For centuries, visitors to Corsica returned home with their own deep impressions of this unique and beautiful island, an island which draws people back to it again and again. A visit confirms Corsica's power to bewitch and enslave and the compulsion to return to look more closely at its wonderful landscape, its culture, traditions, villages and people.

Corsica, located in the Gulf of Genoa, lies approximately 112 miles south of the main French coast, and is itself about 115 miles long by about 52 miles wide, maximum dimensions. With 5,500 square miles, it is the third largest island in the western Mediterranean, and about a third of the surface area of Sardinia, its Italian neighbor to the south. Its coastline extends to over 600 miles and it rises to nearly 9,000 feet - the highest island in the Mediterranean. Truly a mountain in the sea, its rugged scenery includes alpine peaks, snow-capped until late spring, deep gorges, rushing torrents, lofty pine forests, glacial mountain lakes, high mountain pastures and valleys. There is an intricate network of ancient footpaths and mule paths, some of them granite paved, crisscrossing the whole island linking valley with valley, region with region, and making Corsica a walker's paradise. Once, travel around Corsica was only possible by using these paths and some areas were inaccessible except by foot or mule until earlier this century.

From sea level to about 1500 feet, the climate and vegetation is typically Mediterranean. It features hot dry summers (average temperatures around 70 degrees F, rising occasionally to about 95 degrees F) and mild winters with the temperature seldom going below freezing and rising sometimes to 65 degrees FC in a mild winter. Vegetation is exotic - prickly pears, eucalyptus, mimosa, and all the aromatic shrubs of the ‘maquis' (countryside), evergreen oak and cork oak. Between 1,500 and 4,500 feet, the climate is similar but a little cooler the higher one goes, and different vegetation starts to appear - chestnuts, oak, maritime and laricio pine, and hellebores (Christmas rose). Above 4,500 feet, an alpine climate prevails - more rain, snow and ice in winter and much colder. The sun is hot in summer, but the nights are cool, and in winter there is snow from September to May with skiing possible in many places. Above the tree line there are many alpine flowers.

French is the official language, and is spoken by everybody but you will hear Corsican spoken everywhere, in the villages in particular. The Corsican language derives from the Genoese occupation and is close to Italian. Dialects vary from area to area - even from village to village.

Corsica has had a turbulent history. There is plenty of evidence of early settlement in Corsica, with menhirs and dolmen being found in several locations. Greeks and Romans occupied the island during the early centuries AD. Mineral deposits of copper, iron and lead further inland were exploited, as were the lagoons along the East Coast, which were rich in oysters and eels.

The subject of many invasions during the Middle Ages, control of the island passed to the state of Pisa in 1077. Following a period of rivalry with the state of Genoa, the Pisan State declined in 1284, and rule of Corsica, together with Sardinia, passed to the king of Aragon. The Genoese regained the island in 1347, and ruled it - with a brief intervention by the French in 1553 - until 1729, the year of the Corsican revolution for independence. There followed a turbulent forty years of struggle by the Corsicans, under the leadership of Pascal Paoli who governed independent Corsica from 1755 to 1768 and gave it its constitution, modeled on that of England. In 1768, the treaty of Versailles ceded Corsica to France and 1769 marked the end of Corsican independence. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on 15 August 1769. Apart from a brief period from 1794 to 1796 when St. Gilbert Elliot ruled an Anglo-Corsican kingdom as viceroy, Corsica has remained part of the French republic to the present. During the 19th century, under Napoleon III and the third republic, the island was developed economically, with the building of roads, the railway and schools.

After World War II, Corsica has gradually depopulated. The permanent population is over a quarter of a million people. Many young people go to the mainland - Le Continent - for education and to work, and there are Corsicans throughout France predominantly in the civil service, the police and customs service. This decline of the population on the island led to a decrease in the importance of agriculture and the rural lifestyle. In the last decade there has been a return to the land and the rebirth of rural crafts such as pottery, Venetian glass, damask knives, woodworking and cheese making.

The Corsican people are traditionally mountain dwelling rather than sea dwelling people. Until earlier this century much of the coastline was malarial infested, and for centuries had been the subject of attack and invasion by marauders and pirates. An ironic tale is told that the mountain land had traditionally been willed to sons - as being the most valuable land - and coastal land was left to daughters. During the last several decades a large portion of the economy has been based on tourism and the "Club Med" atmosphere of beaches, boating and fishing. Clearly the daughters are now benefiting.

Traditional Corsican food tends to be meat rather than seafood. Meals traditionally include Corsican soup with beans, meat and vegetables; ‘charcuterie’ or delicatessen meats - prisuttu (ham), lonzu (smoked pork loin), coppa, Figatelli (smoked pork liver sausage); small brown trout from the mountain rivers; game - including ‘sanglier’, or wild pig; lamb, goat, veal; beans and lentils; ‘pulenta’, chestnut flour porridge; sheep's milk cheeses including ‘brocciu’ a soft white cheese as well as more mature cheeses including some which leave your tongue numb; and patisserie including the famous ‘fiadona’ made with brocciu. You are more likely to find typical Corsican food served in the villages and mountains than in coastal resorts.

Roman Catholicism is the predominate religion (85 %). There are numerous religious festivals on the island with worshippers coming from the continent to participate during the Christian holiday seasons. Some Corsicans are involved in the occult. Less than .05% of the Corsicans are evangelical believers and the majority of them live on the continent and not on the island of Corsica itself.