Ajaccio, Corsica – December 3

Corsica is the 4th largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and is part of France. The main language is French but there is also Corsican. Ajaccio is the largest city on the island with a population of 16,000. Corsica was originally part of the Republic of Genoa but was ceded to France to settle a debt in 1769.

The island is 83 million years old. The surrounding waters of the Mediterranean are very deep, more than 1400 meters. There are 432 mountains on Corsica. It was a port way back in history because it has abundant sources of water. During WW II it was bombed accidentally by the Americans. As payment for this accidental bombing, the Americans helped rid the island of its huge mosquito problem. This allowed the inhabitants of the island to move off the mountainsides and down closer to the shore. Although this is an island, they do not have much industry using the sea. They farm and have tourism as their main industries.

The island was invaded over history 14 times. Almost every civilization around the Mediterranean invaded Corsica. The island originally had no trees but each conqueror brought trees from their country of origin.

We heard about 2 famous Corsicans: Pasquale Paoli, a statesman and military leader who wrote the Corsican constitution and who was friends with Jefferson and gave him inspiration for the American constitution. The second famous Corsican was Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was born on Corsica on August 15, 1769. He left the island at age 9 and went to live in Paris. During our touring we saw his birth home, the family chapels, the cave he went to, to write and many statues.

We learned about the many things that Napoleon did; he moved doctors from universities to buildings used for sick people creating hospitals, made education mandatory, created garbage services and originated the numbering of houses. These were a few noted by our guide. The statues and pictures of him were done in such a way to make him look bigger than he was.

There was a lot of cleaning up and painting going on during our visit because the Pope was going to be there on December 15 to have mass for 35000 people. The Pope was invited to have mass at the opening of Notre Dame in Paris, but chose not to go there, going to Corsica instead. The people were pretty excited about this.