Travel I
Hidden Gems: Elba
WORDS: RICK JORDAN | IMAGES: FRITS MEYST
The Elba that isn’t Idris. An island the size of the Isle of Wight, off the coast of Tuscany; a hidden gem in its own right, known mainly for its fleeting acquaintance with Napoleon. Compared to Italy’s top-billing isles – take a bow, Capri and Sicily – Elba is not so much a leading star but a character actor, cast in a variety of interesting, occasionally eccentric roles. Scene-stealing in its own way. The Romans mined precious gems, iron and granite here, but its grittiness has softened over the centuries to become as smooth as the sand on some of its many beaches. Portoferraio is the main town, still in thrall to the emperor – you can visit his palace, along with the villa where he dallied and ate cherries with a local woman he’d met. But to discover the island beyond Napoleon, we’ve picked out some lesser-known places to visit.
There are many hilltop villages on Elba, but if you only have time to visit one, make it Capoliveri on the south coast. Capoliveri is like the cat that walks by itself – a true individual. Here is medieval intrigue, the bells of San Michele echoing down twisting alleyways and arcades known as chiassi onto piazze. Townhouses are painted in ice-cream colours. It has a tremor of strangeness. Anyone with a compass may find the needle flickering: above the village are the flanks of Monte Calamita, once mined for its magnetite – rumour has it that this caused ships to doubt themselves and run aground. The deserted mines can be visited along trails above beaches where pirates once landed, the derelict workings like rusting fairground rides; inside the caves, coloured stalactites sprout. If you plan on dropping anchor here for longer, consider taking one of the two villas built by Italian mid-century maestro Gio Ponti, Villa Allungata and Villa Ottagonale – beautiful examples of whitewashed 60s geometry.
villaallungata.com | elbabnb.it/en/villa-ottagonale
Back in the 70s, le tout Portoferraio turned out to watch Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor take lunch at Restaurant Mare. The two actors only had eyes for the bay stretching out in front of them. The venue is still going strong, but there are better places to eat; other views worth travelling for. In the pretty hilltop village of Poggio is Publius, which has a terrace with a panoramic sweep over the gulf of Marciana Marina – and a menu known for its wild boar. “Elba’s cuisine is simple, and uses the scents of the island, with herbs such as rosemary, catnip, laurel and myrtle,” Emanuele Fontana, granddaughter of the original owner, tells me. “You’ll find dishes such as gurgaglione, a vegetable soup, and squid cooked in onions and its ink, as well as pasta with clams and cream, and a dessert of schiacciunta del poggio, made with pine nuts and almonds.” And wine, of course. “We’ve been making wine to trade with since Roman times.” After a lunch here, make your way to a natural spring just outside the village, nicknamed Napoleon’s Spring, and the island’s only cable car for a lift to the top of Monte Capanne, 1,018 metres up with views over the other Tuscan islands to the mainland and even, on a good day, Corsica. (Be warned: the cable car is more of a metal basket than a traditional cable car cabin.) Other restaurants with views include nearby Osteria Del Noce, its garden guarded by a single walnut tree, and Il Retrogusto, just outside Portoferraio, where patron-chef Carlo Magrone creates a zero-miles menu.
ristorantepublius.it | osteriadelnoce.com | ilretrogustoelba.it
Elba isn’t the only act in town. There are tiny islets nearby, popular with scuba divers, such as Isolotto della Corbella, where shark eggs have been spotted nestling in the coral. The Tuscan Archipelago formed – well, according to myth – when Venus emerged from the sea and her necklace broke, scattering seven pearls across the water. The other main islands are wild and determinedly remote. There’s Capraia: with just 400 residents in summer plus a 16th-century fort that can now be hired out in its entirety, for those who want to play lord or lady of the isle, scanning the horizon for seabirds and frigates. Montecristo: known, of course, for its fictitious Count – brought to life by Alexander Dumas in the 19th century, and revived in a 2024 French adaptation – visitors are limited to 2,000 a year and places sell out years in advance. From Elba you can easily reach nearby Pianosa (read more on page 30). It, too, was a penal colony – only slamming its doors shut in 1998 after the last Mafia bosses were transferred from Agrippa security prison to the mainland. Thanks to its former role, its landscapes are wonderfully unspoilt, as are its waters – now a marine reserve, so no one need worry about sleeping with the fishes, like The Godfather’s Luca Brasi.
Pick up a pebble on the beautiful beach of Le Ghiale, on the north coast, and examine it closely. The pebbles here are all white spattered with black marks – marks caused by the sweat of Jason and the Argonauts, who stopped by here on their quest to find the golden fleece. The stuff of legend – or is it? Recent research has identified a structure submerged beneath the waves that could, possibly, be the remains of the Argonauts port. The island is indelibly associated with Napoleon but other names have made their mark. German artist Paul Klee came here to sketch in 1926; two decades later the brilliant Welsh poet Dylan Thomas landed at Rio Marina. He found a home in the taverns here, and felt an affinity with the narrow, twisting village streets that reminded him of his home.
In the 50s, the island became a pitstop for the jet-set yachting crowd. Again, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stopped by, as did Edward VII and Mrs Simpson, and Errol Flynn. An Italian couple, Paolo and Ileana De Ferrari, met the swashbuckling star on the beach at Biodola – they’d just bought land for a hotel and he told them that holiday villages were all the rage in California; so that’s what they built. Pay a visit to the Hotel Hermitage for a cocktail while you’re here; the Ferrari’s creation tucked swimming pools, tennis courts, chalets and a golf course into the hillside, shaded and scented by cork trees and mastic. Dylan Thomas wasn’t the only writer drawn to Elba. John Le Carré, a frequent visitor, made a wine and olive-oil estate here the refuge for the hero of The Constant Gardener, set beneath the atmospheric ruins of a medieval fortress. After all, who would possibly think to look for you here? You can visit La Chiusa di Magazzini for a tasting, returning back to your yacht with a few bottles of white wine, and one of extra-virgin.
hotelhermitage.it | tenutalachiusa.com
If you find yourself in the Alfeo Ricci Museum of Elban Minerals in Rio Marina, you will find crystals and rocks of all shapes and sizes – quartz that resembles toffee crisp, pyrite like buried treasure, and almost luminous malachite. But also… sand. Sand gathered from the many beaches of Elba and presented in bowls – which makes you realise just how different sand can be. This island has some of the most glorious yet unsung beaches in Tuscany. The one at Marina di Campo is the longest, a perfect curve of sand speckled with blue sun loungers – but also one of the busiest. The best are reached by boat, such as the one below Capoliveri known as Punta Rossa, named for the rocks above stained red from mining days; the iron dust gives the impression that it has been sketched in pencil. Dark sands too at wild Punta Bianca on the Costa dei Gabbiani, the high cliffs above streaked with white quartzite. Near the town of Cavo and its Roman villa ruins, meanwhile, is the beach of Cala delle Alghe, sheltered and with shallow waters for snorkelling.
Walk from the road between Rio nell’Elba and Nisporto and you will find the Santa Caterina Hermitage, a place of miracles and now one of contemporary art and flowers. Left in ruins in the 19th century, the church is now home to the Orto Dei Semplici Gardens, a living museum devoted to preserving and studying indigenous plant species in the islands. It was co-founded by artist and photographer Hans Georg Berger, a contemporary of Joseph Beuys, who also hosts the occasional show here. Take your camera to the hills around the Elba Island Mining Park on the eastern side of the island; here, the Conche Lake has formed over the decades, its waters coloured red from the iron-bearing minerals dissolved in it – on sunny days, it puts on an incredible colour show, turning from red to purple, yellow to orange.
