YOUR ARRIVAL

     As you arrive by cruise ship in the harbor of Ajaccio as the sun rises, the early light makes the Mediterranean glimmer and brings to life the pastel shades of the old seafront buildings. You really get that sense of arriving on an island.  The dazzling white city of Ajaccio runs in a semicircle on the calm bay, and is set against a backdrop of wooded hills. The port area, fringed with palm trees, is filled with yachts and lined with colorful houses. You will probably sail past some of the impressive citadels and bridges, and a network of nearly 100 medieval watchtowers that still encircle the island.

DOCKING

                                   Cruise ship in port                                                                  Main streets directly off pier area

     Cruise ships now sail into the city’s new cruise port near the centre of Ajaccio, (Port Charles Ornano) eliminating the need for a tender to port.

Car ferry arriving at the port

TOURIST INFORMATION
     Make a quick stop at the information desk located right at the Cruise Ship Terminal and pick up a town street map where all of the tourist spots are  located. 

Also they will be able to give you helpful information on which areas are wheelchair-friendly,  and if there is a tour guide that can assist you in your sightseeing.  So far, none of the buses have access for wheelchairs, unless you are able to climb the half dozen (fairly steep) steps into the coach. A place can be normally found to stow your wheelchair.  The  Le Petit Train, below, (available seasonal from mid-April until end of September) can accommodate a disabled person if they are able to take 1 or 2 steps to get up and into a seat. The bus station in Ajaccio is wheelchair accessible and also has accessible WCs. The rental cars have manual shift transmissions and are not wheelchair friendly.  Contact: Ulysse Transport   (reseau@ulysse-transport.fr)  For transmission and support of people with reduced mobility (PRM). Ulysses offers vehicles equipped for wheelchairs and driver-guides trained to support people with disabilities, 7 days 7, in all regions of France.  For wheelchair hire: La vitrine médicale  and Horizon Médical Corse : Shops in Ajaccio.

GETTING AROUND

     The city centre and picturesque market square are a short walk from the pier and the city itself is eminently. (Head left outside the pier, and keep going straight along the road to get to the heart of Ajaccio's action -- the pretty market square, the Hotel de Ville (town hall), the lovely Genovese old town and the best shops.) Taxis, ferries, and buses can assist you in your explorations around the island also, although if you are only in port for a short time you’ll want to remain in the city. There are a number of cafés, shops, beaches, and museums an easy 5 to 10 minute walk from the pier to keep you occupied for at least half a day.

                   Ajaccio city streets

     If you prefer not to walk, or are unable to walk, you might take the Le Petit Train d'Ajaccio, a tourist 'train' that makes two circuits along Ajaccio's streets: one through the old town and a longer one through the old town and on to Pointe de la Parata. Each leaves on the hour from the kiosk opposite the town hall on place Foch.  Le petit train in Ajaccio is a rubber-wheeled people-mover, an ideal means of discovering the city. The shorter of two guided visits, will take you to the main beaches, the town centre and the port. This is a neat way to get a feel for the city and noting where you want to go. What’s great is that everything in Ajaccio is within walking distance; you don’t need a car here.
 Tour 1: Imperial City -- Circuit n°1 - Cité Impériale (45 mn - 5 €)
Visit the Imperial City through the old city with a 10 minutes stop at Napoleon cave.

Circuit 2: Islands Sanguinaires -- Circuit n°2 - Sanguinary Islands (90 mn - 8 €)
Visit the Imperial City through the old town towards Sanguinaires Islands.
Stop 10 minutes Parata peninsula.

TAXIS

     There are no taxis available at the pier on Sundays and the local bus network is geared to residents, who use it to get to and from school and work. So these modes of transportation shouldn't be considered unless you know their absolute schedules and fares.

RENTAL CAR    

     Renting a vehicle would allow you to explore several towns and surrounding attractions during your stay on the island; however, be aware that travel times may be longer than map distances suggest as the mountain roads can be narrow and winding. Vehicle rental costs approximately €50 per day for an economy manual car. Delivery to the port will be an additional charge. Hertz serves the entire island; its 18 offices are at all airports and harbors and in the major towns. Be sure to reserve at least two weeks in advance in July and August.

