by loshani,

continued from checking into corsica.

we booked our holiday for 9 days, which meant there were 9 different days that i had meticulously made itineraries for. of course it didn’t all go to plan but someone needs to know what could’ve been, so here you are. i think this one might be a long one, so grab a coffee.

like i mentioned on my checking into corsica piece, we had booked the air bnb on the east coast of the island. this wasn’t a problem because we rented a car, we could hike to the mountains when needed and drive to the other side of the island for day trips. i had about 5 trips planned leaving us with 4 days to nothing and anything.

losh’s planned trips:

• st. florent & beach lotu
• bastia
• ajaccio
• corte
• bonifacio
• porto vecchio

our first 3 days were beautiful, so naturally we got complacent and stayed put in our little beach village. it was great, we had cold plunges in the sea at around 8am, the pool at 11am, lunch at 1pm, siesta at 2pm, hike/beach at 4pm, coffee in town at 6pm and it went on. i finally got to use the french i learned in highschool, which is a flex if you’re travelling with people who did not do french in highschool but not so much a flex when you’re trying to ask the store keeper where the cooking cream is. anyway, on the third day we went to ajaccio to be tourists, had a mediocre lunch and spent the afternoon by a really nice beach. i’ll share some more of this on my au revoir, corse piece.

day 4 rolled in and so did a rogue sandstorm. it was the kind of sandstorm that left your hair feeling crunchy after about an hour outside, so not at all the mediterranean summer you’d want. i obviously had a fit for about an hour and then had to come up with a back up itinerary because it looked like the sun wasn’t going to be out for the next 3 days. so here’s what we did:

• day 5 – corte
• day 6 – rest day
• day 7 – st florent & bastia
• day 8 – bonifacio & porto vecchio
• day 9 – at home beach day

day 5 – corte

corte is a city in the heart of corsica, it’s beautiful and lies in a valley within the corsican mountain range.

it’s not very far from monte cinto, the highest peak on the island.

was the old capital of the island in the mid 18th century.

it’s not part of the GR20 (one of europe’s toughest hiking trail’s spanning across corsica), but the peaks surrounding the city are.

home to the restonica and tavignano gorges, with the prettiest trails and glacial pools.

the trek for the day was drive to corte, then hike 3 hours to lac de melu – unfortunately, because of the storm, the bridges up the mountains were closed so we were directed to do a lower hike instead. the views were still stunning and these pictures don’t do any of it justice because of the haze – google it. it was a pity that we didn’t get to climb the peak but we’ll be back and the weather will be better.

we enjoyed a really nice lunch at a local pizzeria, i got a lobster roll and an iced coffee which i obviously could not finish by the end of the meal so had to make it an affogato. we finished the day with a visit to the citadel and corte museum, followed by an orange juice and lemon tarte stock up at the local market to fuel the drive home. it was a good day. i think this is getting too long so, i’m goint to see you on the next one.

by loshani