So far todays miserable weather forecasted has not shown up quite yet. Apparently more lightning and rain is on the way, but the forecasters have pushed it back from arriving this morning to arriving around dinner time.
We arrived in the hot sun yesterday, and after settling in we walked Bonifacio before climbing up to the amazing old town which sits inside a massive fortress. We had planned an extra day here and even dropped our car off early so that we would have a full day to explore this beautiful city which is situated in s spectacular setting. However, the unsettled weather forecast pushed us to walk most of the city yesterday so that we could see it in the sunshine. Your welcome!😊
For centuries Bonifacio has been in use because of it’s amazing harbor. As you can see in the image below it has a very long deep harbour with fabulous anchorage. I’ve read that the Corsican pirates were based here as well as the Genova army and navy to name but a few. The Greeks and the Turks as well as Napoleon have all been here at various times. The citadel and fortress run most of the length of the peninsula. It really is a stunning sight to see the walls rising so steeply. The area running to the right from the citadel is the core Harbour today, and we will take a ferry from there to Sardinia tomorrow morning at 10:30.
Once we had walked through the main harbor, we began the long climb up to the citadel. Lots of stairs.
We really enjoyed walking the streets of the old town. We both felt that this was the most beautiful city we seen in Corsica. It has a really nice feel about it.
We walked the length of the whole town and around the perimeter of the walls, where we were afforded, wonderful views! This is where the vehicle ferries to Sardinia and elsewhere depart from. It looks like a small cruise ship was visiting the port in the photo below.
We were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to stay in the old town for dinner. We continued to wander the side streets all the while keeping an eye out for a suitable place to eat.
We eventually settled on this little place. From the outside it didn’t look like very much, but the food was fabulous, and in this part of town comparatively inexpensive.
The descent from the fortress was amazing! With the city lights below we carefully walked down in the dark.
I think we both felt that the walk down on a warm fall evening was kind of magical. A half moon provided a little light and we could see the distance lights along the North Coast of Sardinia.
The Harbour itself was a symphony of light😊
This morning we wandered into town and found a nice little bakery where we each had 2 pain de chocolate buns with our hot beverages.
We then decided to walk along the harbour to the ferry terminal to make sure that we understood the process for our 10:30 departure tomorrow. With no real plans for the rest of the day we improvised, first, walking up the backside of the cliffs to the old city. It was fairly quiet up there early morning, which made it easier to envision what this place must’ve been like over the past centuries.
As we are about to exit the fortress, Annemarie suggested that we should go out and walk along the old citadel walls where the main fortress faced the city. I hesitated momentarily, but it turned out to be a good experience with a bit of a museum built into the old rooms below the surface. Further down where the cisterns were they stored large quantities of water to help prevent starvation when under siege. We read that this, in fact, happened on a number of occasions, but the citadel was never taken by force.
After descending from the old town, we decided to walk out along the coast towards the distant lighthouse. It turned out to be a very good decision with lovely views back along the cliffs towards Bonifacio.
We understand that Annemarie’s walking sticks have successfully made it back to Holland. Not having them didn’t seem to slow her down today as we hiked at least 14 km. A good sign of things to come.
It was then back into town where we found lunch consisting of salad and shellfish all washed down with a cold beer. We then found our way home to do a little planning for Sardinia. We have almost nothing booked there in the way of accommodation, but we have a car and a plan is starting to come together.
The rains did arrive as predicted at 4 o’clock precisely.🙂 Now time to go find a couple of pizzas in the little restaurant next door at the campground. We are staying just a little out of town because Bonifacio hotels are ridiculously expensive. We don’t mind a 10 minute walk to the harbor.🙂 We even bought a small bottle of wine at the grocery store.
A last thought. Our almost son in law Paul (Caitlin’s partner) officially became a Canadian citizen today! Congratulations and welcome to the maple leaf county Paul! 🍁🇨🇦🍾🥂
Cheers!
Geoff🍷🍕 🍕
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 