Cap Corse
Bastia to Rogliano and Morsaglia
See General Map, P. 1
By diligence, fare to Rogliano, 4 frs. and 3 frs., distance 27½ m., 6 hrs. To Morsaglia, 5½ and 4½ frs., distance 37½ m., 8 hrs. By the road skirting the eastern side of the peninsula of Cap Corse, the best cultivated part of the island, and containing the tidiest villages. The best Cap Corse wine, mostly white, is produced around Luri and Rogliano. The quality used as table wine is drunk the first year. It improves till the fifth year, the better qualities till the tenth and twentieth year. Cap Corse is traversed by a rugged mountain range or serra, of which the culminating peaks are Mount Alticcione, 4230 feet; Mount Stello, 4536 feet; and the Serra de Pigno, 3640 feet. From the east side of this rugged serra little fertile valleys extend to the sea.
Mr. Freshfield thus describes the “Cap”:—“Down a promontory 8 to 10 m. wide runs a range 3000 to 4000 ft. high, with the crest towards the western coast and the valleys towards the eastern. Hence the western Cornice road is a terrace along an always steep, sometimes sheer, mountain side, while the eastern crosses a succession of low maquis-covered spurs, which beyond Cap Sagro flatten and become monotonous. Pino is one of the most beautiful sites on the western coast. It is also important as the spot where the cross-road through the vale of Luri, under Seneca’s tower, falls into the western Cornice. Half-way on this road the village of Luri groups itself in the most picturesque way imaginable on a hill-side broken by a deep ravine. Down on the seashore above the little Marina or port is a large convent; a church occupies a projecting brow 200 ft. above it; higher still, and right and left, every vantage-ground is occupied by groups of well-built villas and sepulchral chapels. The slopes are terraced into orchards of citron, lemon, peach and almond trees, olive groves and vineyards, sheltered from the gales of winter by high palisades.”
Farther south, 5¼ m., is Nonza, with inn, 479 ft., pop. 550. Coach to St. Florent. This is one of the most curious villages of the island. It stands like an eagle’s nest, perched above the sea on a black rock on the mountain side. Its houses, built level with the edge of the cliffs, formed in olden days a sufficient rampart against marauders.
The diligence having passed Lavasina 4½ m. from Bastia, Brando 7 m., and Erbalunga 6¼ m., halts at Sisco-port 9¼ m. To visit the cave of Brando take the steep narrow path left, near a mill, just before arriving at Erbalunga. Seats in shady places are placed here and there. The keeper’s house is close to the entrance. The diligence then proceeds by Pietracorbara 11½ m., and the Torre all’Osse 13 m.; one of the best remaining specimens of the 85 towers built by the Pisans and Genoese to ward off the attacks of the Saracens. From the Torre the diligence proceeds other 2 m. to Perticciolo, where it halts.
Two miles farther is S. Severa, where the horses are changed and the passengers breakfast. From S. Severa, a road ramifies 10 m. W. to Pino on the other side of the peninsula by the valley of the Luri, with vineyards and orange groves, passing the village of Luri 3½ m., with good inn, the Col de S. Lucie 7 m., 1363 ft., and Saronese 9¾ m. From the Santa Severa inn, Seneca’s tower is distinctly seen, at the head of the valley, on the summit of a precipitous peak, rising from the S. side of the Col, 1355 ft., from which a steep, stony path leads up to it, by a forsaken Franciscan convent. The view is grand. To this tower, one of the many watch-towers built in the 12th cent., Seneca could never have been sent, but to the Roman colony of Mariana, then used as a place of banishment for political offenders.
Seneca.
Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Cordova in Spain, just before the commencement of the Christian era. His eldest brother was A. Seneca Novatus, which name was altered afterwards to that of his adopted father, Junius Gallio. This brother was the proconsul of Achaia, before whom St. Paul was arraigned (Acts xviii. 12). While Seneca was still a child he was brought by his aunt to Rome, where he had for teachers Sotion, Papirius Fabianus and Attalus the Stoic. Although weak in body he was a most diligent student, which, joined to his powerful memory, enabled him to obtain at an early age important offices. Before his banishment, A.D. 41, he had already served as quæstor. Having irritated Caligula, he would have been put to death, had not one of the mistresses of the emperor assured him that it was not worth while, as Seneca was so consumptive he would soon die a natural death.
In the first year of the reign of Claudius, his wife Messalina having become jealous of the influence his niece Julia, daughter of Germanicus, had over Claudius her husband, succeeded in getting rid of her by imputing to her improper intimacy with Seneca, then a married man. For that reason Seneca was banished to Corsica A.D. 41.
During his exile he wrote his consolatory letter to his mother Helvia, as well as a panegyric on Messalina and a consolatory letter to Polybius, ostensibly to condole with him on the loss of his brother; but in reality to get that powerful freedman to exert his influence with the emperor, to recall his sentence of exile. This letter is full of fulsome flattery and expressions unworthy of an honest man.
After the death of Messalina, Claudius married his niece Agrippina, sister of Julia and mother of Nero by a former husband. Through her influence Seneca was recalled A.D. 49 and appointed a prætor and tutor to Nero, then 11 years old. In A.D. 51 Agrippina poisoned her husband.
Macinaggio.—Rogliano.—Botticella.
From S. Severa, the diligence, resuming its journey, passes Meria 20½ m., and halts again at the port of Macinaggio 2½ m. more. From this commences the steep ascent up to Rogliano 1300 ft., a town built in groups on the side of the mountain, among vineyards and olive and chestnut trees, the inn being in the second highest group, near the post-office. After Rogliano the diligence crosses the Cols S. Anne, Cappiaja and S. Nicholas, and arrives at Botticella 31 m., and then proceeds to Ersa with inn, near the top of the Col de Serra 1182 ft., commanding a good view of Cap Corse. Shortly afterwards the diligence arrives at Morsaglia, called also Pecorile, a village composed of groups of houses like Rogliano on the side of a hill. The conductor of the diligence will show the hotel. Six miles S. from Morsaglia is Pino, see p. 12.
From Botticella a road leads 4½ m. N. to Barcaggio, opposite the island of Giraglia, on which is a first-class lighthouse, 269 feet above the sea, seen within a radius of 14 m.
From Morsaglia the road is continued 31 m. farther to the Col S. Bernardino on the Bastia and St. Florent road, passing Pino, 25 m. from the Col S. Bernardino; Minerbio, 21½ m.; Marinca, 16 m.; Nonza, 9 m.; Farinole, 2½ m.; Pont du Patrimonio, 1¼ m.; and joins the Bastia road at the Col S. Bernardino, 11¼ m. W. from Bastia.