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.