[May 12, 2025]

Ciao! from Isola d’Elba! Yes, that would be the same island to which the European powers in their infinite wisdom decided to exile Napoleon the first time in 1814, and from which he escaped 300 days later (in that same fit of collective idiocy TPTB allowed him to bring 400, or maybe 600, or possibly a thousand, mileage varies, of his own personal guards along with him), resulting in the battle of Waterloo and a song by Abba.

Our guide told us there were more stories about Napoleon on Elba than there is actual history, some just delightful, like the 17 children he is alleged to have fathered on the daughters of local businessmen currying favor. His sister Pauline also joined him in exile and entranced everyone by bathing nude offshore. There’s a rock in the Golfo di Procchio named for her in memoriam. Or maybe it was the Golfo di Biodola. Or the Golfo Viticcio. It doesn’t really matter; the views are knock-your-eye-out gorgeous in every direction with or without Pauline.

Top, the view from Marciana Marina on the northwest coast of the island, a fishy sidewalk (they’re known for tuna and sardines), and one of many staircases, passages, and ramifications the Elbans like to use for planters.

Views from Capoliveri on the southeast part of the island. Left you see the Italian mainland and right the Isla de Montecristo, upon which Alexandre Dumas père famously buried a treasure.

One of many steep alleyways in Capoliveri. The little flying buttresses are built to keep the buildings from falling over on each other during an earthquake. The alleys are deliberately narrow, many of them much narrower than this, to make it more difficult for the pirates to invade. Pirates invading were a continual threat over the ages, carrying off Elbans to the slave markets of Africa, a story we were to find was common to all the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Elba is the destination of choice for mountain bikers. The roads have no shoulders and they are every last one of them built into the sides of cliffs which fall straight into the Tyrrhenian Sea. I wouldn’t try to walk on them, let alone joust with one of those immense tourist buses from the seat of a bicycle. Left is a map welcoming anyone on two wheels and on the right is a useful aid to cyclists provided by the local authorities. It includes every tool you could possible need to fix whatever broke on your bike, an air hose for flats, and a padded arm upon which you can hang your bike while it undergoes repairs. Pretty nifty.

Random Saturday Elba Napoleon The Count of Montecristo