One passenger on the ferry to the island of Elba was determined to feed a seagull. The man rode, perched on the stern, arms outstretched, holding up a bit of bread, still as a statue, while the bird soared along above him, close but not too close, as if considering the proposition.

The man stayed there almost the entire hour it takes to get to Elba from Piombino on the coast of Tuscany. When the bird finally took the dare and snatched the bread, the audience — by then most of the passengers — all broke into cheers. The man bowed. The bird rode the rest of the way perched on the flagpole.
This was our introduction to the unusual, the unexpected and the enchanting world of Elba.

To be sure, we weren’t quite sure why we were going there. We — my sister, a friend and I — had a few extra days to spend in Italy after we’d finished a week of cooking lessons at the remote and lovely Villa Campestri in the Tuscan hills. My sister wanted to spend them by the sea, and we were trying to decide which coast to head to when Diane De Filipi, who organizes the Let’s Go Cook Italian adventure we’d just been on, suggested, “Have you ever been to Elba Island?”
Elba?

As with most Americans, we largely thought of Elba as the place where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled in 1814 and from which he escaped nine months later to make his final, disastrous stand at Waterloo. After this, the British put him on the more remote island of St. Helena, where he died in 1829. Unless one was a great fan of the late, great megalomaniac, visiting one of his former prisons, visiting his former prison did not seem like the place of choice amidst all the glorious possibilities Italy offers.
It was true, the concierge at our Florence hotel agreed. “Americans don’t go to Elba, but if Napoleon found himself there today, he might not be in such a hurry to leave … Elba, you see, is a Tuscan island.”

As it turned out, De Filipi had an Italian friend, Daniel Terranova, who was the general manager of the acclaimed Duke Hotel in Rome, until, last year, he was sought out by the new owners of a old hotel on Elba. He’d left Roma to take charge of the Hotel Desiree. Our free time coincided with the last days of the season, after which the hotel would close for the winter months. Terranova dispatched a welcoming message with appealing rate; and we booked reservations on the ferry to take us to Elba.

As we were to find out, this almost-hidden island is as rich in natural beauty as it is in fascinating history with treasures to discover, not the least of which is its wines.

Elba, the largest of the Tuscan archipelago, lies about 12 miles off the coast in the northwest Tyrrhenian Sea. Rugged, wild and mountainous, it’s only about 17 miles long, but it has been inhabited since ancient times by Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, and subsequent centuries of Europeans, attracted both by its mineral stores and its strategic importance. During the 19th century it was a favored retreat of British aristocrats, but it was only after World War II that it began to focus on its potential visitors. Today, we learned, it’s mostly Italians and some Germans who travel to the island.

While the island first appears to be a wooded mountain rising out of the turquoise-colored sea, a turn of the ferry into Portoferrario, the island’s chief city, shows a skyline dominated by its facade of historic fortresses, which include the Medicean fortress built by Florence’s first Grand Duke Cosimo I, in the 16th century, as a bulwark against the Turks.

Our destination wasn’t this lively city where narrow ancient streets combine with modern-day Coop markets. The Hotel Desiree was deeper into the island, from what we could ascertain, in a village called Procchio.

At this point, our GPS system appears to suffer a mental breakdown and directed us to “turn left at the 20th of September.” No matter what we did — turn it off, reprogram it — everything except pitch it out the window and run over it, although this was a temptation — it could only gibber about the 20th of September. We were on our own. The road out of town began to climb, it wound about like a tangle of yarn. I was driving, hoping none of the passengers would notice I was trying not to gibber myself. The roads, however winding, were well marked. One turn brought us back into a view of the sea, possibly several thousand feet directly below us, but never mind that. A few more turns and we were at the Hotel Desiree.

This hotel, built in the 1950s, has an interesting Napoleonic connection. It was named, apparently, for Desiree Clary, a woman who was engaged to Bonaparte before he met Josephine. Although she was dumped by Napoleon, she went on to marry one of his generals, Jean Baptist Bernadotte, who later was asked by the Swedes to be their king; so the daughter of a silk merchant from Marseilles, although she never became the empress of the French, ended up the queen of Sweden. According to some stories, our host, Daniel Terranova, told us, this intriguing woman had a villa near where the hotel is today.

The hotel is on its own secluded beach, idyllic and private, on lush, flowering grounds that also hold a large pool, bocce courts and a children’s play area. Our rooms looked directly down on the sea, and so did the terrace where breakfast is served, and where we had our first taste of Elba wine.

