Guide to Bonifacio

"Below the silhouette of Bonifacio's imposing 16th-century fortress, rows of charming pastel-washed houses, replete with crumbling Italianate facades and wrought iron balconies, surround the town's attractive yacht-filled marina."

Bonifacio harbour is formed by a deep fjord packed with yachts and fishing boats tethered to a quay backed by the 18th-century facades of the 'new' town and bright with the canopies of restaurants and cafes. Standing sentinel above, the massive walls of the citadel jut over the cliff, enclosing the landward side of the 'old' town whose medieval houses appear, from the sea, to fall off the end of the island.
The lure of the bastion above is irresistible, despite the Epicurean pleasures to be enjoyed on the quayside. The Genoese merchants who stuck tenaciously to their impossible precipice built their outpost to resist siege: the buttresses which span the narrow streets form a system to collect rainwater and channel it into a reservoir beneath the church of Sainte-Marie-Majeure and, through escutcheoned doorways, steep stairs lead straight up so that defenders fought from the upper floors.
Many of these ancient houses have now been turned into boutiques selling antiques, handicrafts or jewellery. Tucked into the walls are restaurants where a three-course meal can still be found for 15 euros or so, or more extravagant ones such as the celebrated Stella d'Oro. The local flavour has not been lost - children play in the streets and old men and the priest still gather outside the Cafe Nicois to comment on the day's events in a dialect incomprehensible even to other Corsicans.

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