Elba

Elba is the third-largest Italian island after Sicily and Sardinia, and almost nobody outside Italy and Germany goes there. It is 224 km² with 147 km of coast, a 1,019 m mountain in the west, iron mines the Etruscans worked, and Napoleon's two residences from his ten-month exile in 1814–15. Most of it sits inside the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. The coast alternates between granite coves on the west and iron-dark sand in the east, and the water is exceptionally clear.

For a Mediterranean island with real infrastructure, good food and a fraction of the prices of Capri or the Costa Smeralda — and for the swimming, which is the best in Tuscany by some distance. Also for the odd, specific pleasure of standing in Napoleon's villa and reading the letters from the year he ran a kingdom of 12,000 people.

In the group: Portoferraio · Porto Azzurro · Marciana Marina · Capoliveri

What to do

Monte Capanne — The cabinovia to 1,019 m in an open yellow basket, with Corsica visible on a clear day and the whole archipelago below.
Villa dei Mulini and Villa San Martino — Napoleon's town house above Portoferraio and his summer villa inland — small, well-kept and genuinely affecting.
The west-coast beaches — Sansone and Capo Bianco's white shingle, Cavoli and Fetovaia's sand, Padulella's clear water. Go early.
Capoliveri — The best of the hill villages, on a ridge in the south-east, with a proper evening passeggiata.
The mining park at Rio Marina — Open-cast iron workings the Etruscans started — a mineral museum and a train through the red pits.
Diving and snorkelling — Protected waters, wrecks, and visibility that is rare this far north in the Mediterranean.

Beaches & swims

Spiaggia di Cavoli — South-west coast sand, warm and sheltered, the island's most popular summer beach.
Spiaggia di Sansone — White shingle under white cliffs, with the clearest water on Elba.

3 days on Elba

Day 1 Portoferraio and Napoleon
Ferry in, then the Medici fortresses above the old town and Villa dei Mulini. Lunch on the harbour. Afternoon swim at Sansone or Padulella, ten minutes west. Dinner in the old town.
Day 2 The mountainous west
Drive the coast road through Marciana Marina to Marciana, the cable car up Monte Capanne, then down to Fetovaia or Cavoli for the afternoon. Sunset at Sant'Andrea.
Day 3 The east and the mines
Capoliveri in the morning, the beaches of the Golfo Stella, and the mining park at Rio Marina in the afternoon. Aleatico with the schiaccia briaca to finish.

Getting there

Access: Car ferries from Piombino to Portoferraio (1h); a car is genuinely useful here
Best time to go: Late May–June and September: warm sea, everything open, no crowds. July–August is full of Italian and German families and prices roughly double. The island largely closes from November to March. Spring is the walking season — the Grande Traversata Elbana crosses the island east to west.
Getting around: A car or a scooter is genuinely useful here — the island is big and the buses are infrequent. Car ferries from Piombino to Portoferraio take an hour (also to Rio Marina and Cavo). Book the ferry in advance in August; day-of tickets sell out.
Eat & drink: Elban cooking is Tuscan with more fish: cacciucco-style stews, gurguglione (a summer vegetable stew), stoccafisso alla riese, and schiaccia briaca — a dense, drunk cake of raisins, nuts and Aleatico wine. The Aleatico Passito is a DOCG dessert wine made only here. Marciana Marina and Capoliveri have the best restaurants.
Know before you go: The western mountain roads are narrow and steep — fine, but not for a first day with a large hire car. Some of the best beaches (Sansone, Cavoli, Fetovaia) have limited parking that fills before 10:00 in August. The Monte Capanne cable car is an open standing basket, two people at a time, which is not for everyone.