David's Diary: Friday, May 24, 2002

Corsica: Filitosa and Porto

Yesterday was a full day of formal school and this morning saw more schoolwork completed. At lunch time, Kevin and I searched through Propriano and found a car to rent for the day. After a quick lunch we all packed into the car and drove off on the winding narrow roads of Corsica bound for Filitosa. Our route took us into the mountains and past villages clinging to the sides of hills.

Hillside Views

More than 3000 years ago, megalithic menhirs were created in the wooded valley of Filitosa. We stopped and spent a pleasant few hours exploring the site. The small museum displays artefacts found on the site that dates as far back as 5850 BC. Our visit took as down tree-lined and paths and into open fields as we saw where the megalithic people lived, farmed, and carved their statues. At the bottom of a hill was a semi-circle of menhirs surrounding an enormous olive tree (look to the center right of the picture above).

Porto

Our next stop was the seaside resort of Porto. We skipped the broad sandy beach and explored the rocky promontory at the edge of the harbour. We found hidden paths along the coast that took us through farmer's fields and up hills until we were high above the sea amid holiday houses just starting to be occupied for the season. We found our way back to Porto by cutting through another farmer's field and stopped for a snack at the marina restaurant. A short drive along the twisty coastal road returned us to Propriano in time to buy groceries and make dinner before the sun set on the Gulf de Valinco.