My journey starts from the description of some of the wonderful places I visited.
 I believe that the images catch your gaze a thousand words. The eloquence of a beach and its clear water, a fire-red sunset or a wild landscape know kidnap the soul.

The island of Elba is the largest remaining stretch of land of the tract that connected the Italian peninsula to Corsica, after the other islands of the Tuscan Archipelago. The northern coasts are bathed by the Ligurian Sea, from the Eastern Channel of Piombino, southern Tyrrhenian Sea and western Channel from Corsica.

The terrain is very varied, and divided into several parts depending on its conformation and of the geology in which it was formed:

The mountainous part and more recently, to the west, the center is dominated by Mount Capanne (1018 m asl), the "roof of the Tuscan Archipelago."
At the center is a mostly flat stretch, and the width is reduced to just four kilometers. It is in this part of which are major centers: Portoferraio, Campo nell'Elba.
To the east there is the oldest part of the island, formed over 400 million years ago. In the area of hills, dominated by Monte Calamita, are deposits of iron that made famous the Island of Elba.


The island, at the foot of Mount Capanne is a source named Mount St. Napoleon, who after having carefully observed and followed by some scientific methods, it was decided that would become the source of drinking water. In fact in our day in supermarkets on the island are bottles of water upstream St Napoleon because of the climate that most of the year is mild with the exception of mountain rivers are still quite a range torrential streams and less important remain too dry

Climate
The climate of the Mediterranean has predominantly features, except for Mount Capanne where winters tend to be moderately cold. Precipitation is concentrated in autumn and appear to be fairly contained. History
A Napoleonic fortress Portoferraio.L 'island time was inhabited by proto Ilvati, an ancient population belong to the Liguri - hence the ancient name of the island: Ilva. Rich deposits of iron, the island of Elba made possible the rise of the Etruscan civilization and then the military success of Rome, where soldiers used as a weapon with the spear tip of iron to lose, can only weapon with an unlimited availability of iron.

The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled on Elba, and some houses are testimony: Villa dei Mulini in Portoferraio situated with a magnificent view over the sea and the summer residence of the course, Villa San Martino located on the outskirts of the small town. More recently, the island is famous (even abroad) for its wine (in particular Aleatico, sweet dessert fortified wine that often accompanies the typical "briaca crushes").


Transport
The island is connected to the mainland via the two ferry companies, and the Toremar Moby Lines, performing maritime routes between Piombino and Portoferraio, the capital located in the north, Rio Marina or Portoazzurro the east coast of the island. The frequency and time for each line, and in the summer months is also available via the hydrofoil to cable and destination in Portoferraio.

Mountain
Mount Capanne offers the possibility of walking, you can reach its top at 1018 m asl with a cable running from Marciana (LI). ll Mount Capanne is the highest peak and reaches out to 1018 m. above sea level and is home to many animal species including the wild goat, that despite the continuous influx of tourists who visit the mountain, managed to take refuge in shelters or multitude of caves at the foot of the mountain.


Underwater

Two divers in the depths of the draft. It is full of beaches and cliffs of the island of Elba offers a wide choice for scuba diving, ranging from scuba diving accessible to beginners to the more challenging.

Some examples are:

the wreck of Pomonte (42 ° 44'35 .40 "N 10 ° 7'6 .60" E / 42.743167, 10.1185), close to the reef dell'Ogliera, laid at a depth of only 10 feet above the sandy bottom, suitable for beginners of Underwater;
Formiche of Zanca (42 ° 48'19 .80 "N 10 ° 7'35 .40" E / 42.8055, 10.1265), west of the Capo Sant'Andrea near a vertical wall from 20 to 40 meters of rich red gorgonia ;
Capo Stella, demanding a dive to 41 meters full of grouper, moray eels, sea fans and red coral red;
the peaks Pablo (42 ° 46,570 'N 10 ° 26,080' E / 42.77617, 10.43467), from 8 to 33 meters deep, with walls filled with white and yellow sea fans, sponges covered with yellow shrimp.

Etrurian and Roman Elba History

In the eighth century b.C., a new civilization starts to move in central Italy. Their culture was refined in strong discontinuity with the protohistoric hitherto dominant. It was called Rasenna, the Greeks called it Tirrena, Etruscan and Roman. The new company had to take off in a polarized chessboard Mediterranean around Greece and their numerous colonies. But the control of a resource such as iron, that few other places could provide the quantity and quality as the Elbe, was decisive for the ascent to the role of power. It was probably in this context that the extraction of copper island went gradually losing importance to yield to a request of the tumultuous finest metal. A paid up this trade: it is not hard to believe that the ports Elban ships and merchants came from all over the Mediterranean.

We do not know when it happened the first extraction of iron Elba, also because the industrial excavating the past two centuries have probably compromise any archaeological study of mining areas. As early as the sixth century B. C. is the mineral island in various places of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but the activity must be initiated at least in the previous century. The vast amounts arose even rumors, like the one that wanted the mineral autorigenerantesi.

