 3 times trying to figure out how to get to it, because there was also a statue close to it dated back to 800 B.C. In the end we had to be satisfied with just the view. We had places to go. We drove beyond Patrimonio, through St. Florent and the Agrates Desert. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes through the desert ( I think Dramamine makes me drowsy upon initial absorption) but moved in and out of sleep as my knees knocked back and forth with the sharp turns in the road. Jeremy awoke me as we encountered the Balange coast. What magnificent looking-water! We stopped off at Lozari Beach, our first exposure to Corsican beaches and water. We were struck by the clarity and color of the water, and the soft, white sand.
Lozari Beach:
The north coast of Corsica has the sandiest beaches and warmest climate—described as being like the French Riviera. It was beautiful and was not crowded when we went through, but apparently it is ridiculously crowded with European vacationers during the summer months. And though many of the beachside cafes were not open when we saw it, I’ve heard that sun-soaking tourists in café loungers overrun the beaches during the summer. We were grateful to see these beaches with only 1-2 other people around, if that. Though quite tempted, we didn’t get in the water at this point, because we still had quite a drive, and planned to swim closer to our destination. The next town we went through was called Ile Rousse. We stopped at the supermarket where we got some more snacks and water for the remainder of our time in Corsica. It was nice to have a car to store all of our stuff. Our next stop was a beach just outside of the Calvi town center. Here we saw a perfect view of the Calvi citadel and then on the opposite side, the snowy mountains in the distance.
View from Calvi Beach:
View of Calvi citadel:
I was amazed by this island that was relatively small, yet had such varied terrain. Looking out onto the beach and sea it felt like the Carribean. Yet turning around was this beautiful Alpine scene.
We headed into the center of Calvi, quite interested in exploring the Citadel. Calvi and the other coastal towns we drove through (St. Florent, Ile Rousse) were quite nice, and I wouldn’t have minded staying in them. But I could definitely tell that they make for a crowded touristy scene at other times of the year. At the time we drove through, I wondered if we should have planned to spend more time in this area, but I had no concept of the beauty we would soon encounter. I ended up being very happy we didn’t make plans to stay in this area because of what we discovered on the west coast.
We had another bathroom adventure prior to going into the citadel—ah, the joys of travel. Why can’t all towns have those spacey public sink/toity combos? The time wasted trying to find a loo!! After seeing no public restrooms, we parked near a hotel, snuck past the receptionist who was in the adjoining room and found a hall bathroom to use. We took turns and then snuck back out, but the receptionist saw us on the way back out and starting calling and coming after us. We quickly escaped further scolding.
The Calvi citadel was really fun to explore. It was like a huge fort, but inside there were functional buildings (school, tea house). We continued to enjoy the lack of crowds and found the views splendid.
Inside Calvi citadel:
As we returned to the coastal highway and rounded over to the Northwest coast we found multiple occasions to pull over and take in the views. The roads became increasingly narrow and curvy and atop sheer cliffs. Bless the wonder that is Dramamine. We enjoyed the views on both sides— the coastal cliffs, the mountains, wildflowers and greenery.
Views from highway:
Right past the town of Paradiso we encountered a sign in the road indicating a closure of the road to Porto. We pulled over to consider our options (of which there were two, and both would’ve required many, additional hours of driving) but then saw another car drive passed the closure sign. So we decided to follow and see what happened. The highway had moved inland for now, but was equally as windy. Eventually it met the coastal cliffs again and we continued to be blown away by the views. We noted the places we planned to visit/ explore during our stay in this area. Just a ways past the small town of Palimonio we were reminded of the road closure warning when we found that this was indeed the case. There were several cars lined up, waiting for the road to reopen. It was closed due to multiple rockslides along the next few kilometers.
