But, of Corsica!

Corsica was amazing beyond our expectations. We were only there for a couple of days (one sunny, one rainy), but Vince and I fell in love with Bastia. We expected an old, dry, dusty, rustic village -- quaint, careworn and charming. And that's what we found. Plus it was modern, young, chic and prosperous without being silly or overly tarted-up. A delightful paradox.


The gloomy day in Bastia (our second) passed without much fanfare. Mary, Mitch, Vince, Honey and I traveled up into the hills to explore a bit. Mitch and Mary smiled sweetly:

Trying to maintain my usual (!) sunny disposition, I decided to do a little Singin' in the Rain.


But, oh that first day of sun and fun. It was simply exquisite. Little churches had unexpectedly lovely frescoes:

The port was postcard-perfect:

And the older parts of town were perfectly crusty:

We were so enraptured that no one complained about the forced march up the steep hill to the citadel:


We felt utterly victorious when we got there!



Atop the hill, just past the citadel, we discovered a plaza with a great view. So great, we had to document what we saw in this video (pardon the weird angles - I'm still working on my cinematography). Many thanks to the Mary, for the wonderful narration. She's a voice-over talent just waiting to be discovered:



There were two other highlights on our final rainy day: lunch with Mary at Grazie Mille, where Vince had the "third-best pasta" of his entire life:


...And, of course, the night ferry back to our home away from home, Nice: