Welcome to the Elba Island, the pearl of the Tuscan Archipelago.
Just 10 km away from mainland Italy, with an area of 224 sq. km. the island of Elba is the largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest of the Italian islands, with 147 km of coastline.
Elba, together with its younger sisters - Pianosa, Giglio, Giannutri, Capraia, Montecristo and Gorgona - is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea and is part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park and the Cetacean Sanctuary, a very important protected marine area that involves three countries: Italy, France and the Principality of Monaco. It has also been included in the UNESCO `` World Heritage Provisional List of Geological Sites '' as one of the most important and famous mineralogical and historical-mining sites on Earth.
The main tourist attraction of Elba is certainly its crystalline sea that takes on a thousand shades of colour depending on the coasts it frames: blue along the wide beaches, turquoise green in the most secret coves, intense blue and sparkling white when it breaks on the cliffs. The diversity of the coasts of the island determines a great variety of beaches: long stretches of fine sand alternate with coves of small white and gray pebbles and more or less steep cliffs. But in any case it is always possible to appreciate the transparency of this sea which is a true paradise of colours and life.
But if Elba is above all famous for its sea and splendid beaches, its shady woods, the gentle countryside, the lands warmed by the sun where agaves and prickly pears reign supreme should not be forgotten. And the villages: those on the coast, which often still manage to preserve the ancient flavour of a refuge for fishermen, and those perched on the hills, which tell us about the excursions of pirates from a long time ago.
Elba also boasts a history full of events of which traces remain in the rich historical and artistic heritage of the island. Inhabited by Greeks, Etruscans and Romans who exploited the iron deposits, over the centuries it was the object of aims by the Italian and foreign powers of the time who settled on the island to protect their trade and military routes.
Contended in the Middle Ages between the Republics of Genoa and Pisa which began to fortify it, it was ruled by the Appiani and then partly by the Medici dynasty who fortified Cosmopoli, the current Portoferraio, to the point of making it one of the impregnable fortresses of the Mediterranean. And then Napoleon, forced into exile for 9 months until his ruinous escape, whom the island remained and remains deeply linked.
The Principality of the Island of Elba was certainly a small state, but with a great sovereign who had the historical merit of having the flag of the Three Bees, designed by himself, waved over all the forts and respected throughout the Mediterranean. Even more important was what Napoleon did when, still First Consul, he unified Elba by annexing it to France as a metropolitan territory. The new unitary administration of the time made the island make an epochal leap in quality in all fields, from institutions to schools, finance, social services, infrastructures, the administration of justice, the economy.
The island of Elba, an environment to know, to visit, to experience, perhaps in the company of the people who live there, always kind and attentive.
PORTO AZZURRO
Porto Azzurro overlooks the Gulf of Mola, the largest inlet on the east coast of Elba with its well-sheltered harbour.
The town has been called this way since 1947 when it was allowed to change the old name of Porto Longone which identified it with the penitentiary located in the Longone Fortress. It overlooks the Gulf of Mola, the largest inlet on the east coast of Elba with its well-sheltered harbour where ships and tourist boats dock. This fishing and farming village is now a popular seaside resort.
About one kilometer from Porto Azzurro you can visit the Small Mine, a small-scale reconstruction of a mine and its life inside.
Places of historical and cultural interest are also the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Monserrato and the Spanish Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Barbarossa and Mola are the main hamlets.
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