Bastia is Corsica's main port and the island's most Italian-feeling city — which makes sense, since it was built by the Genoese as their administrative capital. Ferries from Nice, Marseille, and the Italian ports dock here, making it most visitors' first sight of the island.
The heart of Bastia is the Vieux Port, a small harbour ringed by tall, pastel-coloured houses that could easily be on the Ligurian coast. Behind it, narrow alleys climb up through the Terra Vecchia quarter to the Citadelle, passing baroque churches including the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste and the Église Sainte-Croix. The Place Saint-Nicolas, a vast tree-lined square facing the sea, is where locals gather in the evenings. Bastia is often treated as a transit point, but it deserves at least a day — the old town has real character, and the city feels more lived-in than the polished resort towns further south.