Ajaccio

Why this port matters

Ajaccio is the single best place in the world to stand in the footsteps of Napoleon — born here in 1769. It is also your gateway to a wild, mountainous Mediterranean island with some of the clearest water and most distinctive culture anywhere on the sea.

Brief history

Fortified by the Genoese in the 15th century, sold to France in 1768. One year later, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in a townhouse three streets back from the port. Corsica kept its own language (Corsu), cuisine, and fiercely independent character — visible today on the flag's black Moor's-head emblem.

Highlights

• ·Maison Bonaparte — Napoleon's actual birthplace, now a state museum
• ·Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption — where Napoleon was baptized in 1771
• ·Palais Fesch — second-largest collection of Italian primitives in France after the Louvre
• ·Place Foch & Place d'Austerlitz — monumental Napoleonic squares, with imperial views from Austerlitz
• ·Old Town / Genoese Quarter — ochre façades, family charcuteries with lonzu and coppa
• ·Sanguinaires Islands — half-day boat from a dramatic red-granite archipelago at the gulf's mouth