Farewell to Beautiful Corsica and safe arrival in Livorno

After enjoying a quiet and leisurely breakfast on our balcony at the hotel in Pietrabugno (just outside Bastia), we saddled up the ponies and hiked 2km down the hill to the dock well in advance of our ferry's departure at 13:30. We had time for one last visit to a boulangerie for a cafe prior to boarding. An easy passage to the mainland brought us to Livorno at 17:40. We walked to the gate entrance where a shuttle bus was waiting to bring pedestrian passengers into the main bus terminus in town. The bus driver was not at all concerned that we had no tickets for the ride and just wavewd us on with a friendly smile. He was also very helpful upon arrival at the main terminus by explaining that we needed the nbr 3 bus which would be leaving in 5 minutes to get to Bellavista, our destinnation 5.3 km outside of town.
The nbr 3 bus dropped us off within a two minute walk to the hostel, Villa Morrazzana.

Bastia

Immediately after the 1372 Corsican rebellion, the Genoese built a "bastiglia" (bastion) to establish a strong base and safe haven in case another rebellion broke out. This was how Bastia was founded. ...nothing more than a fort overlooking local fishing hamlets. Giovanni Bonaparte was summoned from Italy in 1479 to build a citadel around the bastion and the port flourished well into the 17th century. It was the Genoese capital of Corsica until the Corsican hero, Pasquale Paoli moved the capital to Corte in 1750. The French moved the capital back to Bastia and Nelson retained the capital here when he took it for the English in 1794. Bastia lost its status as capital of Corsica in 1811, when Napolean named his home town of Ajaccio as capital. At the moment, Bastia is the biggest city in Corsica. If the Corsicans ever do gain independence from France, the choice of their capital is probably going to be a controversial subject. We arrived in Bastia after an easy 2 hour ride from Corte this morning. The Corsican roads are in excellent condition even if they are sometimes impossibly narrow, but the drivers here maintain reasonable speeds and decent forms of courtesy. When we asked the lady at our hotel where the Hertz office is located so that we could return our car, she said, "c'est pas complique". Simply said, but not so easily implemented. The roads are tight, doubling parking on every street...cars parked in intersections and on sidewalks, pedestrians and moving cars, buses, trucks and ambulances made it an interesting adventure going from one part of the tightly wound streets of the centreville asking for directions..."c'est pas complique". By God's grace and Michele's eagle eyes, we somehow managed to find the Hertz office, and were happy to be rid of our car which served us well but which was ill-suited for life in Bastia. Bastia is a walking town, and within 2 minutes of thE Hertz office we were sitting having a morning coffee and snack, and within another 2 minutes we were at the dock office of the ferry where we purchased our tickets to Livorno for the 18th of June. Bought some groceries and came back to the hotel where we made ourselves the best lunch yet on our balcony overlooking the sea while we watched the unfortunate drama of the abandonment of a small boat on fire. After lunch we flaked out at the pool until the sun set behind the hills.

Lavu di Melu

This morning we drove 16 km further up the Valle de Restonica to the base of the footpath which would lead us to Lavu di Melu (Lake Melu) 1711m above sea level. The path winds its way along the big rocky surface and takes about 1h-20m to climb. It was quite a steep slope at places, and thankfully the city of Corte had large grab chains anchored to the rockface at one location and there were two spots where metal ladders were bolted to the rock to accelerate the ascent towards the very top. We had to stop to catch our breath a couple of times along the way, but upon arrival at the top, it became immediately evident that it was well worth the effort. Lake Melu is probably a glacial lake...the water is crystal clear, very cold, and completely surrounded by jagged peaks some of which still have snow on them. We chose a second path on the way back down which brought us across 4 fields of snow. The road between Corte and Lake Melu is well surfaced, but impossibly narrow. Don't be fooled by the painted lines down the middle of the road...there is absolutely no way for two cars to pass in many places...the size of the road reminded me very much of the cycle paths we've seen along La Route Verte near our home in Quebec. In a few places, we were required to back up against the very edge of the road and fold my mirror in against the window in order to let the oncoming cars pass. There are no guard rails and in some places the cliffs fall off on both sides of the road. Absolutely crazy. but the Corsicans appear used to this and approach the tight turns at reasonable speeds and pull over on the recesses when available to allow the traffic to clear. At the end of our hike, we met a very well conditioned Basque hiker who has spent his life hiking in the Pyrenees. He was soaking his feet in the frigid cold water cascading down near the parking lot. He explained to me that 5 minutes in this water would take the aches out of the feet and muscles and make our legs feel almost new again. So, we shed our boots and socks, yanked up the legs of our shorts and stood in the icy cold water to let the water perform its magic. He was absolutely right, and I recommend this therapy to anyone who is fortunate enough to cascading clear mountain water at the end of a long rocky hike.

Corte

The former capital of Corsica, Corte is a beutiful old city in the central hills of the island. The cobbled streets roll, twist and step their way up and down the hilly ground surrounding the citadel. The 72 km of spectacular mountainous road connecting Ajaccio with Corte takes about 2 hours to drive. Earliest history indicates that the Romans settled this town around the 6th century in an effort to escape the violence running rampant throughout the declining empire. The Saracens took it in the 8th century, and the Christians took it back in 9th. After a lot of struggling between the Genoese and the Pisans, the Genoese took firm control in the 13th century when they built the citadel. Corsica gained independence in 1731 (although no governments formally acknowledged this), and Pasquale Paoli declared Corte the capital in 1755. He established a university here and free education taught by the Franciscan monks. Our hotel is located just outside of Corte in the Vallee Restonica along which runs a strong cascading mountain stream. The road along the Vallee de Restonica is so narrow at some spots that two cars cannot pass each other.