Island of Elba

Jessica (Germany) and I on the traghetto (ferry)

The weather was forecasted to rain all weekend in Perugia, and when we set out at 5 AM on the bus for Elba the sky looked gray. Luckily, Elba is off the coast of Toscana a few hours north, and as the sun rose and we continued to drive the skies looked clear and blue. We took a ferry to the island, which is the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardegna, but which is much smaller in comparison. I explored the island with Jessica, a girl from my Italian class from Germany, and Rodrigo from Brazil. They both speak English but we spoke Italian just about the whole time, which I enjoyed.

Me behind Napoleon's house on the Island of Elba. He had a beautiful house that also serves now as a museum. The view from his garden was beautiful

A room inside of Napoleon's house

The beaches were rocky with a small sand beach in the part of Elba that we chose to visit, but there was also a sand beach elsewhere on the island. I found Elba to be very different from Capri, which surprised me a little. ELba is far less of a tourist trap. On Capri everything is catered to tourists and on Elba the island is perhaps not as cute but it looks more lived in and there seem to be mostly locals on the island rather than mostly tourists. 

A Moby Lines tragehtto and a tiny sailboat. I would have liked to find someplace to rent a small sailboat but I couldnt find one at the beach we went to. Instead I swam and suntanned (and burnt)

The temperature of the water was cooler and the tide was not as strong as it was at Capri. I liked that the waved were gentler at Elba and that the town seemed more like a normal town.

The beach at Marciana Marina with Italian flags in the background