From the mountains to the sea and back again towards the heart of Corsica. On Wednesday, first of all we sent all data, photos and panoramic movies of our first online diary page. From where? From the telephone box in front of Corte railway station. Corsicans and tourists probably thought we were two lunatics: we were surely bizarre, sitting on the floor, with our Powerbook connected to the phone handset, sending and receiving data on the Internet, simply using a France Télécom phonecard... Anyway, everything worked well and then we headed for the hills east of Corte.

After a long drive along a winding and very narrow road (the majority of roads in Corsica is like that), we reached the beautiful statue-menhir of Santa Maria. It stands by an old chapel (panoramic view) and it is said to be a girl petrified with terror. There are various legends about it, summoning vampires, the Death, voice's echoes. Anyway, the statue-menhir is very nice, thin and tall. A short distance away from it there is another interesting site: the so-called Petra Frisgiata (Carved Stone), a big solitary rock covered by lozenges, lines, crosses and cupmarks. Coming back to Corte we found the beautiful Nuvallela statue-menhir: a recently discovered monument, almost 2m high and with two prominent ears. It stands now in the backyard of a farm and a very friendly Mrs Valentini told us about its discovery in her garden.

Next day we left Corte and drove through the desolate canyon of Scala di Santa Regina to reach Albertacce and its archaeological museum Licninoi. Surprise! The museum closed several months ago! Very disappointed, we visited the nearby Tres Pitta dolmen. But is it really a dolmen or is it a natural rock formation? Who knows... Locals don't seem to be very interested in ancient stones... However, Paola made some measurements of the gigantic capstone. Another winding drive through splendid woods and high mountains and we went down to the sea, where we found two other statue-menhirs (Sagone 1 and Sagone 2 ). They are strangely used as building stones for the corners of the old Sant'Appiano cathedral. Finally, we visited the statue-menhir of Appriciani, recently put at the entrance of Vico village. We spent the night in Cargèse, a nice village by the sea where in 1676 a group of Greek families escaping from the Turks tried to settle down. The local Corsicans chased the Greeks away several times but at the end they reached an agreement and lived together in peace.

Yesterday morning another statue-menhir was waiting for us: called U Scumunicatu (The Excommunicated), it was found a few miles from Cargèse. Driving along the splendid coast, we found a scenery so breathtaking that we couldn't help making a panoramic view to share it with you. Another drive through the hills of the inner part of Corsica and we arrived in Casaglione. We knew that there was a dolmen up the hills near the village. A local hunter gave us some directions, but we missed the right track and spent a couple of hours wandering in the thick maquis (brushwood) before finding the Tremeca dolmen, lying peacefully under a holm oak (see the panoramic view). After that exhausting walk we drove down to the beach, drank 6 lemonades, put on our swimsuits and ran into the refreshing Corsican sea. After all we are on holiday, aren't we?