We finally got our chance to go to Calvi today. After a day and a half stuck in François while a huge storm passed thru, we were anxious to get going. So at 9:40 we were at the train stop.
10 minutes after boarding we were deposited at the foot of the citadel that is the main attraction for Calvi. Most of the tourist oriented places were closed as we walked up to the citadel. The citadel is impressive, built out on a point of land guarding the harbor. It really looks like an Americans vision of an European castle/fort.
As we walked into town two things made me connect to Calvi immediately. The first was the cities motto carved into the main entry to the citadel in Latin, “Civitas Calvi Semper Fidelis” The city of Calvi is always faithful. Semper Fidelis is also the motto of the Marine Corps. The second thing I saw was on one of the old fort buildings was a sign that said it was the officers club of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment who are based here. I worked with one of the officers from the 2e REP (as it is abbreviated in French) during my brief time in Lebanon, the only time I worked with the French Army.
We walked around the citadel for about an hour enjoying the views and admiring the fort.
Calvi makes a claim to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The locals admit that there is no evidence to support this claim, just local stories passed down over generations that he was born to a fisherman from Calvi. But when he went to get help from the Spanish for his voyages he couldn’t admit he was from Corsica because the Corsicans had a bad habit of slaughtering Spanish soldiers and sailors who came by. So instead he said he was from Genoa who were the rulers of Corsica at the time. Research on the internet allows for some doubt about Columbus true birth place, most scholars say Genoa, but others say he was Greek and a few say he was a Pole, but no one but people from Calvi say he was Corsican.
After our tour thru the citadel we went into the new town and explored the marina and did some shopping at a SuperU grocery. We learned that the same train that we took to Calvi, goes to two other towns that are on our list to visit while we are here, so we will be taking the same vintage train in the opposite direction tomorrow.
Our last stop for the day was at a microbrewery near the campground. It looked promising. The set up was much like we are used to in Portland with a chalkboard of todays beer offerings. We ordered a couple of beers and asked about food, the only thing they had was some dips made from olives, eggplant and tomatoes and bread so that is what we ordered. After our order arrived we were then ignored and eventually abandoned. When we were ready to leave Ton finally went and knocked on the window to the back room to get somebody to come out and take our money. It was a strange visit, the beer was fair.
