Elba

With the crowds thinning, the temperatures cooling and the dawning of shall we say a mild dose of travel fatigue, realisim began to sink in. Our commitment to our original plan of heading back to Sardinia and on to Corsica was on the wane - perhaps we needed to re examine our options. I wasn't done with beaching however, and was desperate for another plunge in the Mediterranean before heading back to the autumnal confines of Northern Europe. And so we consulted the map book.

To our pleasant surprise we were able to locate another Italian island, though one not so far from the mainland, and pretty much direct on our path north! Isola d'Elba, just 28km long and 19km wide, lies a short hour's ferry ride from the Tuscan port of Piombino and is most famous for being home to Napolean during his short exile here in 1814 (short as he went on to escape within the year). It's a very pretty island, with bush clad hills rolling down to white sandy beaches. Pretty hard to imagine, but yes this is Tuscany, right down to the vineyards and olive groves.

Isola d'Elba - all bush clad hills , blue water and white sandy beaches

Also the home of Italian yachting - Mascalzone Italia are based here, Prada around the corner

Blue, blue seas

The plan was to spend a couple of days, longer if I was to have my way, relaxing on the beach and chilling out in the last of the summer sun before heading north up to Florence and beyond. But as it does happen, those couple of days stretched into a couple more, and then a couple more, and before we knew an entire week had passed doing little more than reading, swimming, sunbathing, eating, drinking, kayaking...

Lacona beach, our home for the next few days

making ourselves at home

This is the life! (Shame about the book)

Sea monsters aplenty

Odd spot of kayaking

All beached out

Heading out for dinner

SJ