Q 01/05

Which island ranks just behind Corsica as the fifth largest in the Mediterranean?

A) Cyprus

B) Majorca

C) Crete

D) Rhodes

Answer · why

C) Crete

Crete. It trails Corsica by only a few hundred square kilometres, yet it is home to far more people: over 600,000 against Corsica's 350,000 or so.

Q 02/05

Which city is the regional capital of Corsica?

A) Ajaccio

B) Bonifacio

C) Bastia

D) Calvi

Answer · why

A) Ajaccio

Ajaccio. The Genoese moved the town to its present site in 1492, building a citadel to the south of the older settlement.

Q 03/05

Which future French leader was born in Corsica's capital in 1769?

A) Robespierre

B) Napoleon

C) Lafayette

D) Louis XVI

Answer · why

B) Napoleon

Napoleon. Sent to school in France at nine, he long thought of himself as a foreigner there and spent his cadet years as an outspoken Corsican nationa...

Q 04/05

Which republic lost Corsica to Genoa after its fleet was crushed at the Battle of Meloria in 1284?

A) Venice

B) Pisa

C) Amalfi

D) Florence

Answer · why

B) Pisa

Pisa. The papacy had put its bishop in charge of the island in 1077, and in the two centuries that followed churches in the Pisan style went up across...

Q 05/05

Which island lies immediately south of Corsica, across the Strait of Bonifacio?

A) Sicily

B) Elba

C) Sardinia

D) Majorca

Answer · why

C) Sardinia

Sardinia. Rome governed the two islands as a single province, yet today the strait between them is an international border between France and Italy.