Travel guide
Corsica

The 12 keywords Corsica

1. Brocciu

If there is an essential cheese to try in Corsica, it is brocciu, which is eaten as is with bread, pulenda, or prepared in traditional recipes like fiadone. Rare are the meals where the brocciu is absent, in a form or another. As the poet Emile Bergerat said: "Who has not tasted it does not know the island!

2. cutlery

The manufacture of the knife of Corsica is an old know-how which requires rigour. Endowed with a great symbolic force, a knife could be transmitted as an element of the family heritage. The three most widespread types are the shepherd's knife, the stylus, a kind of dagger which appeared in the 16th century and the mythical folding "vendetta".

3. cross

The Corsicans pay homage to their dead on the very spot of the event. On the roadsides, crosses, always maintained and decorated with flowers, are erected for the victims of road accidents or for the resistance fighters of the last war. As a good-luck charm, small palm tree crucifixes can be found in houses or cars.

4. figatellu

This dry sausage made of meat and pork liver, flavoured with spices and garlic, is the most famous of Corsica's cold meats. It is eaten as is, accompanied by pulenda and brocciu, or cooked with starchy foods. It goes wonderfully with red beans, red wine and pancetta in the traditional Tianu.

5. maquis

The maquis is characteristic of the rich and varied vegetation found in Corsica. There are 78 endemic species, i.e. species specific to the island. The most present plants are strawberry tree, myrtle, immortelle, cyst, thyme, mastic pistachio or broom. Many of them can be found in the local gastronomy.

6. polyphony

An integral part of the Corsican identity, one of the singular features of the local music is the polyphony, or a capella singing performed in several voices. Sacred or profane, there are a large number of variants which differ in their forms and in the themes they address, although the latter are most often inspired by local history.

7. boar

He is called a moose, he is with the mouflon a legendary figure of the island. With its dark coat, short legs and stocky appearance, it is recognizable in the blink of an eye when you come across it on the roads. Prized by hunters for its unique meat taste, it is eaten as a stew, or stufatu di cignale, a local culinary specialty.

8. statue-menhirs

These megaliths, emblematic of the island's archaeological wealth, stand out from the different groups of European and Mediterranean menhir statues with their original iconography (morphology, carved weapons). There are 38 monuments of this type, the oldest dating from the end of the 3rd millennium and the most recent from between 1500 and 1000 BC.

9. taffoni

This geological term comes from the Corsican tafone, which means "hole", and designates a rounded cavity whose dimensions can go from about ten centimeters to several meters. Result of the erosion of magmatic rocks under the action of moisture, they often form magnificent natural sculptures, like the lion of the Cape of Roccapina.

10. moorish head

Presumably adopted by Sardinia and Corsica at the time when the Kingdom of Aragon dominated the Mediterranean islands, it symbolized the victory of the Crusaders over the Moors. But its definitive and official adoption by the heart of Corsica is due to Pasquale Paoli, who chose this flag for the Corsican nation founded in 1762.

11. vendetta

Mentalities have evolved in Corsica and there are practically no longer, as there were until the last century, families killing each other for several generations. Nevertheless, the sense of honour, respect and duty is still very much alive, and Corsica has a very strict code of moral and social conventions. We must be attentive to that.

12. villages

For the Corsicans, they represent a return to their roots, an identity and an ancestral way of life. For tourists, they are objects of fascination. Perched on steep mountains or curled up in the hollow of turquoise bays, their architecture blends harmoniously with the surrounding landscape, as if they were carved directly out of stone.