Today is Ajaccio, Corsica, where we have been before, but remember absolutely nothing of the town or the island!  We are taking a ship’s tour of all things, it’s just a walking tour through the old town and then with a taste of Corsican delicacies.  First tour experience with RCL in years, and boy, do they have it organized!  Check in, get stickers, sit in designated tour area (follow your number paddle to the seats), then wait for all your tour to arrive (including the 2 who are really late and we end up just sitting there waiting for….always someone!), then we are off, escorted off the ship and turned over into the capable hands of our guide (whose name I’ve completely forgotten now).

We start off past the market which we will visit later (it is Monday, so only “1/2” the market is there!) and proceed over to Place Foch, the main square in the old town with the statue of the “big guy”: Napoleon.  Obviously, Ajaccio (and Corsica) are all about Napoleon – he was born here, lived here until he was sent off to military school, and his family stayed here.  There is a museum in the house where they lived, but, yep, you got it.  It is Monday, which means it is closed.  Ah well.

Continuing on we walk to the Citadel, which is closed for renovations (at least not because it is Monday, LOL), where there is a statue of Pascal Paoli, who is considered the father of Corsica, as he wrote the 1^st Corsican Constitution – actually the first ever written constitution in the world.  Our guide is so knowledgeable, he is a history buff, studies it, and loves to share his knowledge.  He tells us all about Corsican history, how it was first under Italian rule (which is why there are still Italian language names and pronunciations of just about everything).  The first rulers were Pisan, then came Genoan.  Paoli, then a general, fought for independence and made a name for himself, wrote the constitution.  Later, though, the French invaded and won battles, so now Corsica is ruled as a French state.  The population still identifies more with Italian though, which explains so much!

Moving on, we pass the fisherman’s chapel, which surprises the guide by being open.  Bonus visit – not on the original tour, but since it is open, the guide lets us go in to see the décor.  It is all about fishing and the sea – this is where the fishermen come to pray before sailing out (similar to Sete, only in a much more convenient – and flat – location).  Inside is incredibly nautical with ships hung all about the church along with anchors and a Neptune statue surrounded by angels/cherubs.  Cool little diversion. 

Next, we hit the main the cathedral, Santa Maria Assunta, with its austere exterior and marble covered interior.  The cathedral, built in 1593 in the Latin cross style is still called the Duomo – there’s some of the Italian influence for you.

Ajaccio is surprisingly small and compact, we had no idea.  I had all these places mapped out to see if we were doing our own walking tour, but had no idea we could cover the area in 15 minutes or so – if we didn’t stop for a rest!  And the buildings and architecture! Just fabulous streetscapes.

After the church, we wind our way back toward the waterfront, passing the Maison Bonaparte – the family house.  Here we get more history lessons on Napoleon and can at least take pictures of the house, the gardens with the statue off his brother and this really cool metal sign on the side of the house. 

Now we are off to the “bar” where we will have our delicacies, which are basically charcuterie and a cookie. But at 10:15am, that’s really about all you’d want – oh, plus wine. Ok, so who is going to turn down wine, ever? A very nice rose, actually.  Snacks done, we complete our tour by walking through the local products market, but being Monday, only a half the vendors were there (as mentioned previously). And while there are tons of things here, they are fairly pricey, and we’ve got some charcuterie stashed in our cabin anyway, so we pass up the shopping opportunity, say goodbye to our guide and begin our own wanderings around the town.

Of course we locate the only open museum in Ajaccio – The Fesch museum.  Cardinal Fesch was Napoleon’s uncle who built a palace in 1827 and dedicated 3 wings to house works of art.  The museum is huge, with the 2nd largest collection of Italian painters outside of the Louvre.  Three floors of amazing paintings, including one of me!  Sainte Catherine d’Alexandrie!  Who knew???  There were some incredible still life portraits, such detail.  And of course Napoleon statues, plus this one iron bust with really crazy/creepy eyes!!  Then outside in the courtyard was the entrance to the chapel where Napoleon was baptized and his family, including Cardinal Fesch, is buried.  It was really amazing and fun. 

Lunchtime.  We wander down the pedestrian street perusing all the menus and settle on a sweet little restaurant called Aio.  The owner/server is a hoot, and talkative, and when he finds out we are from North Carolina tells us he had a cousin who stayed in Charleston SC. Small world!  Trying to eat light, we decide to share a salad with goat cheese and a charcuterie platter.  Oh, my.  The goat cheese on the salad is what I’m going to call “taquitos.”  Wrapped in an egg roll wrapper with caramelized onions and deep fried. And a sweet balsamic drizzle and honey on top. Oh. So good!  Not exactly the ”light” we were looking for, but, we are not going to complain. Fabulous lunch!

Now it is time to walk off our lunch.  Which we do by going in search of this Resistance Museum, that ends up being permanently closed.  Although a lot of information on the Internet says it is still open. We are here to confirm it is not open – it is now an apartment building.  Although the cool murals on the side of the building that were there when it was a museum are still pretty much in existence.  So at least we had a consolation prize!  Oh, and as we were leaving we saw another woman searching for the same museum.  At least we weren’t alone.

Then it was back to the ship for an early sailing, into the Diamond Lounge for cappuccino (love the artwork in here) and onto the balcony to hang until dinner.  Again, we ate in the buffet, Mediterranean night, all good, excellent selection and easy to portion control!  The show was a magician which we skipped for the balcony and another lovely night sailing through the Med on our way to Palma.