BIKES and MOTORBIKES – Roads can be winding at times but the infrastructure has massively improved over the past 10 years with cutting of turns and widening of the roads. Booked early enough, internet rentals can offer very competitive prices. Because the winding roads prove to be fun on a motorbike and taking over is easier than with a car, the island is also popular with bikers. Many hotels and restaurant also accommodate specifically for them. It is also quite easy to rent out motorcycles in towns or airports. Corsica Moto Evasion has a site in English with rates and choice of several type of machines.

WALKING "ON YOUR OWN"

    The center of town is compact, and it doesn't take long to make your way around the streets. There are two main town squares where one can sit and people watch, Place Foch  and Place de Gaulle .

Place de Gaulle, Napoleon and his Brothers

     The squares are equipped with the standard European compliment of beautiful fountains, stately monuments, carefully tended gardens, and souvenir stands.  Place de Gaulle (otherwise known as place du Diamant, after the Diamanti family who once owned much of the property in Ajaccio) is the most useful point of orientation.  It is a fine urban space measuring about 5 acres offering a magnificent view of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The most noteworthy thing on the square is the huge, bronze equestrian statue, a pompous lump commissioned by Napoléon III in 1865 showing Napoleon in Roman costume on horse-back surrounded by the standing statues of his brothers, Joseph, Lucien, Louis and Jérôme; all set on pink granite pedestals. A commemorative plaque bears the following inscription (here translated): 'To Napoleon I and his brothers. Corsica remembers you with gratitude."

Panorama of city and Citadel

The Citadel  was built when the town was founded in 1492. In 1502, strong defensive walls were built around Ajaccio. The citadel was modified and extended during the occupation of the French between 1553 and 1559.  The restored citadel, a hexagonal fortress and tower stuck out on a wide promontory into the sea. The building overlooks the town beach, plage St-François, a short curve of yellow sand which faces the expansive mountain-ringed bay. Several flights of steps lead down to the beach from boulevard Danielle-Casanova.

     The citadel must have played a major role in the events over the years. It certainly must have been an object of fascination for the young Napoleon. Many historians have recounted how Napoleon used to go to watch the changing of the guard there. And even though this has never been verified, it is not entirely surprising given that the Bonaparte family house was not far away. Today it is unfortunately not possible to visit the citadel since it is occupied by the military.

     Three streets spread out like a fan from the Citadel: Rue Forcioli-Conti, Rue du Roi de Rome and Rue Bonaparte on which stood the town gate. 

Place Foch: At the site of the town's medieval gate, is place Foch, the heart of old Ajaccio.  It is a delightfully shady square sloping down to the sea and lined with cafés and restaurants, it gets its local name – place des Palmiers – from the row of palms bordering the central strip.

     Dominating the top end, a fountain of four marble lions provides a mount for the inevitable statue of Napoléon. A humbler effigy occupies a niche high on the nearest wall – a figurine of Ajaccio's patron saint, La Madonnuccia, dating from 1656.

Hotel de Ville:  At the northern end of place Foch is the Hotel de Ville of 1826, with its prison-like wooden doors. The classy Salon Napoleonien on the first floor of the hotel contains a dazzling array of memorabilia of ol’ Leon. Proper dress required.      

Ask at the reception desk in the entrance for access to the lift to the Salon Napoléonien. WC close to the lift.
 

Hotel de Ville and Salon Napoleonien

      If you peek into the Hotel de Ville  or town hall in Ajaccio was built during the reign of
Charles X between 1824 and 1830 the Salon napoléonien which houses various napoleonic paintings and statues, and memorabilia of the imperial family. For reasons of lack of space, a part of the collection is on show at the Musée Fesch. you can take a look at Napoleon's mother, Letizia, cast in bronze, as well as an intricate ceiling fresco chronicling Napoleon's rise to power. The first-floor Salon Napoléonien (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Sat 9–11.45am & 2–5.45pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9–11.45am & 2–4.45pm; contains a replica of the ex-emperor's death mask, along with a solemn array of Bonaparte family portraits and busts. A smaller medal room has a fragment from Napoleon's coffin and part of his dressing case, plus a model of the ship that brought his body back from St Helena, and a picture of the house where he died.

