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.
[Headnote: PINO.--LURI.]
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.
[Headnote: SENECA'S TOWER.]
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.
[Headnote: 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.
[Headnote: MACINAGGIO.--ROGLIANO.]
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.
[Headnote: BOTTICELLA.]
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.
Bastia to Calvi.