Parallel with the Rue Fesch is the Cours Napoleon, by which all the diligences enter and leave the town. The continuation round the bay is bordered with plane trees. At the commencement is a bronze statue of “E. C. Abbatucci né à Zicavo le 12 Novembre 1770, mort pour la patrie le 2 Decembre 1796.” Near it is the railway station.
At the western end of the Cours Napoleon is the Place Bonaparte or Diamant, bordered with trees and ornamented with a complicate bronze monument on a granite pedestal by Violet le Duc, “à la memoire de Napoleon I. et de ses frères Joseph, Lucien, Louis, Jerome.” All are life-size statues; Napoleon is on horseback, the others on foot, marching solemnly towards the sea.
EXCURSIONS.
From the port, 11 m. W., is the chapel S. Antonio, 850 ft. The road passes the penitentiary of S. Antonio, 331 ft. North from it, under the peak of La Barrage, 1476 feet, is the Castelluccio penitentiary. Westward by the Hospice Eugenie and the Batterie de Maestrello, a
pleasant road leads along the coast to the orange gardens of Barbicaja, passing by the Chapelle de Greco and the cemetery. About 4 m. farther is the Tête Parata, 199 ft., opposite the Iles Sanguinaires.
A beautiful road, the continuation of the Cours Grandval, ascends 2½ m. to the [Fontaine du Salario], 760 ft., commanding enchanting views. This road traverses the Place Casone, 144 ft., occupying the site of the Casone, the country house of the Bonapartes, destroyed in 1878. Close by is the “grotte Napoleon,” composed of blocks of granite, to which, it is said, the youthful Napoleon used to retire.
About 6 m. N. from Ajaccio is the village of Alata, 1312 ft. Within an easy walking distance north from Ajaccio is the pleasant estate of [Carrosaccia], on the canal which supplies the town with water from the Gravona. 5½ m. N. from Ajaccio are the [sulphurous springs of Caldaniccia].
In the neighbourhood of Ajaccio and of the other Corsican towns and villages are numerous family sepulchral chapels enclosed within walls. A more pleasing characteristic feature, probably inherited from the Moors, are the numerous [fountains] in the villages and by the road side, whence flow streams of cold, sparkling water of exquisite purity.