Sailing the Mediterranean -by Tom Koppel NAPOLEON NEVER SLEPT HERE
Outside the door of an ancient stone house in the quaint medieval quarter of Antibes, on the Riviera, a sign in an antiquated form of French reads: “Napoleon never slept here.” There are additional words that I cannot decipher. Just then, a man approaches to enter the house. He tells us that some of the women in Napoleon’s family actually did stay there, at a time when the future Emperor was briefly imprisoned at Antibes during the turmoil of the French Revolution. In fact, he adds, Napoleon’s mother did her son’s laundry at an open-air public wash-house, just around the corner on the adjacent winding street. We head off for a look, and there it is, carefully restored as a historic site—a large stone tub, full of water, under a red tile roof. In France, it seems, even the laundry of the country’s most famous historic figure is worthy of note. My wife and I are on a Mediterranean voyage along the coasts of Italy and France celebrating our 20th anniversary, sailing on the ultra-deluxe, SeaDream I. SeaDream I is a magic carpet, easing us in comfort and style through a region full of fascinating history. We have been anticipating visits to some wonderful ports and are not disappointed. What we had not foreseen, though, is the many ways that Napoleon, or perhaps just his spirit, would keep making his presence felt, as if popping up unexpectedly in little cameo appearances. These underscore just how completely he dominated Europe in his brief but dramatic era of war and conquest, supreme glory and abject defeat. This quirky pattern emerges even before we embark on our voyage, which begins near Rome. We spend a few days at an exquisite boutique hotel, the Lord Byron, in a quiet neighborhood adjacent to a large, leafy park, the Borghese Gardens. Its centerpiece is the Borghese Gallery, an art museum housing an outstanding collection. One of the most striking of many fine sculptures, in the purest of white marble, portrays a nude Venus, reclining on a sofa and holding an apple. The gallery literature explains that the model was none other than Napoleon’s sister, Pauline, who was related through marriage to the wealthy Borghese family that assembled the art collection. Our first port stop is Bonifacio on Corsica, the large, mountainous French island where Napoleon was born and raised. It is an amazing, clifftop walled village. Built in the middle ages, this impregnable fortress withstood centuries of threats from the Barbary pirates. Entering the old town by a drawbridge, we stroll through a warren of twisting cobbled alleys, including a narrow street with a house where Napoleon really did sleep, living there briefly in 1793, when he commanded nothing but a batallion of Corsican volunteers. That was just before his rapid rise to power, and the house had been owned by the Bonaparte family for nearly a century.
We spend the next day on the other side of Corsica, stopping at Calvi, another ancient village with a high, walled fortress. It was not quite as impregnable as Bonifacio, however. The ships of Admiral Horatio Nelson bombarded the town, assisting its capture by British land forces in 1794 during the wars against revolutionary France. Nelson lost an eye in the battle. Some claim that Calvi was the original home of Columbus, when it belonged to the empire of Genoa. Wikipedia calls this a “legend,” explaining that “because the often subversive elements of the island gave its inhabitants a bad reputation, he would have been expected to mask his exact birthplace.” Perhaps Napoleon’s ghost is also fearful of guilt by association. He decides to take the day off, and we stumble upon no traces of the “little corporal.” Then we anchor off Viareggio, back on the Italian coast in Tuscany, and take a day trip inland to Florence. We have arranged a walking tour to enjoy the glorious and stunning medieval and Renaissance architecture, monumental public sculptures and inviting pedestrian-only piazzas. It is far too brief, of course, but our personal guide takes us to some special places, such as the studio of a blacksmith who creates fantastic birds, fishes and other creatures in steel, and to the guide’s own favorite and funky “Cafe of the Artisans.” We stroke the snout of an iconic bronze wild boar and share a kiss, thus assuring our return to Florence. Napoleon’s long shadow did not spare Florence. He passed through in 1809 during a campaign to annex Italy’s Papal States and established the short- lived Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with Florence as its capital and another sister of his, Elisa, serving as the Grand Duchess. It was a status she held only briefly, forced to flee in 1813 as Napoleon was gradually defeated (following his Russian campaign) by an Anglo-Austrian army. Farther north on the Italian Riviera, our yacht anchors off the picturesque village of Portofino, with its brightly painted old houses. Once a simple fishing village, it now has an upscale yacht harbor catering to the rich and famous. Going ashore for a few hours, we hike up to a striking castle that dominates the small bay. And sure enough, Napoleon left his mark here as well during the years when France controlled northern Italy. What we see is an ancient fortification that Napoleon modernized, greatly expanded and equipped with better cannons. Not one for modesty, he renamed the village Port Napoleon. All too soon, after a day in Antibes, our grand voyage ends at Monaco. The town and mountainous setting are stunning, but it is too early in the morning for anything to be happening. Having come all this way, after leaving our magic carpet, we would be enjoying a few extra days on the Med.
Contributor’s Bio: Tom Koppel’s latest book “Mystery Islands: Discovering the Ancient Pacific” is available from Amazon.com or, signed and dedicated, from koppel@saltspring.com. Photo Credit: Annie Palovcik.
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