Enjoying Corsica!

Bonjour!

I was actually able to get yesterday’s blog posted early this morning, so hopefully I am now caught up. R was VERY happy to find that the speed at our new hotel in Sartene, is very good.  The proof will be in the posting …

We found signage to the museum!

Beautiful Palace!

Love the view from the museum

What is left of my lion!

Beautiful Bronze

More bronze

Still snow in the mountains near us!

Ancient watch tower built by the "tower" people

Part of our ancient dwellings

Great Bronze Age wall!

Doorway in Megalith

Dwelling entrance

Signage ... finally, when we arrived; not to get there!

Beautiful coastline and water!

Waiting for lunch!

Salad Paysanne

Entrecote and frites

R's Tarte aux pommes

My tarte citron

Hotel room with never ending view!

Our view!

All the way to the sea!

Incredible hydrangeas!

We decided yesterday that we would do Aleria’s archaeological museum first thing this morning, so after a mediocre breakfast of breads/croissants, orange juice and chocolate/coffee, we headed out.  While it was very close to Aleria, it certainly wasn’t the easiest museum to find!  Just a bit of signage to the “site” (excavated Roman villa) but nothing to the museum.  Finally ran out of options, parked the car and headed into the miniscule little village and finally actually found a sign – telling us that we were headed in the right direction!  Success!! The museum, like many we have already visited, was nicely done in an old Palace.  The first disappointment, though, was when we found that many of the artifacts that were on display on the first floor were actually reproductions. But it only says that in tiny lettering on the back right of the display cases!  I’m betting that most people never even see it.  I was suspicious, though, when seeing some incredibly polished metal armor – I knew it couldn’t have been real, and I was right!

The second floor did have original artifacts, which are mainly grave goods – and of course, the entire museum is really devoted to talking about the ETRUSCANS and their influence in Corsica!  Seems like now that we’re trying, we can’t get away from these guys!  Corsica was an excellent site first as a cross roads on trade routes, and secondly, for its metallurgic composition – they had lead, iron and copper.  

From the museum, we headed back into Aleria and filled the car up with gas.  (Robert always feels better if we have a full tank of gas going into Sunday, as that can be the one day of the week where stations are unattended for most or all of the day.)  Then back to the hotel to gather up our goods, check out, and start heading south again, to Sartene.

The writer Prosper Merimee called Sartene the “most Corsican of all towns” – not exactly sure whatever that means, but do know that Robert has been talking about the meaning of vendetta, which apparently originated here!  (And with the way some of these people drive, I’m not surprised one bit!)  We worked our way down the coast past many really stunning beaches. Some of the water is the most beautiful blue!  The man at check-out said that today was really the first day of summer, after a very cool and rainy spring here.  It is beautiful out!  Lots of sunshine and blue sky, and lots of people crowding into the beaches as well – and they’re in the water!  Seems to me that it would probably be a bit chilly, but not really being a beach person, what do I know?

One of our main reasons for visiting Corsica is to discover their prehistoric monuments and ruins, of which they are reputed to have a lot.  The first one we decided to find was at Casteddu di Tappa.  No problem finding the signage and there was plenty of room to park.  Then we had to open the field gate (and remember to close it, so that the sheep wouldn’t wander out…) and follow the path.  This particular monument was dated to the Bronze Age, approximately 1700 – 700 BC (which goes back just about as far as my Hittites in Turkey!) and rediscovered in the 1800’s.  In this case, the site was made up of fortified dwellings built around two gigantic structures, as always, on the top of a hill.  At the time it was “discovered”, it was actually being used as an open-air quarry, and was saved from a worse fate by a private citizen who bought the land to protect it. 

So, it is signed and open to view – but truly, the signage is less than abysmal!  So, off we went as the initial signage said that it was a “200 m walk.”  Well…not exactly.  It was probably at least a km or so off the road, but what was worse, the path splits at one point and there is absolutely no signage saying which way to go or anything helpful like that!   We decided to try the uphill route, and that, fortunately, was the right way to go.  We had to literally climb up a water course which was obviously very wet underfoot. 

Robert slipped on the muddy track, but this time, it was the right knee rather than the left which took the brunt of it.  (I have to say here that Robert is the very quickest healer of any person I have ever seen! After Florence, he washed off his knees and put Neosporin on his “bad” knee twice, and that was it!  Still skinned, but no sign of problem or infection – incredible!  I think I’m just jealous!  If I had skinned my knee like that, I’d be in the ER for days!)  At any rate, he got a bit damp and dirty, but no other visible issues.  I wanted to turn around, but he wanted to continue, so we actually did make it to the top and the main dwelling.  Huge rock walls and a door frame.  So difficult to process how old this place is!

Back to the car eventually, and heading for Sartene. This time we were driving through mountains and up along the coast, and it was just beautiful!  Not much traffic at all – we seemed to leave all that heading for Bonafacio, which is at the southern end of the island.  (Napoleon’s home town!) Arrived at our hotel in Sartene about 1:30 pm.  Check in time, of course, is 3 pm.  We left the luggage, and then got a map into town and headed down for lunch.  (Our hotel, the San Damianu, is really lovely and located right at the top of the old town.)  

Nice walk, but as Robert points out, what goes down … at any rate, found the Restaurant Sartene which was open for business.  Lovely big terrace and connected to an olive mill.  (Their olive oil was superb!)  Sat outside as far from smoking as possible.  We did something we almost never do – we ordered the same thing! (Saves on photographs, though!) We had their set menu:  Salad Paysanne followed by entrecote cooked rare with frites.  The salad was wonderful!  Corsican ham, cheese, potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes – excellent, and the entrecotes were cooked rare, which was great.  (I had been craving steak earlier this morning!  Nice to be able to take care of it quickly!)  For dessert, R had tarte au pommes (apples) and I had tarte citron (lemon meringue), washed down with a bottle of sparkling water and a bottle of local white wine.  (Their white wine is very good; the red that we had last night not so much … but as I pointed out to Robert, we have been rather spoiled with Montepulciano!)  

Finished up around 3:15 pm and headed back up to the hotel to check in.  Walk wasn’t as bad as Robert had imagined it would be … it usually isn’t!  We are now cozily ensconced in Cezanne,  room 110, a very nice room with a spectacular view and balcony.  Truly wonderful!  The internet speed is great, huge soaking tub for me, and a beautiful breeze blowing through the room.  I’m not sure I have ever seen such blue hydrangeas; they are gorgeous!  There was some sort of hawk or eagle flying right outside our balcony that we are going to hope to identify; he was so close to us we could almost have grabbed him … except he has claws, and we don’t, so we didn’t!  [Comment: Throughout this trip, Margaret found some really fine places to stay, such as Montepulciano and Pisa, but this place in Sartene is spectacular!  The room itself is very comfortable but the view from the balcony has to be seen to be believed; photographs do not do it justice.  How does she do it? – R]

More later!

m

xxx