Grapes have been cultivated on Elba for centuries, we learned. The soils are stony and don’t retain water, so the yield is low.

We tried an Elba white. These are made primarily from Tuscan trebbiano grapes blended with two other island varietal, ansonica and vermentinio. It was cold, crisp and minerally, a wine to drink while sitting on an island watching the waves of that extraordinary, vivid, clear, blue sea. It tasted, in short, like Elba.

Tratto da:http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2009/10/30/wine/doc4aea82375fa0d192532199.txt

Nothing new during the last day of regattas at the Farr 40 European Circuit as the very bad weather on the last day prevented any regatta from taking place. The event took place in the Sardinian waters of Porto Rotondo starting from Friday, April 24. There were twelve crews coming from all over Europe and five races led to the results.
Fiamma by Alessandro Barnaba was the winner with 12 points, second even was Nerone by Massimo Mezzaroma, while Mascalzone Latino by Vincenzo Onorato finished in third position.

After being first in the ranking, by winning two times on the first day of regattas, Mascalzone Latino’ s results were changeable on the second day. On Saturday three races took place with a wind blowing with gusts of 15-20 knots and a nearly slight sea; besides the first position gained in the day’s second race, the crew of Vincenzo Onorato gained a sixth and a seventh position, due to a self penalization at the buoy to avoid a penalty and a bad start, and finished in third position in the general results with 16 points.

The results than did not change on Sunday as no regattas took place due to bad weather.

Already early in the morning thunderous clouds threatened the boats and their crews, that had to stop on orders of the Race Committee until 12am, when they could finally reach the regatta field. However there wasn’t enough wind to sail; moreover according to the weather forecast the weather would have gone worse, so at 2pm races were cancelled.
Fiamma (1st), Nerone (2nd) and Mascalzone Latino (3rd), together with their tacticians Tommaso Chieffi, Vasco Vascotto and Adrian Stead, finished before Flash Gordon, finishing in 4th position even with Enfant Terrible by Alberto Rossi with Piero Balì as tactician (26 points).

“These were beautiful regattas” – commented Vincenzo Onorato, Mascalzone Latino’s helmsman – “I am very happy Fiamma won as at present, in the Farr 40 Class, the Italians are doing the best. Alessandro Barnaba (Fiamma’s helmsman) and Tommaso Chieffi (Fiamma’s tactician) and their crew proved to be able to aspire to the World Championship without any problem. We hope that Joe Fly will sail again for the World Championship, so that we can see five or six Italian boats at “the top” besides all foreign crews.

Adrian Stead, Mascalzone Latino’s tactician said: “This was the first Farr 40 regatta in Europe this year. It was a very good racing. Weather was a little bit tricky, forcing us not to race on Sunday, though races were very good. We were very pleased to Mascalzone, with our performance, but I made one mistake in race five and that probably cost us the regatta as we had to do a penalty turn. Maybe we’re pushing a little bit, on board however the feeling was very good, we were very happy about the way we were sailing and the boat was going well, we are looking forward to using our new sails for the future regattas. I think Fiamma is always a very strong boat, for the Worlds, the Australian boats have been racing a lot during the winter so they will be very competitive, with Barking Mad, Flash Gordon, which is improving a lot, and of course Nerone, along with Fiamma, which are great competitors”.
For the regattas in Porto Rotondo the crew by Mascalzone Latino was: Vincenzo Onorato (helmsman/owner), Adrian Stead (tactician), Matteo Savelli and Andrea Ballico (trimmer), Gerry Mitchell (mainsail), Tim Burnell (navigator), Davide Scarpa (bowman), Marco Cornacchia (pitman), Adriano Figone (mast) and Gaia Lusini (jolly).

Mascalzone Latino, after training in the Island of Elba, will take place in the second part of the Farr 40 European Circuit in Capri in May, 20-23 on the occasion of the Rolex Capri Sailing Week.

The First 100 Days of Leadership of a Country Actually Derived from Napoleon
Deemed by some to be an arbitrary deadline foisted on new presidents by the media, the importance of the first 100 days of leadership of a country actually derives from Napoleon. Napoleon Bonaparte, after 20 years in power and with an army of over half a million soldiers, had expanded France’s empire to surrounding countries with much success. However, on April 20, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte left his position as Emperor of France after his failed invasion of Russia and subsequent defeat at the hands of the Allies. As punishment, he was memorably exiled to the island of Elba, where many people falsely assume he died.

