Already on the ferry or in the plane first-time visitors of Corsica realize that you have to visit Corsica more than once to see its beauty. The island that was called kalliste - the most beautiful - by the Greek in the antiquity is really incomparable beautiful. From the north to south only 183 km long, less than 90 km wide, the island looks more like a little continent than an island. 1000 km of a strong structured coast comprise a mountain massive, in which less than 30 km from the sea 70 peaks rise more than 2000 m high. Till late June the summits of the mountains are covered with snow while the sea is already 20 °C and ready for one to have a bath.

The regional cut of the island in two parts - Départements Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud - is equivalent to the geological subdivision in the slate massive in the northeastern with the border river Tavignano and the granit massive in the south. Only in the east there is a huge plain with endless beaches, elsewhere the terrain rises usually up soon.

Corsica as the French took it over 1769, must have been very sad. In the mountains poor sheperds beside some rich farmers, bandits everywhere and especially in the south bitter blood feud. The plains behind the impossant citadel citys of the Genuese contaminated with malaria: Only during the winter the sheperd could drive their livestock there and went back to the mountains when the temperatures rose. With the beginning of the migration from the land in the 19th century the villages got empty, earlier cultivated soils overgrew and many thousands of people went to the continent or to America to try their chances.

How all the war memorials around the island show, WW1and the german occupation in WW2 claimed once more a lot of victims. The population declined from 280'000 to 170'000 between 1890 and 1950. Still nowadays Corsica is the island in the Mediterranean Sea with the smallest density of population. After the liberation from the german occupying force, the Allies drove away the malaria in 1944 by using DDT. The land, that was won back then is nowadays an important economical factor besides tourism and the industry in the two big cities.

Because of the secluded life in the mountains, no standard language was developed by the Corsicans, and therefore there are about 50 different dialects. Today the university of Corte has a project to design a standarized language, they want to establish as a second written language beside the French. Also in other spheres chances are becoming apparent for Corsica to grow together to an island with its own culture. The government of Corsica makes an insistent effort to get concessions from the French central government and to support ideas of the island. Unfortunately there are sometimes also violant acts.

So why not enjoy the landscape, the people and the weather in an other way, by bike?

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Information based on "Marco Polo: Korsika", Mairs Geographischer Verlag, Hachette, 1995 (German)