9 May 2025 - Island of Corsica - Friday – dock on Island of Corsica in city of Bonifacio .
Left 9:30 by tender, train, ferry, tender back to ship by 12:45 for lunch; Many churches, stories, cobblestones and hilly cobblestone walks. 3pm talk Roman Inventions that Shaped our World; paved streets, faucets and more; 5pm Corsican Polyphonic Singers concert; Dinner with 9 of us – pork leg; Corsica is thought to be the mythical island of giants in Homer's Odyssey, where Laestrygonians hurled boulders down at Odysseus and his ship from the towering sea cliffs. The inhabitants today are much friendlier, and the island is strikingly beautiful, with rugged mountains that plunge to the sea, hidden coves, idyllic white beaches, and pastel towns that hug the coastline. Arrive in Bonifacio – a medieval town that seems to perch precariously on a promontory thrust out above crashing surf and soaring white cliffs. Long before Corsica became French it was Genoese, and the 13th-century fortress here was built to defend the Tuscan coast from Saracens and Barbary pirates; a tour of the citadel's medieval defenses, towers, and cliffside Garden of Ruins is breathtaking.
Elba is 3rd largest island, Sicily #1; Sardinia #2; 3,000 feet up via cable car.
Romans 1st century BC; Truscans; few wild animals and wild boar all over and “not good” and trying to get rid of them; looflaun – sheep family look like small deer; mosquitoes no out yet; Mediterannean bat about the size of an olive eats 3,000 mosquitoes per day; ***Operation Brassard - invasion of Elba in WWII. Legend says that the Tuscan archipelago was formed when the goddess Venus dropped her necklace into the sea, and Elba is the largest of the island jewels, set in turquoise waters, with white beaches, rocky cliffs and coves, green hills, pastel villages and lush vineyards. Elba was known throughout the ancient world for iron ore and excellent wine; Jason stopped here on his quest for the Golden Fleece; but lately it's remembered as the little island paradise where Napoleon was exiled in 1814,
Settled by Greeks in 600 BC, Marseille has well over 2,000 years of history as a crossroads of cultural influences from Italy, Spain, Asia-Minor, the Middle East, and North Africa tucked in the colorful tangle of narrow streets and eclectic architecture of its Old Port,
; La Vielle Charité, a former almshouse, now a cultural center and museum; the spectacular Cathedral Sainte-Marie-Majeure, with Byzantine domes,belltowers, and arcades; and Fort St Jean, built by Louis XIV, a massive harbor-side fortress with all of its guns trained on the city and its restive populace.
No comments:
Post a Comment