In reality, after only 10 months in Elba (a small island off the coast of Italy), Napoleon escaped back into France to reassume his title as Emperor. He arrived on French soil in March of 1815, then, 100 days later, lost the famous battle of Waterloo to English and Prussian armies on June 18, 1815. It is for this reason that the 100 days marker has been applied as an important moment in any presidency, and it is one that has been around for many years.

This battle, of course, is also made famous as the origination of the idiomatic expression “to meet one’s Waterloo.” Politicians have taken notice, and have appropriated Napoleon’s example to their own powers, hoping that they will not face an insurmountable defeat after 100 days in office.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt also used to to mark the moment by which he would have fully implemented the first of his two-part plan to help the ailing nation. Rather than focus on the long-lasting reform that would need time to take effect, he used the quick deadline to provide immediate relief for those who needed it most.

Not many people may know about it, but Elba and the smaller islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, together with their sandy beaches and crystal clear waters, also offer many beautiful and exciting trails, perfect for adventurous hiking. Most of the island are quite samall and they can be explored on foot by everyone with a pair of good shoes.

The islands which are best suited for hiking (namely Elba, Pianosa, Giglio, Giannutri and Capraia), all have different histories as well as natural habitats. As a matter of fact, every island differs from the others with its characteristic type of Mediterranean vegetation and its peculiar geological history. As you climbs the sea cliffs of the island of Capraia, through the arid scrubland of the Pomonte Valley or through lush chestnut forests to the remarkable alpine summit of Monte Capanne on Elba, you will have hard times believing so many different landscapes could be found in such a small area.

Elba, by far the largest and best known of the islands, is linked to Piombino by regular hydrofoil and ferry services. Famous as the place where Napoleon was briefly exiled before his final defeat at Waterloo, it has lovely beaches, campsites shaded by pines and, last but not least, a well maintained hiking trails network..

If you are serious about hiking, the “Great Elba Crossing” will definitely put you to the test. Mapped out by the ancient inhabitants of the island, the route follows the watershed ridge leading from the eastern to the western side of the island. The route extends for 60 kilometers and it is typically split into three or four daily legs.

If you feel like the whole hike is too much for your feet, the fourth leg of the crossing is the one you don’t want to miss. This 19 kilometers walk will take you from Poggio to Pomonte along the so called “old path”. On the way to Pomontre, you will reach the Sanctuary of Madonna del Monte and the impressive rock formation known as Masso dell’Aquila before beginning the gentle descent toward the sea down the terraces of old vineyards of Aleativo grapes.

With a surface area of 21 square kilometers, Giglio is the second largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. The island is rich in wildlife and the thick Mediterranean scrubland is only broken by terraces of olive groves and the vineyards, which produce the excellent Ansonica white wine. The most popular Giglio Island itinerary leads to the St. George source. Starting from Giglio Porto, you will follows the path of the old aqueduct until its source. In the neighborhood, you will have the chance to visit the remains of a small church, a fountain carved in the rock and a roman times “ninfeo”.

Capraia is the only volcanic island of the Tuscan Archipelago. What remains of this former volcano can bee seen at the amazing ‘zenobito’ bay. Hiking allows you to explore a large part of the island with its unbelievably steep coastline. You’ll enjoy stunning views of the sea with nearby Corsica and the other islands of the archipelago scattered here and there. During spring migration, this excursion offers excellent opportunities for bird watching.

Arriving at Pianosa will make you feel like entering a forgotten world: there is a ghost town, a closed penal colony, and the land has been fallow for many years. Soon enough, however, you will experience the special atmosphere of an island which has been populated since ancient times. Hiking around Pianosa you can visit the remains of a roman settlements and the former state prison. However, the real beauty of the island lies in its spectacular coastline. A swim at the marvelous Giovanna bay should not be missed.

Born in the USA, but happily ensconced in the Tuscan Archipelago, Bob McCormack is a freelance writer with a very special passion for food and wine. His travel articles and Elba Islands hotels and restaurants reviews have been published by several national and foreign newspapers.

island elba

So now we have arrived, we’ve safely disembarked and left behind the colours and scents
of the bustling harbour and the frenzied activity of holiday-makers.

