I have been around the world quite a lot over the years. For me the coolest thing about seeing other places is mostly about landscapes and nature. For some reason cities are not my most favorite place to be.
But there are some super cool places in the world where both of these things are combined. That there is some bussling city life with all of its perks, but the landscape and the views are the highlight of it all.
The city of Bonifacio on the island of Corsica is one of these places. Where the island of Corsica belongs to France it has a damn long history of being in hands of a lot of other countries. When looking at a bit of history of this specific city you can see that over the centuries it has been in hands of all kinds of countries where Italy was always wanting to have the island most because of its strategic location.
This is only a small part of the town to be seen, but did you also see that mega yacht in the harbour? That was an adventure seeing that one dock in reverse through the whole narrow channel
See the city of Bonifacio is located on a giant rock about 80 meters above sea level. If you would want to enter the city from the landside that means a decent hike up. But entering it from the sea side from Sardinia it is even more difficult to take in. The sea is rough over there because the mistral winds push through the channel making it super hand to boat close into land.
And although there is a narrow channel heading more land inward, you have a perfect view from the top as well to take out your enemy.
I totally get why this city was never ready to surrender as they were perfectly capable of defending themselves for a long time.
Crazy town!
Coming over the Bonifacio channel the city looks even more weird. You can see all of these houses standing on top of the rocks but literally heeling over the cliffs.
At the bottom of the cliffs you can see all of the rocks that have fallen down already over the centuries. Honestly, when I first saw this my first thought was 'Ow hell, I ain't getting up that city that looks like it can collapse every single second'
But you know how it goes, once you are there you want to get up. because although the harbour is very nice actually and sheltered from the heavy winds, the actual town is up the hill.
There are some roads for going up, but stairs are the place to be to actually head up over there.
Stunning stunning stunning
And once heading up, I didn't regret that hot and heavy walk up all of the stairs for a second. The views were totally worth it and it gives you so much more details of everything, even if you are still only half way.
Just looks at these big cliffs hanging over the water, they remind me a bit of the channel between Dover and Calais and I can tell you that like two hours earlier when I was sailing by this way the water was pounding up against the walls and it looked like a place where a lot of boats did not make it.
Now it looked way more peaceful as the sun was setting and even friendly as if you would want to take a dip in there. Not a chance, the seas are brutal over here.
As you can see there are some nice walking paths made over the cliffs so you can really walk around miles and miles if that is what you would want to do.
I can imagine if it was a day of like 15 degrees celsius this would be a fantastic thing to do, but now it was just way to warm for this. Even in the evenings.
When departing the town later that night to head down again I still went to enjoy the views again. The almost full moon was giving a gigantic ball of light and reflection on the water and in the distance you could also see the light beams of the lighthouse.
Looking further in the distance you could even see the small lights in the distance coming from Sardinia. It doens't look that far, but I can reassure you it is far enough away!
So yeah...Bonifacio on Corsica! Even if you don't like city stuff, this is still a fantastic place to visit just for the landscaping and the views. Stunning stuff!