Elba a Tuscan island getaway

Posted on October 29, 2011

 

Serenity at Patresi beach, a peaceful little beach at the bottom of a cliff face on the Island of Elba.

Patresi beach 

Elba’s rocky Patresi beach can be hard on even the smallest behinds…!!!

Nothing but the open sea

Biodola’s calm sandy beach

Elba is the largest island off the Tuscan coast, the north faces the Ligurian Sea and the south of the island faces the Tyrrhenian Sea. The island sits between France’s Corsica and the main land of Italy.  I had no idea what to expect from an Island in Tuscany and decided to discover the islands secret corners by car.  The island is rugged and natural, nothing like the glamourous and famous Capri or the island of Ponza and much larger than I had imagined, being the third largest island in Italy after Sardegna and Sicily with over 30 thousand people permanently residing on the island.

 
After arriving on the immense Moby liner into the main port and not so picturesque Portoferrario I picked up my little green hire car and drove to the hotel in Biodola.  The first day I spent simply lazing on a deck chair on the above sandy beach front relaxing until my friend arrived.  Once settled we took off to discover the island and its wonderful little hidden coves.  The first night our hotel recommended a little restaurant not far from where we were staying yet not so easily sign posted and hidden way down the bottom of a hill in a quiet waterfront position,  ‘Da Giacomino’ is renowned for it’s lovely sunset views in the Summer time and delicate seafood dishes.  The restaurant, its wait staff, position and best of all the seafood dishes and local wine was superb!
 
 
 
 

The next day we were off to find ourselves a small remote pristine beach to reside for the day with our bare necessities of fruit, bread & bottles of water  that we had taken from the hotel breakfast buffet.  Around the cliff hanging hair-pin turns in our gutless little green turtle of a car we climbed our way up the hill tops through some wonderful medieval villages. After leaving Biodola we drove through  Procchio and around to the lovely little town of Marciana.

 
 
 
 

Like every girl in the world I love a new pair of shoes and a good shoe shop is always worth going out of your way to find, even if it is in the middle of a remote island in Tuscany, our new ballet flats were calling so we decided to stop off and search for a little shop that Claudia had read about in a local magazine.  We both tried on numerous pairs and settled on our favourites, mine a sueded navy pair of beautifully crafted ballet flats with ribbon up around the ankles.  You can find Martina Tagliaferro shoes in selected boutiques in Italy yet her shop MONO is the best bet for the full selection.  We unfortunately arrived at the end of the season so there were not many in my size left.  This little shop is so unassuming you could easily walk straight past it yet the moment you do step inside, like us you will be in there for at least an hour.  Ballet flats in the finest quality suede, leather and incredible colours for adults and children, the pumps for little girls were so sweet, polkadots and leopard, crystals on the toes and ribbons in different colours in all sizes.  Lucky for us just as we were paying Martina Tagliaferro walked in the door so we were able to meet the master of these wonderful shoes.  Posing for photo’s with us she was so inviting and told us a little of her designer story.  These are some of the most well crafted and designed ballet flat shoes I have ever come across.

 
 
 
 
After leaving MONO we headed off to explore a little of the tranquil town of Marciana..
 
 
 
Marciana Marina..
 
 
 
 
 
 
The street parallel to where MONO resides..
 
 
 
After leaving the quiet little town of Marciana we headed up the hill through mountain top medieval towns which is when I realised Elba is where the French Emperor Napoleon I was exiled to after his forced abdication in 1814 and resided there for 300 days with a genuine concern for the islanders and showed this by carrying out a number of economic and social reforms on the island to help improve their general well-being and way of life.  This is really what Elba is best known for yet because I am a lover of nature and beautiful natural terrain I enjoyed the drive up and down the mountainous hills until we arrived at the pretty Patresi beach where we soaked up the sun and swam in the crystal clear waters for a few hours of tranquility.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Its hard to even read a book here, there is so much peace and quite time yet all I wanted to do was sit and look out to sea, can’t you see why?
 
 
 
A medieval hill top town in Elba..
 
The beautiful islands in Italy are all so diverse and it really does depend on what you are after be it to simply relax, dine in fine dining restaurants or the other extreme such as ‘Da Giacomino’, family fun or solitude, you decide yet you will never know if you never go, they all have their special qualities!  xmm