I got a little bit nervous. This coastal route had taken a lot longer than we thought it would. At this point I had given up the hope of doing a particular hike (Capu Rosso) that afternoon, but still hoped to spend time at one of the beaches near the town in which we were staying. And I was eager to get to our hotel, which is a UNESCO site solely for the views at sunset. This was our splurge of the trip—this one night at the Hotel Roches Rouges. I wanted to enjoy what this place had to offer, rather than getting there at dark and then leaving first thing in the morning. But I took a deep breath and decided we should make the most of our time, and instead of wasting it by waiting in line for the roads to re-open (estimated to be another 2 hours) we turned around and headed to one of the sites on our itinerary—Plage de Gradelle.
I had planned for this stop the next day at sunset because of its description in our book. It wasn’t sunset but we still found this place highly enjoyable and lovely too. Much of the beach was rocky, but it was sandy on the north end. We were pretty hot from being in the car and Jeremy was a little sticky with sweat from his performance driving. So we decided to swim. The water looked way too inviting to pass it up. Jeremy did his discreet surfer towel change and I hid behind a tree. I had brought a wetsuit tank top to curb the bite of the water, which I had read was cool, but not ridiculous at this time of year. We found that to be true.
Plage de Gradelle:
Jeremy had a quicker dip than I did; I think my wetsuit top and the sun on the turquoise water gave me the illusion that the water was warmer than it was. I loved the swimming. But after coming out of the water I found I was fairly hypothermic (as evidenced by the uncontrollable muscular twitching I experienced as my body tried to warm itself). We hiked around on the rocks to the side of the bay and looked at the sea urchins. I found a little extra warmth by wearing Jeremy’s shirt. He was fine, not having stayed in the water long enough to have temperature regulation problems.
After letting the sun dry and warm us we got back in the car and headed back to the site of the road closure, crossing our fingers and praying that it would be open. Everything seemed okay…we weren’t quite sure where the stop had been but it seemed like maybe we had passed it and were on our way. But alas, we turned a corner to find a very long line of cars, still waiting for the road to open. We parked our car and walked up the road to get the scoop and at least enjoy the view. Nobody seemed to know when it would reopen. But I walked further up the road past where the cars were blocked to look at the progress myself. It actually looked like the slide had mostly cleared up. I was impressed by the bulldozer-man who was swiveling his seat around and cranking various levers at remarkable speed. The guy was sweating bullets. I stood there as I watched him shovel the last load, and then drive further down and pull over. Other road workers rushed forward to sweep up the smaller remnants. I ran back to find Jeremy and we jogged back down the road to get to our car in time for traffic to start moving. Since there were so many cars and a few tour busses, traffic was very slow-moving into the town of Porto. Stress! It was getting late and I wanted that magical evening with the view. We had come all this way…
Traffic sped up a little bit as several cars left the highway at Porto, but unfortunately two tour busses were in front of us and were creeping ever so carefully through the Calanches (red rock formations) before Piana (our destination). I was so annoyed. How inconsiderate not to pull over and let the smaller cars past! Unfortunately my focus on getting to our destination prevented me from enjoying the sites as much as I should’ve. We ended up getting to our hotel as the sun was setting. We hurried up to our room, set down our packs and pulled chairs out onto our balcony to gape at the view. It truly was incredible. We had no regrets about choosing to stay here. To our left was the town of Piana, with its white, red-roofed buildings scattered across a bright green hill, the setting sun in the background. Since pointing the camera into the sun doesn’t allow photos to turn out well, they unfortunately don’t do it justice. But the views and lighting towards the calanches and Scandola nature reserve were perfect.
View from our balcony of the Hotel Roches Rouges as sun set:
As we sat on that balcony and stared out at the beautiful place—these absolutely amazing views, I suddenly became very sad that we had so little time here. I felt this urgency to change our reservations to make more time here. I didn’t care how much it cost; I was completely smitten and overcome. Our plan had originally been to stay at this hotel 1 night, play all day and then drive part of the way back to Bastia and stay the night at a place along the way. We needed to get back to Bastia by 9 am (we had a 2 day car rental reservation) and then spend the rest of the day before our ferry left in the surrounding areas accessible by bus or foot. I knew what that area had to offer as compared to this and as I sat there aching for more of the present I became fixated on changing our car reservation. I didn’t care that we would be paying for a full day when we were only using it for 5 more hours. Those hours were valuable! Changing our reservation would mean we had a full day, another night and the next morning to enjoy.