Adult 5.35 Euros
Concession or reduced rate 3.50 Euros
Group of 10 or more 3.50 Euros
Child 15 & under FREE

 
OLD PART OF TOWN NEAR THE CITADEL

     The south side of place Foch,  gives you access to rue Bonaparte, the main route through the  quarter. Built on the promontory rising to the citadel, the secluded streets in this part of town – with their dusty buildings and hole-in-the-wall restaurants lit by flashes of sea or sky at the end of the alleys – retain more of a sense of the old Ajaccio than anywhere else.

Bonaparte's' Mansion   The Bonaparte's' first house in Ajaccio was at the end of the Grande-Rue. It was demolished in the middle of the 16th century to make room for the citadel. From that period to the 17th century, it is not known where the Bonapartes lived. But in 1682 Giuseppe Bonaparte moved into the house that was to become 'Casa Bonaparte.' As was the custom in Corsica, the house was divided up between different owners, each possessing one or more rooms, sometimes even a whole floor.

The house of the Bonaparte family on the corner of Rue Saint-Charles and Rue Letizia  

In the maison Bonaparte we see the couch on which Napoleon was born.

     On this narrow street, Maison Bonaparte, (which after suffering many different fates became a National Monument in 1967) with its tall and sober façade stretching over three stories is characteristic of 18th century housing in Ajaccio. The museum is divided into two parts. The second story recounts the history of Corsica in the 18th century and that of the Bonaparte family, while the first floor contains the historical apartments. On leaving the museum, visitors should stop for a few moments to take a pleasant rest in the small garden opposite the house and admire the bust of the King of Rome placed there in 1936 on the centenary of the death of Letizia.  Owned by the state since 1923, the house now bears few traces of the Bonaparte family's existence.

     One of the few original pieces of furniture left in the house is the wooden sedan chair in the hallway – the pregnant Letizia was carried back from church in it when her contractions started. Upstairs, there's an endless display of portraits, miniatures, weapons, letters and documents. Among the highlights of the first room are a few maps of Corsica dating from the eighteenth century, some deadly "vendetta" daggers and two handsome pairs of pistols belonging to Napoleon's father. The next-door Alcove Room was, according to tradition, occupied by Napoléon in 1799 when he stayed here for the last time, while in the third room you can see the sofa upon which the future emperor first saw the light of day on August 15, 1769. Adjoining the heavily restored long gallery is a tiny room known as the Trapdoor Room, where Letizia and her children made their getaway from the marauding Paolists.

There is a lift in the maison.

Museum du Capitellu.  Before leaving Boulevard Danielle Casanova which fronts the Citadel, visitors should take time to view number 18. There, in a building dating from the Genoese period, stands a small charming private museum, the Musée du Capitellu. Here the entire history of Ajaccio (from the foundation to the present day) is retold through the memorabilia of one family. On show are items of porcelain, silverware, furniture, and crockery alongside paintings by Corsican artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

     Go back onto Rue Saint-Charles and walk as far as Rue Bonaparte. This main arterial road, the "Carrughiu drittu" (the straight road) was one of Ajaccio's first roads and during the Genoese period it was lined by the houses of the wealthy. Most of these houses were rebuilt in the 19th century. Below at number 17, is the house which once belonged to the Pozzo di Borgo family.

Hotel Borgo di Pazzo

Today Hotel Borgo di Pozzo, which was remodeled between 1820 and 1825,  is in disrepair, but it has fine trompe'd'oeil decoration on the facade and a richly sculpted door framed by Ionic columns worth noting.

 Further on down the road there are two plaques, at number 5 and number 10 respectively, commemorating the two famous men who once lived there. The 'Father of the Homeland', Paoli, and Murat lived in the Hotel de la Croix de Malte in September 1815 before embarking on his ill-fated attempt to reconquer the Neapolitan throne.

