June 11 Calvi to Bastia

 

Small villages cling to steep slopes in northeast Corsica. 80% of island is mountains.

The first leg of our Italian-French islands tour finished today as we travelled to Bastia and from there to Livorno on mainland Italy. Just as a side issue of interest, the land we were traveling north through was once referred to as the chestnut civilisation. In the early C16, there were extensive reports of the cultivation of chestnuts in the area. Two centuries later in the early 1800s it was estimated that Corsica had well over 30,000 hectares of chestnut trees, which in the following decades would reach approximately 35,000 hectares. The predominance of this crop determined the development of the land, the construction of production buildings (mills, drying rooms), including the structuring of the housing, organised around the hall or sala.  A little over a century later the traditional activities declined, but the industry offered a new outlet, gallic acid, which was used by factories which produced tannin for manufacturing leather. Today the industry seems to have disappeared leaving historians to wonder at it and the impact it had on the land.

From Bastia we boarded a very clunky ferry where we had to haul our luggage up many stairs (whatever they are called on boats!).  Eventually we arrived in Livorno and stood waiting at the port for an hour at least before a taxi arrived to ferry us and another couple to our hotel. Our check-in was hilarious - in hindsight. After 30 mins searching they could find no record of our booking so I had to pay again (no big deal we could claim it back later). Once in lour room !5 mins later we got a phone call from a very embarrassed hotel clerk saying he had found the booking  - under ‘Erica Grano’. My name had been automatically translated into Italian – Heather Wheat! Poor chap was so embarrassed. 

We had a very late dinner that night in the Piazza Giuseppe Micheli with Vespas and wee Renaults whizzing by before collapsing into bed. It had been a long day.

Monument of the Four Moors

Monument of the Four Moors is quite troubling to look at. This statue represents the supreme conqueror in the centre with four bronzes variously described as moorish slavers, or representing the four corners of the world, but overall a depiction of suffering.