Holidays...

Ajaccio The Imperial

The Tino Rossi Harbor [Ph. Desjobert ]

An Evocation of Ajaccio ...

"... Monuments, avenues, squares, streets, museums, hill of the Casone, the Imperator memory is present everywhere in its native town, so much that Emile Bergerat could tell about Ajaccio that it is the

" memory of the great Corsican with houses around ".
Nevertheless, this city which fathered one of the big conquerators of History is not agressive tempered.
It does not dominate the visitor but seduces him with its charms with, in the same time a smiling nonchalance.

While Corsica was living drama after another, falling under the blows of the invaders and rising to tear itself, Ajaccio led an almost quiet life. Until its conquest by Sampiero Corso in 1553, it was reserved to the Genoese.
Finally in 1592, Corsican set there. Ajaccio considerably grew in the 18th century and inherited the title of capital of Corsica. Then the city grew. Men shaped it according to his needs and not only to his desires anymore.

Pierre Dominique describes it in Corsica with a powerful narration which commands the imagination:

" The continental disappears into the old Ajaccio. Dirty streets, teeming with children, with here and there, the smell of hot bread or of the fat which fries, women showing their chest, all this is not especially corsican, and it is the spectacle met in every harbor with balconies loaded with hard of kids and sun, with rickety stairs to where cling on large flags whose poles are made with big reeds.

"... Ajaccio has not the almost italian character of Bastia, and it is far to be as particular as Bonifacio. Its aspect itself has lost the primitive harshness, but it has remained very particular with under the plane-trees, the barouches protected by big white parasols and which, to the music of the small bells, wait for the customers, the fountains are still much frequented by the people, by the dairy women pulling their donkeys, the water merchants whose kegs are wrapped in ferns... When all this will disappear, it will remain in this happy setting, made of orange trees, aloes, prickly pears, olive tree which mingle with myrtles, for the scrub surrounds the town, it will remain I say, a few favored points, a few high places, a few objects of meditation and it will be enough to hold back the foreigner...

"... Streets are full of sun. A merchant of water passes - there are still some - in the hot hours, streets are empty. Good for the foreigner to hurry in the middle of the lunch hour. Everyone knows here, that there are some moments in the day where it is good to sleep - and when we are destitue - , to sleep in the shade of a wall. We know, here, the importance of the breeze of the morning and evening...

"... On the evening, all Ajaccio is outside and the whole youth gathers on the Course. We have a walk, very precisely, from the Premier-Consul to the Theatre, people going and coming, with a quiet tread and nevertheless lofty, double flood which is only made of strollers and above all, of young girls and young people, spanish flood, from Seville or Castille, as we want, but I mean passionate."

This description of the imperial city remains topical, in a good many aspects. But today it misses there this carefree attitude which permitted to taste the charms of the Orient.

Holidays in Ajaccio - South Corsica

• Visit the Town with Photos (Visit)
  • The Imperial Chapel
  • The Cave of the Casone
  • The Cathedral
  • The Foch Marshal Square
  • The Town Hall
  • The Citadel
• The sailing Harbors
  Regular sea lines also serve Ajaccio from France [Marseilles, Nices, Toulon] and from Italy [Genoa].
  Ajaccio is also the privileged stop of many cruises in Mediterranean.
  

  Ajaccio offers two sailing harbors situated in

  • The Tino Rossi Harbor
  • The Port of the Admiralty

• Cultural Activities
  • The Fesch Museum
  • The A Bandera Museum
  • The Museum of the Capitellu
  • The Bonaparte House
  • The Festivals: The First Napoleonic Days
• The Excursions around Ajaccio
  • The Boat Trips
  • The road of the Sanguinaires Isles
    The term give here rise to shivers. It is just yet used to describe the color which flows on these isles when the sun sets.
    The beauty of the spectacle has inspired nery authors who made its description.
    The square tower, the semaphore and the lighthouse are well-known by the sailors. Do we know that the ruins which snake on this arid land are those of a leper- house where the sick were isolated for a long time from the rest of the population ?
    [ extract of Terres de Corse ]
  • The Milelli
  • The Chapel of the Greek
  • The Beaches
• Sports
  • Skin Diving The Clubs [Ajaccio and Porticcio]
  • Sailing in the Gulf [Boats Rental]
  • The Rambles around Ajaccio

For any information contact the Tourist Office.