Travelling west down the Route of the Calanques, narrow, steep coastal inlets, along the Gulf of Porto, passing many fantastical and breathtaking rock formations along the way, negotiating on-coming traffic, tour buses and those parked in the middle of the single carriageway road to marvel at the view, we stopped at the entrance to a hiking trail that began with the monolithic Tête du Chien (Head of the Dog). We progressed along a mostly forested path through a landscape that was at times otherworldly, like this hollowed out boulder that resembled Yoda’s dwelling on Dagobah, following an ancient trail used by mules and required some climbing to reach the cliff top called Castellu di Ghineparu—not a castle but a plateau with incredible vistas of the Mediterranean and valley below.
Afterwards we went on to the small village of Piana, listed among
France’s most beautiful and dating from its rebuilding in late fifteenth
century, caught up it the territorial struggle between the Republics of
Pisa and Genoa centuries before and abandoned and falling into
disrepair—only resettled once Genoa took control of the whole island and
were motivated to keep the Barbary pirates at bay.
As with the whole
of Corsica, during World War II, it was a stronghold of the resistance
and Piana was a staging location for the covert Opération Pearl Harbour
in 1942 to arm and organise and prevent the Axis powers from obtaining
another base of operation in the region, sponsored with coordination by
the American’s and codenamed for the attack in Hawaiʻi from the year
before. In the centre of the village is l’Église l’Assomption (Ghjesgia
di l’Assunta) dedicated to Sainte-Maire with multiple shrines.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the engineering of wine bottles (with synchronopticæ), closed-captioning plus a return to the Saale valley
seventeen years ago: climate change mitigation