I tried desperately to contact the rental car place, but I couldn’t figure how to dial out of our hotel room. After getting instructions from the hotel man twice I finally got through, but unfortunately the 24 hour service was only for emergencies. Funny thing was that I felt like this was an emergency, like I really needed the peace of mind of knowing we could stay here longer. Maybe it was the lack of sleep affecting me. Anyway, he couldn’t help but gave the number of the local agency we needed to contact. Unfortunately they were closed. So I took a deep breath and resolved that I would just need to wait until the next day so might as well enjoy this evening. After we felt like we seen the view at it’s finest and it was really getting dark, we decided to go into the village of Piana to get some dinner. Our book had recommended a place called La Cassanova. It turned out to be a lovely stone building with friendly wait staff and a dimly lit, relaxing atmosphere.
Cassanova restaurant:
It also turned out to have amazing food with typical Corsican specialties. Jeremy ended up getting the 4 cheese pizza (all of which were local Corsican cheese) with local olives. I got the fixed price Corsican menu. It started with fish soup that came with crackers and the best mustard ever (I don’t even like mustard)! My next dish was also fish—very fresh fish called mullette. It was in a delightful “pianese” sauce. For dessert I had a decent crème caramel. Afterwards we walked around central Piana a little bit, enjoying the peaceful night.
Piana church at night:
Thursday, April 12th: Piana, Corsica
It was awesome to awaken to such a view right off our room balcony. We showered and headed down for breakfast on the fabulous terrace of Hotel Roches Rouges. This hotel is over 150 years old, but was shut down for 20 years and recently reopened. The outside definitely looks worn, but still retains quite a regal presence to me.
Hotel Roches Rouges:
The inside is beautifully refurbished. We enjoyed the breakfast here more than anywhere we had been and I cannot really describe the pleasure we felt as we sat there and ate. It was partially the view, yes, but the pastries, bread, jam and chocolate were insanely good.
Breakfast:
While the night before we had been toying with the idea of staying at this same hotel another night because we loved it so, we were completely sold by our breakfast experience. Right after breakfast I hurried upstairs to call the rental car place. I managed to express our wishes in French (or partial French) and everything was set for us to have the car another day (or half day). Jeremy and I then eagerly found the hotel staff and inquired about our room’s availability for that night. It was available!! Bless the fact that this was not tourist season. Such a highly acclaimed hotel never would have been available a month or two later. We were ecstatic.
The first item on our agenda was to visit the town of Cargese, touted to have great wildflowers in the spring. On the way to Cargese we enjoyed many of the countryside views, especially the climbing goats and abandoned shepherd huts.
Cargese is a picturesque town, mostly populated by descendents of Greek refugees who came over in the 17th century. There are great view of a few different bays from here, and a nice harbor.
View of bay from Cargese w/ flowers:
Cargese port:
There were 2 old churches that faced each other – A Roman Catholic church and a Greek Orthodox church. The Catholic church had a terrace with wonderful views. The Greek church had an interesting interior, full of very historic pieces. There was a structure (iconstasis) dividing the alter from the congregation that had been painted by monks in the 17th century and brought over by the Greeks refugees when they settled the town. There was also a painting of the Virgin and Child dated back to the 12th century.
Cargese catholic church:
Greek orthodox church:
While we were in there, there church’s care takers were in there cleaning up the fresh flower décor. The paiting to which I referred had been out on display, surrounded by flowers. We tried finding it by how our guide book described it’s location but didn’t see it. It was only when the ladies cleared away the flowers and took it back to it’s usual spot that we figured it out. I was disappointed I didn’t get a photo of it close up when it was out in the congregational area. The photos I took did not do it justice because without a flash they turned out blurry.
