There's an island in the Mediterranean where the road signs are in French and the air smells Italian. Corsica - Napoleon's birthplace - looks like no postcard of a French holiday. It's an island of impossible roads, hidden coves and mountains that fall straight into the sea, and that's exactly why it's worth crossing by car rather than flying over.

The journey usually starts in Bastia, with its old harbor ringed by worn facades and fishing-town charm. From there, Cap Corse opens to the north - a dramatic peninsula of sharp rocks, clear coves and watchtowers that for centuries waited for raiders from the sea. Along the way come Saint-Florent with its 15th-century medieval core and L'Île-Rousse, a small port with a market under Roman colonnades, ideal for local produce.

The island's interior is another story. In the village of Pigna, artisans still make traditional instruments and ceramics - here we spoke with a craftsman who makes the "cetera," an old Corsican instrument, and with a potter who says Pigna has slowly become the island's "art laboratory." Further on, in Lévie, a knife-making workshop with a 40-year tradition makes knives by a process in which goat horn sits for 24 hours in olive oil before becoming a handle.

But the crown jewel of the south is called Bonifacio. A fortified town founded in the year 828, clinging to white cliffs 70 meters above the sea, with walls from which even distant Sardinia is visible. The waves crash into the ancient ramparts, and the paths along the rock offer the kind of views you remember. Nearby, the bay of Santa Giulia is a perfect preview of the exclusive atmosphere of Porto-Vecchio.

The final stretch of the road reveals the island's wild soul - green valleys, hidden waterfalls, beech and pine forests, villages wrapped in mist. The Restonica valley, with a road glued to the rock above a powerful river, is a finale that a journey rarely offers. Corsica isn't a destination for those who want everything smoothed out and predictable; it's for those who understand that the most beautiful places are rarely the easiest to reach. And in the Balkans, we know that well.