In the fifth and fourth century B.C. Etrurian culture was in decline. Indeed, its strength on the seas, not only was ill-appreciated by the other Mediterranean powers, Syracuse at all. To pay the heaviest consequences of this crisis was the Elbe, as the economic engine of the Etruscan power. In this period, he noted some devastating raids Syracuse: Apella mainly to the middle of the fifth century b.C., who led a fleet of 60 Trireme against the Tyrrhenian coast. There is a good chance that, even for a short period, the island and its vast mineral resources are passed under the dominion of the Sicilians. In any case, or for use directly, or by trade or piracy, the Syracuse always showed the greatest interest in the field Elba.

For this reason, the Etruscans were a network architect on the defensive. Every strategic point was affected by the hill forts, such oppida, able to remain in visual contact with each other. In many cases, they developed small villages. Currently these facilities if it has different tracks, scattered mainly on the west-central.

Apart from these buildings, Etruscan all'Elba remains very little. Rare tracks from other villages, coastal or even behind the mining areas, which were to exist, considering the economic and commercial activities that lived the island at that time. Otherwise we have several evidences of burials, although many of them are lost or dispersed after the discoveries, occurred for the majority party in the course of the nineteenth century.

Came the time that the Etruscans had to leave space to the new rulers. And those who struck to death this extraordinary civilization of the former subjects were no longer willing to submit to the government of others: the Romans. Elba came within their sphere of influence not just peacefully. The archaeological study of the offshore island fortresses has shown that between 280 and 260 B.C. they were destroyed and given to the flames. However, the Romans re-activated, and they will continue to monitor the coast for at least another century, obviously the state of insecurity of the seas during the Punic wars forced the Romans to keep the defenses of their territories constantly high.

The Romans called the island Ilva, from which derives the current name borrowed from medieval Ilba. It is not clear that the choice of name: According to the tradition derives from the imaginary "ilvates", a race of origin that would ligurian colonized the island in ancient times.

In Republican Elban mines are at the highest levels of production. It can not be otherwise, given that the war effort of the new rulers was high. It is not even daring to say that most of the successes of the Roman stage was built with iron Elba. After the boom of the centuries I and II a. C. there is a crisis in mining, leading from there to one or two centuries to the total cessation of the activity. Many are the responses of scholars to explain this situation: perhaps with the acquisition of new mines (in Spain, in Noricum, etc..) Romans preferred to move the extraction, while maintaining the Italian as strategic reserves, or perhaps it was lacking the coal for the smelting activities, after it had stripped the mantle inexorably wooded island, or other reasons besides.

The sound of hammers and chisels did not cease altogether: after the extraction of iron, the Romans gave the opening of searchinf and mining granite. With this rock could achieve elegant works, used to adorn the monuments: granite columns of Elba are many buildings in the capital of the empire. Traces of quarries and fabricated often confused with those of medieval times, are visible in the village of Cavoli and Seccheto.

For local products (probably should be added to the wine among the goods exported from), but for its geographical position, the Elbe was the center of a flourishing maritime trade. Especially after the famous expedition of Pompey Gneo, in the first century a. C., aimed at freeing the seas from piracy, trafficking ship had risen. Its landing safe and protected, such as the Portus longus (now Porto Azzurro) mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana, were the stage for a number of routes: those from ports all over the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Gaul and Spain, the islands Mediterranean and North Africa. Artefacts from all these places are located on land on the island, but even more on its bottom, as enshrined in caskets from several wrecks.

As more than Etruscan, even among the Roman missing piece: we do not know the location and consistency of the towns in this period. There is only one exception: Fabricia, the current Portoferraio. In fact Fabricia has a name derived from the more traditional eighteenth learned from reality, but that on the promontory that spans a sheltered dock there was a vital area. It experienced an economic boom, fueled no doubt by the shipping trade during the imperial age. It seems that the town itself stood around the dock, while at the top of the hills were behind the burial place. So is the rich archaeological heritage of this area that the foundation of the square Medici until today, no work done in the soil of the city that there regalino some ancient artifact. For the rest is complete darkness, and only the names of some countries are proof of Roman origin: the case of Capoliveri (Caput liberum), Marciana (Marcius or Marcianus) and Rio nell'Elba (Rivus). Once again we come to the rescue necropoli attendance to remember the human in some locations. The most important is that of Profico (by name eloquent), Capoliveri.

A turn of the century b.C. and I a.C., Elba, as in the whole archipelago, there are luxury villas. E 'rediscovered "tourist" of the island, after the crisis in the mining and metallurgical. Some wealthy Romans chose the Elbe for their Otium. Unlike other islands, however, no reference is left on their own. Perhaps one of them was the prefect of Hadrian, Acilia Attia, many of which remain on the clues (such as granite in an area dedicated to Hercules). Of these houses are still traces of three, but not necessarily be more.

These villas were housing various stages (relatively short Cave and Cape Castle, a little 'more the Linguella), but all are united by an ancient late attendance. In fact, seeing the island through the centuries IV and V to the phenomenon of monasticism, imported from the East. "There, in those islands thrown by God as a necklace of pearls on the sea," writes St. Ambrose nell'Hexameron (IV century), "those who take refuge to escape the overwhelming pleasures of disordered; there, they flee to the world and living in a silencious meditation, escape the snares of this life. The mysterious sound of the waves is confused with the singing of hymns, while the sea are a gentle murmur with fringes on the beach in these fortunate islands, rising to the sky peaceful tones of the choir of the elect. " And what better place to be filled for these monks unless the former villas symbol of life comfortable. Are their songs which accompany the Elbe at the end of the empire.