I fell in love with this red door with a "hand knocker" that we happened upon while walking around Cargese:
After leaving Cargese we checked out one of the nearby beaches. Like the others we had encountered on Corsica, it was essentially deserted.
Beach outside of cargese:
Our next stop was through Piana in a different direction, to Capo Rosso and Plage d’Arone.
View of Piana:
We wanted to swim and snorkel at the beach, and we had also wanted to hike Capo Rosso the day before but arrived too late. The drive to these places was so beautiful. All the driving in Corsica was beautiful, but some of our favorite views were from this drive.
Views from road to Plage d'Arone:
The beach itself was gorgeous too, but we didn’t have snorkels and just as we arrived, some clouds rolled in and it got a little chillier. We knew that our priority for that day was to hike to Girolata, a small fishing village only accessible by foot and boat. There was good snorkeling on that hike too and since it was quite far away and long enough that we knew we couldn’t do it the next day, we decided head there. We needed to prioritize. There were a few things that we had to decide between for the next morning, and we added a return to these two sites to the list.
We drove past Piana once again, past our beloved hotel, through the Calanches down to Porto.
Calanches of Piana:
View of bay of Porto, highway from Piana:
We figured that we could rent snorkel stuff in Porto, being the biggest tourist center in the area. We found a bakery open. I got a loaf of bread made of chestnut flour (Corsican specialty) and Jeremy got a baguette since he is allergic to nuts. Next to the bakery was a dive shop where we figured we could rent stuff. We were disappointed to see that it was closed. We drove down to the port to find a different dive shop, but this one was closed as well. Then driving out of the town we stopped by 2 supermarkets, both of which were closed as well! We just figured the town really shut down outside of tourist season, and a little disappointed to not have snorkels or more than bread for lunch, we drove on. We drove a little nervously past the section of road with all the rockslides.
The temperature had increased quite a bit and we were getting anxious for our Mediterranean swim!
At the car park near the hike we put sunscreen on and packed our water bottles and bread. Thankfully we had such a big, filling breakfast. And Jeremy still had some cheese, which I could’ve eaten too but was a little hesitant because of lack of refrigeration.
The hike to Girolata started out quite shaded. We loved the rich plant life and the trail lined with maquis. The place we stopped to swim was a nice, protected bay. The beach itself was covered in dried flotsam and stuck to our bare feet when we peeled off our socks and shoes. The water felt chilly at first but we decided it actually felt warmer than our swim the day before. Both of us were able to swim around to our heart’s content without the muscular convulsions after we finished.
Hike to Girolata:
Beach covered in Flotsam w/ happy cow:
Jeremy swimming:
We marveled at the clarity of the water and found that if we treaded water with as little movement as possible we could look straight down into the water to see what was below. There was a bright red spiny plant everywhere. Despite that, we still missed having a snorkel and mask, or at least goggles. After drying off and eating some of our bread we set off again to do the rest of the hike. Jeremy was especially invigorated by his swim and vowed to get in again on the way back. The views for the remainder of the trail were splendid, especially in their vivid color. I loved looking back at the bay we swam in to see the deep colors of the water and bright red rock.
View of bay in which we swam:
Coloring of water/ rocks:
And then as we walked on, sometimes along the rocks above steep cliff dropping to the sea, we saw the town of Girolata in the bay ahead. It was even more picturesque than we had envisioned. We balanced the camera on a rock for a timer picture.
Views of Girolata:
Once in Girolata we walked around and tried to get up to the old Genoese tower on the end of the bay.
Genoese watchtower:
We could not access it without going through private property, and this was prohibited. Just as we were leaving Girolata we watched 2 or 3 boats of tourists pulling in and were glad we had come before the influx. Perhaps the tour busses are only allowed to dock at certain hours to protect the locals from a constant stream.
We did stop to swim along the way back as well, but didn’t spend as much time. It had cooled down a bit and we didn’t want to get back too late.
