Ajaccio is the major city on the island of Corsica, just off the coast of France. It was also our first port of call on my first Mediterranean cruise.
It was probably the port city in which I knew the least about ahead of time and unfortunately it also turned out to be my least favorite port stop on my cruise. Apparently, this island is a very popular holiday spot for the French and other Europeans. Unfortunately, a beach vacation wasn't quite what I was looking for.
Corsica biggest claim to fame, or perhaps infamy, is as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. You can see statues commemorating this favorite son all over the island and in the city. While we were in Ajaccio, we saw a Napoleon statue with him dressed in a toga similar to what a Holy Roman Emperor would wear. We also visited a playground which was supposedly where the young Napoleon used to play. There's also a bronze statue there commemorating Napoleon. Finally, we also saw the building in which Napoleon was born and his family lived. It was mildly interesting, but at the same time, do you want to be celebrating this place as the birthplace to one of the world's most hated men?
During our time in Corsica, as we weren't quite sure what else to do, we took a ship's tour of the island and it's surrounding. During the tour, we drove out of town to an area where we could see a string of islands just off the coast of Corsica. At the edge of the island itself sits a watch tower which was operated like any other watch tower back in the old days, as a lookout to help spot enemy fleets as they approached the island. It was an intersting spot that we wandered around for a little bit.
While this turned out to be a nice and lovely day, and the island has it's bright spots, it was also the least exciting stop on our cruise, and I'm not sure that I'd be thrilled to ever go back there again.
No comments:
Post a Comment