We made our way to the centre of the island along the roads that from Procchio overlook the
colourful houses of Marciana Marina and climb up through the vast woodlands of Marciana
Alta perched on a craggy mountainside. In the distance we were thrilled to see the outline of
Capraia Island and even caught sight of Bastia enshrouded in a light haze… and then
nothing but silence.

The ingrained stillness of small villages and peaceful coves where time seems to stand
still. We cast our gaze on this fishing village, with its weather-beaten rocks and cultivated
terracing… and at last we arrive at destination.

Island Elba, the pearl of the Tuscan Archipelago, the island without frontier: the sea, the beaches, the green of the countryside, the small fortress towns, archaeological treasures, chestnut woods and more, continue to exist for what seems like an eternity.

Island Elba gives the sensation of so much in so little as in the small spaces of the island we travel over tourist attractions and natural landscapes of such contrast; areas dried out by sun and wind, others green with life, sandy or pebble stone beaches, rocky coastlines and cliffs.

The natural landscape, the history, the traditions along with man’s labour have made Elba a worthy alternative for a vacation… or maybe even a permanent stay.

The Island of Elba has about 8.126 beds in first-class hotels, 10.000 places in campings and tourist villages, 2.340 beds in residences and offers the best services and professional people to give you a wonderful holiday and pleasant meeting-places.

Choose carefully the tourist infrastructure you like clicking on the item on your left. It’s possible to choose and book the resort contacting directly the hotel, the residence, the camping, the farm-holiday or the travel agencies.

Elba the Land of Iron and Fire

The most treasured possession of the island must be looked for under the earth. For more than 4000 years, generations of miners have excavated in search of, first copper, and then iron. Even the most antique name for the island, Aethalia (spark) was taken from the fires emanating from the iron reduction furnaces, which had to have been numerous when the Greeks crossed the water of the Tirrhenian Sea during their travels amongst the colonies of southern Italy and Marseille.

The mineralogical heritage of Elba, included in the charming towns and accompanied by the notable floristic and faunal exigency, is a part of an environmental context shaped by a geological history at least 400-500 million years olds, and that in the last 100,000 years has been mixed with and superimposed on the anthropic history of the territory.

The western world still didn’t know the power of Rome, but the entire Mediterranean knew that between Corsica and Etruria there was an extraordinary island rich with iron. And it was the Etruscans, the most refined of the Italian cultures, who were made their fortune from Elba.

The populating of the Elba land and the probable utilization of the minerals intensified in the Neolithic age and following Metal age. To detail something of what remains, there are: the Aeneolithic burial grounds in the grotto San Giovanni in Rio, the remains of a sub-Appennine culture if Capanne, and the legends of Ivan and the Argonauts, the first mythical Greeks to search for metals and the founders of Argo, the first Portoferraio.

Today there are remnants of iron waste and the remains of iron reduction furnaces found in Pomonte, S. Andrea, Capo Pero, and in numerous other locations on the Elban coast. And so, like the great masses of waste, that until the first world war, covered the necropolis of San Cerbone in Popolonia, the remains of Elban minerals discovered on Ischia and at Marzabotta indicate the importance of the iron and steel industry and mineral activity that was carried out during the Etruscan and Etruscan-Roman periods.

In the following centuries up to the present day, at least up until closure of the last mine in 1986, even if with mixed fortune, Elba continues the cultivation of the iron mines and granite caves, marking the towns indelibly and in good part motivating the history and traditions of this marvelous little piece of the planet called the island Elba.

Roman villas, Napoleon’s residencies, Medici’s fortresses, mineral museums: this and more you can find on Elba, which proves the importance the island was given over the centuries, both because of the strategic location and the beauty of the nature and the mining resources.

The Island of Elba, pearl of the Tuscan Archipelago, island without borders: sea, beaches, green of the hinterland, small villages, archeological treasures, chestnut-woods and more follow one another uninterruptedly.

Elba gives this feeling of many things in one, thru the narrow spaces of the island you can find definitely different tourist and environmental situations: areas dried by the sun and the winds, as well as green areas, sand beaches, gravel beaches, steep sea cliffs.

Nature, history, traditions and man work, suggest many reasons for an holiday on Elba….and maybe to stay.

Island Elba will enchant you with its transparent and crystalline sea and the intensely green Mediterranean landscape. It’s the ideal place to spend your vacation.
A paradise where you can rediscover nature and partake of many diverse sports activities.