The road, chiselled out of these cliffs, passes under 3 great portals. From the third is seen, through the great cleft in the rock of Inzecca, the sea at Aleria.
After this the defile opens up to close again between serpentine cliffs. It then crosses the 2 Ponts de Parabuja and the viaduct de l’Inzecca, and reaches the entrance to the Passage de l’Inzecca, 7 m. from [Ghisoni], 985 ft. above the sea, where the road is cut through great serpentine rocks. This is the most difficult part for the waggons to pass. [Map, p. 27].
The plain now widens, and 8 m. from Ghisoni a branch road leads to Vezzani.
Nine and a quarter miles from Ghisoni is the Col S. Antoine, 355 ft., and 8¾ m. farther is Ghisonaccia, [p. 32].
[ Sartène to Bonifacio.]
33 miles south-east, by diligence; time, 6 hours.
SARTÈNE
BONIFACIO 33 SARTÈNE. The road winds its way through great blocks of granite scattered on a plain studded with shrubby specimens of the ilex, towards the shore of the Golfo di Roccapina, with a fantastically shaped rock called il [Leone Coronato]. East from the gulf the road passes the village of Pianottoli, 21 m. from Sartène, almost due south from the singular mountain l’Uomo di [Cagna], 3980 ft.; then the bridge across the Figari at the head of the Gulf of Figari, 23 m.; the Col de la Testa or Scopeto, 225 ft., 24 m.; and the bridge across the Ventilegni, 27 m. from Sartène, and 6 from Bonifacio.
SARTÈNE 33 BONIFACIO pop. 4000. H. du Nord; France in the high town. Diligences leave daily for Bastia, Sartène, and Ajaccio. A steamer arrives every Saturday from Ajaccio and returns on the Monday. Bonifacio was founded in 833 by the Tuscan marquis whose name it bears, to protect this part of the island against the piratical incursions of the Saracens. The high town is built on the top of a limestone rock rising vertically from the sea. The low town occupies one side of the fine natural dock, hemmed in by perpendicular cliffs with an opening of only 328 yards towards the sea. From the steamboat wharf a broad paved series of steps leads up to the high town, entering it through the Porte Vieille. In the old house fronting this Porte or gateway, [Charles V.], in 1541, stayed two days and a night on his return from his unsuccessful expedition against Algiers. Overtaken by a storm, he had taken refuge in the Gulf of Santa Manza. The door of the house, decorated with an arabesque on marble, is in the narrow side street. In the Place d’Armes are the church of San Domenico, built by the Templars, characterised by its octagonal tower with an embrasured termination; and the great tower “Torrione,” part of the fortifications built by the marquis, and formerly the most important part of the citadel. Near this tower is the flight of steps “Redragon,” cut in the rock by the Genoese, which descends by 202 steps to the sea. The small room over the gateway of the citadel, opposite the house of Charles V., was inhabited by [Napoleon] for nearly eight months. There are grand sea-views from the ramparts. The town consists of tall, dingy houses, and narrow, steep, and in most cases dirty streets. The promenade of Bonifacio is the small covered terrace before the church of Santa Maria. Here also is the public cistern.
Of the numerous [caves] which pierce the base of the rock of Bonifacio, the most remarkable one enters from the sea, 214 feet below the