View Hiking out:
Upon our return to the car we were trying to decide how to spend the rest of our day, and where to eat dinner. We were pretty tired. The first plan was to stop off at another beach where there was supposedly a good restaurant. This place was indeed pretty and we would have loved a beachside meal, but the restaurant was closed. So we forged on, again past the rockslide area and into Porto.
View on drive back to Piana:
We were surprised to see that now the grocery stores were open. We figured out that they had been closed for siesta. Later I read in the section on “culture” that Corsicans take a substantial lunch break, for a large meal and rest at home before returning to work. Businesses just close down. That’s probably why the dive shops were closed. Oh well. We pulled into the grocery store and got some snacks for our drive back to Bastia the next day. We considered heading inland into Orta for our dinner, but then decided that we’d rather go to our hotel and then eat in Piana again. We wanted to be back in that gorgeous town and hotel.
After cleaning up at our hotel and enjoying the splendor of the view for a while, we walked into the center of Piana. There were only a few restaurants to choose from, and all were about the same price range. We went with a safe bet and chose the Cassanova once again. We knew we could be assured of an absolutely pleasant meal. I was really craving pizza but decided in the end to try another Corsican specialty. I ended up getting an omelette made with fresh mint leaves and homemade Corsican cheese (very soft, almost fluffy and mild) and fries on the side. Jeremy got cannellonis that were stuffed with this same cheese. He was expecting a dish of white beans (cannelinis) but was pleasantly surprised by the stuffed pasta.
Friday April 13th, Corsica.
The next morning we enthusiastically went down for breakfast the earliest it was served. We had already packed our things and loaded the car, knowing that our last hours in this area were priceless. We again enjoyed the best breakfast in the world, in the most lovely setting ever, savoring every bite. And since we were such early risers we enjoyed this experience in seclusion.
View in AM from our balcony, breakfast at roches rouges:
After breakfast we checked our room to make sure we hadn’t left anything and stepped out onto the balcony for one last look. It was still quite surreal that we were able to stay in a place that offered this kind of magnificence.
We had been so torn trying to decide how to spend the remainder of our time in this area. We considered that we wouldn’t be able to get snorkels this early, would have to drive back quite a ways, and the sunlight wouldn’t be strong enough yet to warm us and provide added clarity to the water. Taking those things into consideration we decided against plage d’Arone and opted for a hike a little bit inland between Orta and Evisa, through the Spelunca gorge, which was a huge gorge created by the confluence of 5 rivers. There were also 2 very old Genoese bridges to see. And we had to drive that way anyway for the ride home.
For the ride home we decided to cut over through inland Corsica, past the Spelunca Gorge, through the Foret d’Aitone (huge pine forest), snowy mountains and towns famous for their sharp cheese. This route was faster and we wanted to see more of Corsica. One of the hotel staff had told us upon our inquiry regarding the fastest route to Bastia, “Here in Corsica we do not have many kilometers, but we have many hours of driving.” Yes….this we had certainly discovered.
The trailhead from Ota to Evisa was not marked, but we identified it from its description in our book. We still felt a little nervous as we opened the gate to continue on the trail. It felt like we were trespassing someone’s property. We really enjoyed this hike, but only remained on the trail from the first bridge to the second in the interest of time. The gorge really was beautiful, and so were the bridges. We also saw another ruined shepherd’s hut that was quite cool. In between the 2 bridges we came across a football (soccer) field. What a scenic spot for a game a footy!
First genoese bridge, Ota:
Spelunca Gorge:
2nd Genoese bridge, Evisa:
When we got to the second bridge we turned around, and hurried back pretty quickly on the return route so we wouldn’t be cutting it too close for catching our ferry.
The view of the gorge was very beautiful from the highway, and I unfortunately do not have good photos. We were determined to not get stuck behind a slow truck, so didn’t want to pull over at the most breathtaking views.
