The Island of Elba, By Land, By Sea

When you’re on the island of Elba, you’ll want to get both viewpoints of this Tuscan island: views from Elba’s winding coastal roads skirting chestnut forests and views of Elba from the sea as you take a boat ride around the island.

During our island stay, we did both. Leaving our mountainside rental apartment at the charming coastal town of Marina di Campo, we followed the coastal road west, stopping to swim off the immense granite outcroppings in the sea below the village of Chiessi.

Stunning views of the woods clinging to granite cliffs, plummeting to the sea below all the way, though not many pull-over points for the taking of photos.
Here are a few shots:

We paused for a tasty seafood lunch at one of the pair of Chiessi hotels: steamed mussels as always for Pino and these days, I can’t resist the variations on black spaghetti (made with cuttlefish ink).
At Chiessi’s Hotel Il Perseo, I chose the spaghetti neri with a creative sauce of seafood and friggitelli (a tiny bell pepper variety, usually starring in Neapolitan cooking). What a winning combination: buonissimo!
Pino tried another delicious variation on the spaghetti neri: served with sauce of fresh lime.

[lcaption]Young Giada serves up my tasty spaghetti neri[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Pino opts as always for mussels as his first course[/lcaption]

[lcaption]…..and then he order spaghetti neri with fresh lime[/lcaption]

After lunch, we headed northwest and over the mountains skirting back to Marina di Campo.

We’d decided to take the afternoon 2-hour boat ride around the island’s western corner. It was now time to see Elba from the sea.
Other vacationers joined us, all Italians and many with small children. A highlight for all were the two stops along our route for swims in the crystal water.
Enjoy the photos of “Elba-from-the-sea”:

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[lcaption]….and here’s the boat for our giro dell’isola “(tour around the island”):[/lcaption]