 The Cathedral  

     At the end of Rue Saint-Charles, in Rue Forcioli-Conti (in the neighborhood in which Napoleon grew up) stands Ajaccio Cathedral. Built on a modest scale, this edifice which dates from the end of the 16th century is a place of Napoleonic pilgrimage. True to the story as historians tell it, Letizia did indeed feel the first birth pangs there - some even went so far as to say that she gave birth on the cathedral steps. Napoleon was baptized in the cathedral by his great-uncle the Archdeacon Lucien on 21 July 1771 at the same time as his new born sister Maria Anna, who died before the year was out. The birth certificate - a copy of which can be seen in the Salon napoléonien in the Hotel de Ville - was written in Italian and neither the town nor the church in which the ceremony took place is mentioned. The baptistery where the ceremony was held can still be seen today in the entrance to the cathedral.

     Modeled on St, Peter's in Rome, it was built in 1587–93 on a much smaller scale than intended, owing to lack of funds – an apology for its diminutive size is inscribed in a plaque inside, on the wall to the left as you enter. Inside, to the right of the door, stands the font where he was dipped at the age of 23 months; his sister, Elisa Baciochi, donated the great marble altar in 1811. Before you go, take a look in the chapel to the left of the altar, which houses a gloomy Delacroix painting of the Virgin.

Ramp to one side of Cathedral facade.
 

Bandera Bust of Napoleon                                           Musee A Bandera

Finally, there is the Musee A Bandera  which deals with Corsican military history.

 This museum is made up of five rooms on the ground floor. The main problem lies in reaching the entrance: up a short but steep street with POSSIBLE parking space in a car park 20 metres further on.
 

The Municipal Library, commissioned by Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte, contains an impressive collection of books, many confiscated during the French revolution from émigré aristocrats and members of religious orders.  

     For still more Napoleonic, head over to the Musee Fesch which also contains an  impressive array of Italian art, as well as French and Flemish paintings.  The paintings were collected by Napoleon's uncle, Fesch, who became a Cardinal, the Archbishop of Lyon. Fesch bought many of these paintings at very low prices, no doubt leaning on his nephew's influence.  The Musée Fesch, easy to find in rue du Cardinal Fesch. At number 50,  Palais Fesch is one palace particularly notable for the austere lines of its Classical architecture.

Statue of Cardinal Fesch in the courtyard of Palais Fesch

     Fesch fled Corsica with the rest of the Bonaparte family in 1793, following his nephew to Italy, and for a brief time forgetting his ecclesiastical duties he acted as a supplier to the armies.

     In 1847, the structure opened its doors as Institute d'études, and in 1852 as a Museum, but over time the museum galleries were gradually replaced by classrooms. Palais Fesch remained a boys school until 1936, before becoming a soup kitchen during the Second World War. At the end of the 80s, the building once more became a museum and today it houses one of the largest provincial collection of Italian painting in the world. In addition to the painting collection the museum also has a significant Napoleonic section containing some remarkable works.

After a complete renovation, the museum reopened on 25th June 2010. Wholly accessible by wheelchair users.
 

Interior of Imperial Chapel                                                   Imperial Vault

The Imperial Chapel was built under orders from Napoleon III, between 1857 and 1860, in response to Cardinal Fesch's wish, expressed in his will, that he should be buried in a church built for him and his family in Ajaccio. The latter became the family burial chapel of the Bonapartes. The bodies of Charles and Letizia, Napoleon's parents, Joseph Fesch, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and of Misignano, the latter's children Napoléon-Charles, Zénaide and Eugénie, Prince Victor and his wife Clémentine, and Prince Napoleon all lie in the crypt. Every year Masses are celebrated there on the anniversaries of Napoleon's birth and death. 

The Casone monument. Place d'Austerlitz

     To see the The Casone monument at Place d'Austerlitz, take the Cours Grandval,  which continues into the Cours Général Leclerc until you reach Place d'Austerlitz.  Another  monumental ensemble to the glory of Napoleon I was built there and inaugurated on 15 August 1938. The work takes the form of a large promontory made from an inclined stone plane covered with inscriptions, at the summit of which there is a small stepped pyramid which acts as a pedestal for a replica in bronze of the statue of Napoleon. The whole ensemble is framed by two eagles bearing the dates of the birth and death of Napoleon.