BY Times Online

Up a winding track above the village of Monacciad’Aullène in southern Corsica sits our home for the week, Villa Tantanni. With its blue shutters, apricot walls and infinity pool with a jaw-dropping view, it’s all the brochure promised and more. And the pretty village below us, a jumble of terracotta roofs and green fields with a resident honking donkey, could not look more bucolic.

So what is this we spy, as we amble to the local auberge one evening? By the side of the road in the centre of Monaccia is a stone memorial, surrounded by a few dusty flowers, to François Santoni, whose story turns out to be quite at odds with the rural idyll the village presents.

Over a pichet of local rosé wine at the auberge, La Pergola, we consult the Rough Guide: “In August 2001, this remote village was dragged into the international spotlight when it witnessed the Mafia-style murder of former separatist-militant leader François Santoni...”

Crikey. We peer into the gathering gloom of the deserted village with new interest. Like most visitors to Corsica, we had read about the island’s nationalist struggle. Yet for holidaymakers, signs of discord are hard to detect, beyond the bullet holes in the dual-language road signs, designed to obliterate the French and leave only Corsican place names visible.

----------------------------------------------------------------------