San Pietro de Venaco, Corsica …some hiking and onwards to Italy
Categories France/Italy/France 2022..... another Mega RoadtripSeptember 15th, 2022
The morning looks decent, but not the customary blue sky that we have become accustomed to.
We head out on the trail which immediately starts climbing steeply…it is muggy with some flies harassing us.
There seems to be no let-up to the climb, with few switchbacks, it then turns cloudy with a misty rain.
Eventually, we reach some clearings where we can get some modest views of the mountains and the valleys below…. but no sight of Saint Eloise Chapel which we are trying to reach, although we did see some shepherd’s huts:
The trail is blazed but there are no indicators as to the distance passed or left. The winds start picking up quite harshly with periodic gusts sounding like jets in the upper reaches above us. After almost 2 hours of climbing, we can see that there is a lot left. Although I think I know where the chapel is located, I also know that the way down is not going to be easier, so we make the decision to abandon ship and head back down…not a stellar day but sometimes such days do occur.
The owner later told us that we should have attacked the circuit from the opposite direction, a little late at that juncture, even though he had pointed to the start of the trail at the edge of his property.
After a bit of rest and mental reset, we drove over to a village across the valley for a brief walkabout….nice church with an interesting belfry. Also a pic of our hamlet from Rivenosta, then back to San Pietro.
There are no restos here but the owner’s wife can prepare a Mauritian-themed dinner which we opted for. It was nice to sit on the terrace waiting on someone to prepare dinner! Rice & chicken with a curry-flavored sauce, salad, cheese plate, and dessert, accompanied by a pitcher of rose wine for 40 euros…tasty and a pleasant way to spend the evening.
Our trip to Corsica has been a success and it is a wonderful place to visit….although we do not know the ins and outs of the politics here, it seems that France has spent a lot of money on ensuring there is a solid infrastructure. Whether that is sufficient I guess is an open question…there is a lot of graffiti, French names on road signs spray painted over, slogans spraypainted on buildings, bridges, and the like, often related to Yvan Colonna ( 7 April 1960 – 21 March 2022). He was a French Corsican nationalist convicted for the assassination in 1998 of the prefect of Corse-du-Sud, Claude Érignac. He was beaten to death in prison by a jihadist inmate, sparking riots. History is complicated and the Corsicans are a proud people but nevertheless one feels the undertone…
September 16th, 2022
The morning is sunny and unfortunately, we need to move on….our day hike in the mountains did not meet our expectations, but that is the way it is sometimes in the mountains. Perhaps another reason to return. From our lair in the mountains, we head for Bastia (about a 2-hour drive) and our ferry to Livorno, Italy. We have pretty well completed our circle tour of Corsica and today is an easy drive …we arrive early at the ferry terminal without any navigation errors en route.
Since we are early we park waiting for the departure lanes to open. Nothing much seems to be happening and I check with a few other early birds…but they are all going on Moby Lines, and not on Corsica Lines, as we are. At the terminal I check with Information…..the girl says our sailing has been canceled and that it left at 09:30 …we were supposed to leave at 13:30. Yikes, this is not good…I ask what is happening to those who were not advised of the cancellation….she looks up from her I-phone, clearly irritated, and points to a sign with a phone number for Corsica Lines. I ask her if there is someone from Corsica Lines who can help me…and she scoffs saying there is no agency in Bastia ….this is all in French. I phone and after several attempts reach a contact person who tells me to see the agent at the port who deals with these situations…I then tell her there is no agent….she repeats that there is, and when I say I have been told there isn’t …she simply hangs up! I run back to the terminal …yes, the same girl, ask again about an agent >>> she gives me the stink eye and walks away. I hang about thinking maybe I should try to buy passage with Moby which is starting to load.
Then an older fellow with a crisp white golf shirt enters the info booth…I can’t see exactly but it seems there is a Corsica Lines logo above his breast pocket…I approach and ask him if he is with Corsica Lines, he says he certainly is. He confirms that indeed the sailing has been canceled due to high winds >>> we recall the winds we encountered on our aborted hike (at this point several other canceled folks surround the guy) …after some discussion, he says we may have to wait until Monday > NO WAY JOSE!! After considerable back and forth with his Head Office … he starts shouting that this has to be solved …the guy asks if we would be willing to go to Savonna rather than Livorno >>> the ferry leaving that very night at 20:00 and arriving at 05:00….I push for a better solution, there is none….so there you go: travel all night/arrive shattered before first light/lose our hotel reservation > just bloody lovely, but we grabbed at the lifeline! The funny part was that in making the reservation originally I had put our daughter as a contact person and subsequently got an amended ticket, however, the manifest showed her name…” but monsieur this is a problem…as the manifest must match the ticket”, we produced the original ticket, he looked at it and voila, problem resolved.
In short order, we received an e-mail with our tickets and then waited for the next 7 hours until we got loaded and the ferry left, late at 21:00.
In the interim, we bought tickets for 2 Pullman seats which will be our bed for the night…Corsica Lines threw in dinner and breakfast vouchers gratis, yes, I look like a sad sack, tired, and disgusted >>> can’t even have wine with the meal as there will be driving tomorrow in the very early morning…
…and the sleeping while basically upright, was not horrible…sort of !!
September 17th, 2022
The ship’s speakers wake us up at 04:00, the night has morphed into “day” in a rather unpleasant reality…we gulp down a coffee and croissant and head for the car deck:
To say the cars are crammed in is an understatement, but eventually, everyone finds their ride and we are disembarked by 05:30, and … on our way to La Spezia, which is about 2 hours away. The problem is our AIRBNB is not available until 14:30 and we are not in a great mood for sightseeing at the moment. So we drove slowly through Savonna, eventually getting on the Autostrada…passing through seemingly an unlimited number of tunnels…
…then stop at a rest area very nice with quite tasty-looking pastries. Light begins to dawn and we get off the Autostrada taking some pics of the Italian Riviera in the Portofino area before carrying on to La Spezia…
A beautiful area as we carry on…the host is amenable to us checking in earlier….so we will sign off at this stage. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day !!
Well the early morning light made those last few pictures beautiful. At least…
It did and in fact, it all worked reasonably well.