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Travel Adventures: Ajaccio Corsica

Many people think that Corsica is part of Italy.  In fact, it is a French territory.  While it was ruled by the Genoese for almost 400 years, it was purchased by France from the Republic of Genoa in 1764.  Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica is famous as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte.

We arrived at Ajaccio on a Sunday morning and were informed that all of the shops were closed for the day.  While my wife elected to sleep on the ship for the day, I decided that it was a tremendous opportunity to grab my camera and wander the streets.

Ajaccio is a fascinating mixture of French and Italian.  The buildings climb up the side of the mountain creating many steep and interesting streets to explore on a quiet Sunday morning.  The most active part of the town is the open air market near the harbour that is open every Sunday morning.  The best thing about this market is that it is patronized by the locals and has not been set up as a tourist trap for the cruise ships.  While some of the stalls clearly were catering to the tourists (mostly run by Africans), the most interesting stalls were where the locals bartered and shopped for their groceries in the food market.

Ajaccio is mostly dependant on tourism for its income and is one of the least economically advanced  territories of France.  It does not have as much development as some other French Mediterranean towns like Nice and Villefranche and is much more quaint and relaxed.  It is well worth a visit.  Maybe you can catch it on a day when it is open for business.  Until then, enjoy these photographs and the slideshow that follows below.

Posted on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 at 10:34 pm. Filed under: Travel Photography Tags: Ajaccio, Corsica, France, Mediterranean, Travel photography RSS 2.0 feed.