The Orezza spring is in the centre of a small terrace in the narrow valley of the Fium’alto, whose steep banks are covered with chestnut trees, and ascended by dusty winding roads. The water is a bicarbonate chalybeate, with an agreeable amount of free carbonic acid gas.
BONIFACIO
BASTIA 89 14 VESCOVATO STATION. Town 1¼ m. W., pop. 1500. *H. de Progreso in the large “Place” where all the coaches stop, near a fountain of pure gushing water, cold even in summer. The rather untidy town of Vescovato is almost hidden in the corner of a valley, 550 ft. above the sea, by woods of vigorous olive and chestnut trees. From it a [coach starts daily to Porta], 15 m. W., by a bad, dusty, jolting road, passing through [Venzolasca], pop. 1300, on the top of a hill, 732 ft., 1½ m. from Vescovato. Three m. farther a road, left, 1 m., leads to [Porri], 1718 ft., pop. 300. 7½ m. from Vescovato is the Col S. Agostino, and then follow, 8 m., [Silvareccio], 2198 ft., pop. 550; 8½ m., [Piano], 2230 ft., pop. 170; [Casabianca], 4 m. farther, 2133 ft.; and then [Porta], pop. 630; Inn: H. Franceschi, in the “Place,” opposite the church, where the coach stops. In July and August the coach goes on to Piedicroce.
BONIFACIO
BASTIA 91 12 [PONT DU GOLO]. A little more than 3 miles from the bridge, at the mouth of the river, stood the town of [Mariana], founded by Marius (B. 155, D. 86 B.C.), where Seneca most probably spent his exile, and of which there remain only a few insignificant fragments on the beach. In the vicinity are the ruins of a chapel, and about a mile farther those of the church, called La Canonica, with 2 aisles and a nave 100 feet long and 40 wide, ornamented with rows of pillars of the Doric order. Both church and chapel are in the Pisan style.
[At Casamozza Station], 12½ m. S. from [Bastia, the Aleria] railway joins the one from Corté.
BONIFACIO 103 BASTIA. See [p. 10].
[ Ponte alla Leccia to Piedicroce.]
Eighteen miles S.E. by “Courrier” daily. Fare 3 frs. Time 5 hours, by a mountain road, making immense circuits round by the
heads of ravines among rich pastures and great chestnut and beech trees.
Nine miles from the Ponte is [Morosaglia], pop. 1060, with an inn, where the coach stops. A conglomeration of hamlets on the slopes of a mountain, one of which, [Stretta], was the birthplace of Pascal Paoli. 2 m. farther is the summit of the [Col de Prato] with an inn, 3215 ft., 2850 ft. below, or 3 hours from the top of San Pietro, commanding a magnificent view of the Castagniccia or the Chestnut country, and the islands of Monte Christo, Pianosa, and Elba, floating in the haze between sky and water. See [map on fly-leaf].