Corsica - Beaches... but not only (1)

As has been the case for years now, once I've picked a destination for the holidays I get tips and advice from people who have already been there and have published an account of their trip online. When I searched for "Corsica" I found a series of travel diaries that all repeated, more or less literally, the phrase "a mountain in the middle of the sea". I took this phrase as a scenic description, but after two weeks travelling around Corsica I was able to see how true and constant this statement was.

In Corsica everything tastes of the mountains: there are mountains over 2000 metres high with natural parks for hiking and trekking trails; the roads are mountain roads, winding and with sheer drops; the food is the classic mountain fare of cured meats, wild boar, cheeses and chestnuts; and most of the villages are in the mountains, with the one but decisive difference that at the bottom of the valley there isn't a river, but the sea, with magnificent inlets bordered by more or less small residential complexes that give life to the marinas of the mountain communes. The only exceptions are the larger or more famous Corsican towns, such as Calvi, Bonifacio, Ajaccio and Bastia, which are on the sea, each with its own personality and in any case with an old citadel at the top of a rock.

Amid all these mountains, however, our aim was to spend 15 days at the sea, aware that, like us, thousands of other people in the two central weeks of August would be roasting on those wonderful beaches. Ok, at 6 in the morning on 6 August we set off from Bologna for Livorno and find no traffic, so much so that we're among the first at boarding and at 10.00 sharp we depart. For the first week of our stay we chose the North-West coast, booking a villa for 6 (we're 4 adults and 2 small children) over the internet. The villa is beautiful, modern, fully equipped and located in a residential area above the bay of Sant'Ambroggio, a few km from Algajola, halfway between Calvi and Ile Rousse. For the second week we booked a villa in San Cipriano, 15 km from Porto-Vecchio, to explore the South-East area.

Both locations turned out to be perfect for day trips, but we realised that what everyone says is true, namely that in Corsica you DON'T travel more than 30 km an hour, and I'll add: whatever the type of road. So this, together with the weather, forced us to slightly change our plans. We didn't go without the beaches, though: with a few tricks we managed to enjoy them despite the season. Beaches in the North-West: The Marina di Sant'Ambroggio (in the commune of Lumio - upstream) has, to the right of the little harbour, a nice sandy beach suitable for children, with rounded rocks from which the kids dived for hours and hours. To the left of the little harbour there's a small beach, also sandy, much quieter. Algajola has a beach similar to the previous one, very busy and therefore best avoided in the middle hours of the day.

Punta Spano is an area behind Sant'Ambroggio, looking outwards towards Calvi. It's very winding and wild and therefore less crowded, with plenty of rocks interspersed with tiny little beaches; it's ideal for a walk along the sea, to admire breathtaking views and then enjoy a refreshing swim in some little cove. Some of these are big enough to enter the water gently, but you have to get there early because they're the first to be taken by families with children. The Baie di Arinellu. In the Lumio area, a delightful little village perched on the mountain and facing the sea opposite Calvi, there are many little roads leading down to the sea, along which there are several pretty and discreet residences.

One of these little roads leads to the Baie di Arinellu; at the end of the road you leave the car in the shaded car park, right by the main little beach, with a rather expensive little restaurant and a few umbrellas and sun loungers to rent. The area is a whole succession of beaches and rounded rocks on which we immediately found comfortable, strategic spots. The children, in fact, climbed on rocks of various shapes looking for little creatures, then we swam at the beach, where the bottom is sandy and slopes gently and the water is calm and crystal clear. What's more, with their dads our two "little fish" had fun snorkelling along the various little bays, and to finish we had a great time taking calendar-style photos with the evocative backdrop of the sea and the rocks. The beach of Calvi has no particular features.

It's very wide, sandy and busy, and it's not to be sniffed at that it has a large car park inside a shaded pine wood. Ostriconi. That the North is a wilder area is proved by the beautiful beach of Ostriconi. For anyone coming from Ile Rousse, Ostriconi is just before the start of the Deserto des Agriates and is signposted by a tourist (brown) sign reading "Site de l'Ostriconi", near a campsite. There are no shops or food stalls, so it's best to arrive prepared. The car should be left after about a km, along the road, and you have to find the best path to walk down the mountain. The view from above is fascinating: on the right the scrub, the dunes and the Ostriconi river that ends on the beach; on the left blue, clear waters and white sand.

The beach is very large so it's never crowded, and despite the people a cow emerged from the dunes and came to keep the tourists company, perhaps sent ahead by its companions, who thought it better to stay inland waiting for calmer times. Once we'd laid out our towels and put up the umbrella (which I strongly recommend), besides very long swims, Roberta and I took a walk behind the dunes that line the sea to take evocative photos and, having covered almost three-quarters of the beach, we came out...oops...into an area occupied by nudists...so we had no choice but to turn back and go for another swim with our children in the very blue, crystal-clear waters of this wonderful inlet.

Unfortunately the rough sea of the following days didn't allow us to go by boat to the Plage de Loto and therefore to Saleccia, in the Deserto des Agriates, but we still can't complain about what the North coast offered us. But there aren't only beaches, and among our plans was also to spend a day inland at any rate. The choice fell on the forest of Bonifatu (Le Cirque de Bonifatu), which, contrary to what the name might suggest, is 20 km from Calvi, along the D81 towards the airport and then turning onto the D251. From what we read in magazines and guides, in this forest there are more or less easy trails, some of which run alongside streams that form real little pools where you can cool off during or after the walk. The park begins at the end of the road in a pay car park where for 3.5 euros they also give us a leaflet with the trails marked.

Our walk unfortunately didn't start under the best auspices, since the weather clouded over, the trails on the leaflet didn't match the ones marked on site and, above all, along the streams where we hoped to have our picnic there wasn't a drop of water!!!!