It was the wedding of some very special friends of ours that first bought us to this island. I remember so clearly saying to my husband, as we walked along the seafront in the , oh so picturesque little port of Marciana Marina, "I am coming back here". At the time it did not look like it could be on the cards, but life has a strange way of going round corners and ending up in a completely different place to the destination you were expecting. It was one life's tidal waves that washed us up on this rock , a heavy rain cloud that had a silver lining.
We have been coming here now for eleven years.
Getting here , for a foreigner , may well be one of the reasons that this Island has kept its special retro feel. You must make the journey part of the holiday. For us Brits at least, we must dedicate a day to travelling. That means after your flight from the UK a taxi to Pisa Central then a train from Pisa to Piombino, a journey that takes you through some beautiful classic Tuscan country side , tall cypresses in minimalistic lines leading up to elegant Etruscan Villas. I never, ever, get tired of looking at these views, you see them on every post card and calender of Tuscany , they have been reproduced by so many artists , amateur to the big names. David Hockney, forgive me but your Yorkshire didn't do it for me.
Anyway......... to the ferry. You leave the Italian mainland for the hour long trip from Piombino. My apologies here to any Welsh reading this but it is the Italian equivalent of Port Talbot . A very un charismatic setting. A Mittal owned rusty steel works and some red and white striped chimneys spewing stuff , bid you farewell as you leave the mainland.
I must just warn you of something here. In the UK if you are told to get in a line. You go in a line and you stay in a line. Ha, ha , ha . Here to travel on the ferry by car you park up in white parallel lines marked out on the Tarmac. There are officials to get you and your car waved on board. HOWEVER, once they start boarding it is every man, car bus, lorry for themselves. Survival of the fittest. Just grip your buttocks and join in . If you don't you just have to hope you have some Germans behind you. If you have Italians lock your doors cause your a dead man.
Soon you see the Island appearing . Elba is a whale shaped rock, still covered on the north side with thick carpets of green trees, the odd villa dotted on the higher levels of the hillsides. Ocre coloured houses with burnt sienna roofs that catch the sunlight like the hats of rice workers in chinese paddy fields , the buildings hug the curved bay on the waters edge.
The colour of the water is just amazing, aqua marine blue/green, as clear as crystal, it is just the most wonderful water to swim in, very salty and buoyant . On some of the beaches the water has what looks like gold fairy dust in it, it is actually , quartz dust but magic when you see it for the first time.
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Location:The Island of ElbaGo to Elba
