Corte

After three great days in the South, today will be mostly about heading into the mountains. 

We make our way up the coast from Porto Vecchio stopping to spend some time at Pinarellu beach for sun and a basic lunch.  After yesterday's beaches, this one is only so so. 

We continue up the coast for another 45 minutes. The road is pretty easy with lots of straightaways for passing. It's basically resort town after resort town. To the West we can see the mountains that make up the central spine of Corsica. We get a brief glimpse of the Aguilles de Bavella, a series of sharp jagged mountains which we could have driven closer to but which would have required an extra 3 hours on narrow and windy mountain roads. 

Eventually we reach the turnoff for Corte at which point we head West along N200, another main highway, which follows  the valley carved into the landscape by the Tavignano River. 

Ahead in the distance we can see a gigantic rock wall with a town situated at its base. This is Corte, former capital city of Corsica and still the gateway to the mountains of the region. 

3 KM before town, we stop off at L'Attrachju, our accommodation for the night. It's a really nice small hotel with a very modern clean design. There are maybe 6-8 rooms and the family that owns the hotel lives in a separate private area. The guest rooms are all on the second floor and ours features a terrace of at least 500 sq ft with stunning mountain views. 

We then headed into Corte proper. It's another very quaint town. This time featuring a central citadel that perches dramatically  on a rock overlooking the town.  

We grab dinner at U Museu, a pleasant restaurant just below the citadel (which was closed for the day unfortunately). I have another wild boar stew, this time flavored with thyme. I also finally try a Corsica Cola, Corsica's local answer to (and likely copyright infringement of) Coca Cola. Strangely it tastes more like Pepsi.

After dinner, back at the hotel, I sit out on the balcony taking in the night sky while listening to music. I haven't seen this many stars in ages. I even manage to spot a few shooting stars (which have been demystified as merely space debris burning up as they enter Earth's atmosphere).