Stairway to Heaven and Hell

The last 50 km to Bonifacio are by far the easiest of the drive. There are actually straight stretches of road that run for several kms. This facilitates faster driving and I think Dana has gotten a little tired of the endless winding mountain roads. 

The road makes its way by some spectacular coastline scenery filled with bizarre rock formations and narrow sheltered beaches. 

Finally a quick glimpse of Bonifacio's citadel as it rises seemingly out of nowhere to hang over the edge of the coastline. 

Following the road through a winding narrow valley we end up in the Bonifacio marina located below the citadel. Our hotel Solemare is located in the marina on the opposite side of the town with a fantastic view of the town and citadel. We even have a nice balcony. Check out the view. 

Dropping off our bags we decide to waste no time by heading up to the citadel and the upper town. 

It's a very short walk to the other side of the marina which offers a wide assortment of waterside cafes and restaurants, bakeries and souvenir shops. At the end of this is a steep path/staircase leading up to the citadel. The top of the path meets the road and you have two choices as to how to enter the old city: either follow a steep path through the main gate or follow the road around to the side. We opt to go up to the gate. 

Once through the gate we see that the old town is filled with narrow pedestrian only streets lined with quaint restaurants and somewhat tacky souvenir shops most of which sell some version of the famous Corsican Vendetta knife (used by Corsicans for centuries as the best way to settle a family's vendettas against some other Corsican family.  Unfortunately for some heretofore unexplained reason these vendettas never seem to end. Wonder why that is?

We wander down a few side streets marveling at the view from Bonifacio over the Mediterranean before heading over to l'escalier du roi d'Aragon. This is the must see attraction in Bonifacio aside from just seeing the citadel. It's a 187 step stone staircase carved out of the cliff that descends steeply from the summit of the Bonifacio promontory down to a path also carved into the side of the cliff not far above the water line which leads to a cave where lies hidden Jack Sparrow's treasure or something or other (it's actually just an old well but the atmospherics lend themselves to flights of fancy). 

The descent is pretty tough. My knees don't like this kind of punishment and I need to use the side rail to support myself. Fortunately when I reach bottom I  am blown away by the surreality of it all. It reminds me of some of the artwork in the Myst game series where the player explores lush otherworldly landscapes only this one is real. 

 

Unfortunately, just like every other dead end staircase to the bottom of a cliff, what goes down must inevitably go up again. The climb back is pretty brutal. If the steps had been normal sized it would have been better but because each individual step is so tall it becomes an effort to lift one foot after the other. I'm seriously winded by the time I regain the top. I figure there must be several heart attacks on or related to those stairs every season. 

Here's one last photo of the staircase taken the next day from a boat tour.