GO VISTA: Travel guide Corsica

About the Travel Destination Corsica

Corsica, the holiday paradise in the Mediterranean, the island of beauty, the sun island – colorful brochures promise the fulfillment of the longing for sand and sun with 1,000 kilometers of coastline and 270 sunny days a year.

But Corsica is different, a continent unto itself, even though it is only 183 kilometers long and 83 kilometers wide. A half-hour flight or a half-day by ship separates the south of France from Corsica. Another distance between the island and the mainland is not so easily quantified and even harder to bridge: differences in culture, mentality, and language. Even though the Corsicans hold a French passport, they primarily identify as Corsicans; Corsica is not France, even though it belongs to it. However, without pensions, retirement funds, and subsidies from Paris, the island would no longer be viable. The relationship of the Corsicans to the continent is as full of contrasts as the landscape itself.

Flat, fertile alluvial plains with a more than 100-kilometer-long sandy beach dominate the east coast. In contrast, steep cliffs and bizarrely shaped rocks plunge into the sea in the west, interrupted by small and large bays where rivers flow in. Often, snow crowns the alpine peaks well into summer, while two hours away by car, sandcastles are washed away by waves. Expansive forests shade the mountain slopes, while elsewhere the sun mercilessly scorches a rocky desert where only the hardiest maquis plants survive.

In Corsica, people like to take their time: for a leisurely meal, a siesta, pastis, an evening card game in the bar, and a game of boules with friends. Men and women are said to possess an unyielding pride – in daily interactions as well as in political demands. Corsican pride is easily wounded when outsiders thoughtlessly disregard the uniqueness and individuality of this beautiful island.