Final days on Corsica.

During the final days in Corsica we stayed in Bastia, waiting for my bike to get a new Voltage Regulator. During our last trip from the mountains to Bastia, I nearly boiled the battery, which was overcharged big time. But luckily I noticed it just in time and was able to make it to another BMW garage. So we had some days to enjoy Bastia and the surrounding area, including the old village of my great-grandmother.

Bastia is a real city, people still live in the centre of town around the old harbour. Although the city tries to live on tourism, the old town still looks and feels like it must have been the last few hundred years. Here and there you can see apartment buildings being done up, but most still look old and very very "used".


The last day we went into the mountains again to try and find the birthplace of my great-grandmother in the tiny village of Penta. Half an hour from a regional road, up into the chestnut forest, again lots of pigs, cows and gravel. We arrived in a village of about 10 houses. Over a cobblestone street we passed under a house that I could vaguely remember from when I was about 10 years old. Via a resident we met walking his dog, we ended up 10 minutes later at the desk of the major, who took out all the old birth records from around 1890 to 1920. Since I didn't know my great-grandmother I tried to call my father. After walking just out of town and climbing on a rock I just managed to get some kind of signal and got through to my dad. Ghiponi was here last name, the major looked at me and said, my grandmother was a Ghiponi from this village. In the end it turned out that his grandmother and my great-grandmother were sisters. So I have got a major in my family !!! We could not find the correct birth records, but we will stay in contact to try and find some more information. The house turned out to be the correct house, so after taking some pictures we left my "roots" for Bastia and Europe again.