Porto to Corte

May 1, 2025

We were up early so Mel could start riding on a big day into the interior. She was heading straight up from sea level to the Col de Vergio at 1467 m.

I finished cleaning up our cabin, then departed around 9 am. My leg was achy overnight, so I opted out of a longer hike and found a new option in the calanques that took only about 2:15 h. It was another stunning day. As usual, the hardest part was figuring out where to park.

The flower of the day. My phone tells me that it’s a cyclamen.

The village of Piana is visible in the background.

Part of my 7 km walk was on a former mule route that was the only path between Piana and Porto/Ota until the mid 1800s.

The last few hundred meters of my walk was on the paved road back to my car. Look carefully and you’ll see a rusted-out car well below the road. I can’t imagine anyone surviving this drop.

After my hike I drove the same route that Mel rode. I watched the vegetation turn back in time. There were lilacs blooming in Evisa at about 850 m elevation, but the leaves were just barely popping open at the Col de Vergio.

I saw lots of road bikers today, and six tourers, I think. The number of cyclists is nothing compared to the motorbikes. There must be at least ten times the number of bikes.

Obstacles on the road today included pigs.

This is one of the places where the GT20 cycling route crosses the GR20 hiking route, reportedly the toughest GR in Europe. Jesus is there to oversee things.

It’s hard to see the col info under the stickers..

The views have changed. There’s still a bit of snow in the mountains.

Driving-wise, it was another scary day, with a canyon road beyond Calacuccia. The road was narrow, with overhanging walls and single lane bridges with no marked right of ways. I just always defer.

This is a man made reservoir near Calacuccia.

Don’t like the French name? Spray paint and bullets will help.

I arrived shortly after 3 pm. As usual, Mel beat me, despite having to ride 84 km and climb 1700 m with a tough and hot hill at the end up to Corte.

Corte is a mountain town and hiking mecca. Corte also has Corsica's only university - founded in the 1980s.

We are in a funny hotel that we booked for its kitchen facilities and its reasonable price too. It’s clean, but looks like something out of the 1980s. It’s very bare - we think it might have been a student residence at one time.

After a refreshing beer chilled in our freezer, we walked around town. It’s got a cool 15th century hilltop citadel with a nice belvedere. There are lots of restaurant, cafes, and bars that were busy this May Day holiday. Interpretive info told us that Napoleon’s father lived here for a while.

Some buildings looked occupied, and others abandoned. But there were loads of restaurants in the area.

We had a Corsican dinner at a very nice restaurant in the old town. My choices were a delicious herb tart as a starter, then wild boar tagliatelle, and fiadone for dessert, which is a cheesecake with lemon and local brocciu cheese. It was much lighter than a North American cheesecake. Mel had a rustic soup to start, then brocciu lasagna, then chestnut cake. Along with wild boar, figs, and brocciu, chestnuts are a theme here. And we were delighted to find that a carafe of wine cost exactly half the price we paid in Calvi. Seaside towns cost extra, I guess.

Lots of climbing for Mel today, but 300 m less than predicted by Komoot from the planned ride. The official tourism site for the GT20 also WAY overestimated the climbing.

Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 384 km (238 miles)

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Rachael AndersonThanks for reminding of all the great hikes and rides we took in Corsica!
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