Starting from Portoferraio, we reached La Biodola, a Caribbean-style beach water, a large bay with pine trees nestled in a fine, golden, long, almost 600-meter-long sandy shield protected by winds.
Blue horizons between sea and sky
It was also very exciting to sail beside the two naval ships of the Navy Palinuro and Vespucci, anchored exceptionally along with the destroyer Durand De La Penne leaving for the Black Sea, in the wide gulf of Portoferraio after bringing Italian excellence and prestige of our armed forces abroad.
Vespucci has returned after having completed the Atlantic Sailing Passage after 16 years to the United States and Canada, where in Montreal it hosted the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, at the “150th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian confederation”, while Palinuro sailed and reached some of the major ports of the Aegean and Black Sea.
Along the way you can see very well even from afar the white cliffs of Capo Bianco: the same color is also the gravel, which together with the clear water creates very impressive reflections.
To reach the cave Viticcio, very sheltered and for this favorite destination of the yachtsmen, it runs along the promontory of the Enfola, which is attached to the mainland by a small strip of land. The tip of the earth that protrudes on the sea looks clenched at several points: underground caves and observation posts built by the Navy during the Second World War were found among the natural caves.
Our tour ended in front of one of the largest and most beautiful beaches on the island of Elba, divided into three locations, Procchio, Campo all’Aia and Guardiola on the far right, where the gulf encloses itself itself forming a lovely creek where the sea is of an intense turquoise.
In our tour we crossed the islet called Scoglietto, which is about a mile from Portoferraio: its blue sapphire waters rich of posidonia are the ideal habitat for groupers, snappers, octopus and many other fish.
At the top is a pretty lighthouse with a lantern and a merlot terrace, an eclectic architecture of 1910, which resembles in its color the natural rock of the small island that is part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago.
From land, however, we went to discover the beach of Paolina, which owes its name to Bonaparte’s sister. It is said that here she loves to come sunbathing. In front of the beach is the little island, easily accessible for the low water.
On the other side of the island is the Fetovaia beach, one of the most impressive but also the most appreciated by bathers because it is sheltered by almost all winds. The shore is protected by the promontory of Punta Fetovaia covered with Mediterranean scrub and it is part of a magnificent natural environment between golden sand, granite cliffs and sea colors ranging from intense blue to light green.
The bath in these clear and fresh transparent waters and the wonderful turquoise reflections is to be put into the agenda and be assured that it will remain forever in the database of your memory.
But how to choose the “right” beach? You have to learn to look every morning from where the wind blows! As the islanders told us, if the wind “brings out” and then you feel behind, the sea will be calm and will show in all its wonderful beauty. And if the wind comes from the sea? Just change the way to spend a wonderful day at the beach or in a sheltered cove.
Do you want to bring with you a small and fragrant version of the island? Colorful Elbe shaped soaps are for sale, with many other lovely souvenirs, in the small shop of Elisa Lambardi (Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, 29 – Portoferraio – tel. +39 349 4768361 – elisa.lambardi@libero.it): so packaged original and refined represent an ideal cadeaux to do or to get yourself.
