Ligurian Sea

Portoferraio is a town and comune in the province of Livorno, on the edge of the eponymous harbour of the island of Elba. It is the islands largest city. Because of its terrain, many of its buildings are situated on the slopes of a tiny hill bordered on three sides by the sea.

Le port presque enclavé de Bonifacio est l’un des plus spectaculaires ports totalement protégées, un port animé avec d’excellents restaurants de fruits de mer et un port de plaisance moderne. L’antique citadelle de la ville est perchée au sommet d’une falaise de granit apparemment impénétrable.

Alghero is a city on the northwest coast of Sardinia, Italy. Encircled by ancient walls, it’s known for its cobblestoned old center. Its Catalan Gothic buildings include the Cattedrale di Santa Maria, with an imposing bell tower, Palazzo Guillot and Chiesa di San Francesco, a 14th-century church. The nearby Chiesa San Michele has a colorful tiled dome. The Museo del Corallo di Alghero contains red coral displays.

Corsica, a mountainous Mediterranean island, presents a mix of stylish coastal towns, dense forest and craggy peaks (Monte Cinto is the highest). Nearly half the island falls within a park whose hiking trails include the challenging GR 20. Its beaches range from busy Pietracorbara to remote Saleccia and Rondinara. It’s been part of France since 1768, but retains a distinct Italian culture.

Ajaccio is the capital of Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea. A port city on the rugged isle’s western coast, it was the birthplace of French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte in 1769. His ancestral home, Maison Bonaparte, is now a museum displaying family heirlooms. The baroque, 16th-century Notre-Dame Cathedral, where Napoléon was baptized, contains paintings by Delacroix and Tintoretto.

Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state, and microstate on the French Riviera in Western Europe. It is bordered by France to the north, east and west, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the south.