Cap Corse, Peninsula at northern tip of Corsica, France

Cap Corse is a narrow peninsula extending about 40 kilometers northward from the tip of Corsica into the Mediterranean Sea. Its western edge features steep cliffsides, while the eastern coast is dotted with small fishing harbors tucked into natural bays.

Ptolemy placed his northernmost point on Corsica at hieron akron, rendered by the Romans as sacrum promontorium; the name does not imply early Christian settlement. A bronze tablet from about 72 AD records Emperor Vespasian writing to the magistrates and senators of the Vanacini, who had bought land from the Roman colony near Bastia and disputed its borders. In the Middle Ages the peninsula was divided among seigneuries such as San Colombano and Avogari, and during the Revolution it was split into cantons.

Cap Corse also names an aromatized apéritif wine created by Louis-Napoléon Mattei in 1872, made in blanc and rouge versions from Vermentino and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains grapes infused with cedrat and Cinchona bark. Anthony Powell mentions it in The Military Philosophers as a popular drink with the Free French forces in London during World War II.

The coastal road runs about 40 km from Bastia around the peninsula, narrow and winding with tight bends above the cliffs. Allow ample time and drive cautiously, especially where the road passes villages. A pale gravel turnout on the lower slope, visible below the ridge with its three wind turbines, is one of the places to pull over and look out over the water.

The bronze tablet repeating Vespasian's letter to the Vanacini, written about 72 AD, records a land dispute: the tribe had bought land from the Roman colony near Bastia and complained about the borders fixed by the procurator. The emperor appointed another procurator to arbitrate. The inscription was found in northern Corsica, not on the cape itself.