Genoa is one of the Italy five most important cities and a major trading port for over 900 years. For nearly 800 of those years, from 1005 to 1797, the Republic of Genoa was an independent state, whose influence extended over much of the Mediterranean Sea. Even today, substantial Genoese remains, including cathedrals, bridges and fortifications are to be found not only along the Ligurian coast and in Corsica and Sardinia but also in the eastern Aegean islands of Chios, Samos and Lesvos, the island of Cyprus, the North African coast and even along the Black Sea coast as far as Samsun. ~ World Cruising Wiki

It’s amazing how much is still left of the Genoese influence in the Mediterranean, from the cuisine to the architecture and right down to the pebble mosaics.

The picture above shows the pebble mosaic of the sun in front of the Oratoire de l’Immaculée Conception in Bastia, Corsica, built in 1589 and embellished in 1611. The Immaculate Conception Virgin processional statue (18th century) is still carried through the alleys of the lower town every 8th of December.

More on Genoa and Bastia

Pebble Mosaics – How to Know You’re in Liguria (or not!)

Genoa: City of Art, Culture and Great Food

Illustrated Bastia Travel Guide

The Tour de France’s 100th running will begin in Corsica. It will be the first time that the Tour has visited Corsica since the race was founded in 1903.

The 2013 Grand Départ will start in Porto Vecchio, making a loop down to Bonifacio before turning up to the east coast and ending with a sprint into Bastia.

Then the flat roads are over; riders will depart from Bastia and head into the center of the island toward Corte, then down toward the finish in Ajaccio.

The third stage runs along the west coast of Corsica from Ajaccio to Calvi, passing World Heritage site Piana.

Dates of the Corsica Stages of the 2013 Tour de France

Saturday June 29: Porto-Vecchio to Bastia, 200 km
Sunday June 30: Bastia to Ajaccio, 155 km
Monday July 1: Ajaccio to Calvi, 145 km

Lodging in Corsica

Below are the major cities the 2013 Tour de France passes through on the first three stages in Corsica.

Porto Vecchio
Bonifacio
Bastia
Ajaccio
Calvi
Piana

Jeremy Kressmann begins his review of David Downie’s Quiet Corners of Rome with an important clue as to the nature of wandering and wondering, and why you won’t find the concepts in the common guidebook:

Travel guidebooks conceive of the world as a series of obvious, important monuments.

This “connect the dots” tourism is perfect for the Rick Steves worshiper or trophy tourist, whose urge to satisfy his friends and relatives’ desire to see him mimic their own footsteps provides hours of travel planning fun, makes up the essence of the modern guidebook. “Go here. Do this. Think this way.” There should be a Fox affiliate for this kind of faux travel.

The meat, bones and sinew of a city are not in its overvalued and glittering jewels, but in the little things, the lopsided smile of a particular architectural detail lost in time, the pulsing synapse of quiet, public places centered around monuments to forgotten dreamers who’ve nudged city’s history forwards…or backwards.

Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, another of Downie’s masterpieces, is comprised of just such things. Fleshy things. People places. It also shows off Downie’s intense curiosity as he slips into buildings whose access is forbidden to the public or finds his way into the offices and homes of interesting denizens of the City of Light. If you really want to get get past the glittering bracelets, platform heels, and diamond-studded nipple rings of a tourist city, then you need folks like David Downie to get you to the flesh and heart of them.

Others must feel much the same. According to David’s blog:

Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, with striking photography by Alison Harris was reissued in a fully updated, expanded and redesigned edition in the Armchair Traveler series by Broadway Books (April 2011) and has gone into 5 printings in 6 months.

Get ‘em while they’re hot, before you go on Vacation:

Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light | Quiet Corners of Rome

Have you ever said “enough with all this walking around, enough with this standing in front of a piece of art waiting for the comatose folks with the audio guides stuck in their ears to move away?”

Maybe, on some days, or at least the middle of your vacation, you should make your hotel the focus of your day.

Say you’re in Burgundy. I choose the town of Beaune because of the interesting Hospice de Beaune—not to mention all the great food and wine available in this manageable village.

You’d want a place you can relax in, eat in, taste all those fine Bugundy wines in.

And the winner is…Via Mokis, a boutique hotel near the ramparts. Highly rated by folks who’ve stayed there. Large rooms that come with spa access, a wine bar and a highly rated restaurant, all on the property.

You can’t beat that for relaxation.

The Via Mokis is mentioned as one of the Best Wine Bars in Beaune, France so you won’t have to be thirsty during your stay.

If you get tired of the food at the Via Mokis restaurant, another I highly recommend is l’Ecusson

Read more on Beaune

If you’ve ever taken a small group tour with Context Travel you know that they deliver on their promise to send you on a tour with a guide who works in that field you will give you personal attention and answer your questions. In other words, they can be expensive, but if you have a little time to learn a lot about a place, the value is enormous.

But not all of their tours are expensive. Context has just announced A Walk with Thomas Jefferson. Imagine a three hour walk around Jefferson’s Paris guided by an expert for a mere €5 a person!

“Jefferson had four different residences during his five-year stay in Paris. He sent over 86 crates home to assure that he could continue his Francophile lifestyle once he returned to America,” says Context Paris Manager, Lily Heise. “The city had a major impact on his thinking, particularly his aesthetic thinking. We’re also reminded, during the course of the walk, of the long-lasting bonds of friendship and exchange between France and America.”

This is a special price for the walk that only applies to the month of July. After July “A Walk with Jefferson will be available weekly for the price of 65 Euro per person, or 290 per private group.”

Jump on it if you’re going to Paris! Here’s where to go:

A Walk with Jefferson in Paris.