Spelunca Gorge from highway:
We loved the changing landscape—from along the side of a vast gorge, entering a thick pine forest (Foret d’Aitone), and coming out into the mountainous and much cooler region of Corsica. We started seeing big herds of pigs a few separate times. It was mating season apparently. Not the prettiest site.
Mountainous region of Corsica, en route back to Bastia:
We stopped at a couple shops along the way, in town famous for their sharp ewe’s cheese. When we only found it sold in enormous blocks, we decided against buying some.
Just outside Bastia we did stop at a grocery store to buy some more snacks, chocolate, and look for a smaller round of Corsican cheese to take as souvenir. Our credit card didn’t work at the store, but we had cash and didn’t think too much of it. We stopped next at a gas station so that we could return the car with a full tank of gas. Jeremy returned to the car after paying to report that his credit card did not work again, and he tried both of his Visa cards. We started to get a little worried, wondering if Visa saw all these foreign transactions as suspicious and put a hold on our card. We owed another 50 Euros for the additional time with the car, which we had planned to pay with credit card. We had about 60 Euros in cash. Our ferry from Bastia to Livorno, Italy was already paid for, but we did need to buy train tickets from Livorno to Florence, where we had reservations held by credit card, that night. We needed to be able to pay for the place we were to stay that night, and get food. We figured that if there was another problem, we could get a hold of the Visa company and have things taken care of. We returned our rental car at 2:15 pm, and needed to board our ferry by 2:30 pm. We tried paying again with our credit card but it wouldn’t go through. The lady at Europcar tried calling Visa’s international hotline, but nobody was answering. We had to pay cash, with 10 Euros left in our wallet. At this point we needed to head straight to our ferry. We started to panic as there was no time to find a bank to get cash from traveler’s checks, banks would be closed upon our arrival to Livorno, we couldn’t use our ATM cards, and could not get through to the Visa company. Since it was Friday, the banks would also be closed Saturday and Sunday, preventing us from using our traveler’s checks for cash. We spent the ferry ride back to Italy a little anxious, but we still enjoyed it. We were on Moby Lines this time. Still a huge ship, but not quite as fancy as our last. The exterior was decorated with enormous Looney Toons characters. After forming a game plan to address our financial situation, we napped a little bit, read up on our next stops in Tuscany and Umbria, went up on the deck to watch as we passed by some small islands. We actually saw dolphins swimming along side the ship, which totally thrilled me.
We were the first passengers off that ship upon docking. We were anxious to get this credit card nonsense sorted out since we had nowhere to go that night. I had one phone number to try and Jeremy had another, and we had looked up instructions on international, collect calls from Italy via public phones. Both of our methods got us through to an operator, but my operator stated there was no answer and he couldn’t stay on the line. Jeremy’s operator said that initially, but then Jeremy explained the situation and she tried a bit longer, finally getting through.
The Visa representative looked up our account, told us there was no hold on it, verified the transactions that had gone through earlier in the and then told him that all Visa transactions in Europe has been failing for several hours that day. There was a problem with the whole system. She assured him that the problem had now been taken care of. Jeremy clarified repeatedly that our card would now work. We were still nervous to try it.
We took the bus into town, to the main square from where we would catch another bus to the train station. Before heading to the station we wanted to eat. Our first chance to try our card was at the restaurant. We ordered 3-4 Euro pizzas---so cheap, yet so huge and yummy! We still had enough cash to pay for these, but tried our card first. Thank heaven it worked. We felt enormous relief.
We pulled into the chaotic Florentine train station at 10:30 pm. It was kind of a shock to be in such a big, busy city after having the serenity of the small villages of Corsica for a few days. Our hostel, Ostello Archi Rossi, was close to the train station. It was a good hostel. The walls were covered with the guests’ artwork, poetry, weird comments, signatures etc. It was clean though, included a free random breakfast, and had free internet access. After checking our email we went to bed. Someone in the room was pretty smelly. Ah, the joys of hostelling. How we missed the Roches Rouges.
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