17/6 - 24/6
Although we had planned to leave around midday on Monday to take a bus towards Elba, on Monday morning Chiara received a phone call from the hospital saying that Nonna Lydia wasn't too well, so we moved very quickly and drove through Lombardia, Liguria and Tuscany to arrive at Piola from where we took a ferry across to Isola d'Elba - Elba Island.
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| Driving through Tuscany during summer; absolutely stunning |
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| Please excuse the marks on all of these photos as at the time stupid me didn't notice there was something on my lens! |
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| Arriving in Porto Ferraio |
When we arrived at the house Lydia was fine, it had just been that she had done a lot of travelling in a short amount of time and with the heat she was dehydrated, so we helped her to finish setting up the house and headed to the beach!
This was my first time going for a swim in a non-Australian beach and it was certainly strange! It was different to the beach how I know it; the sand was less fine and the water much, much more salty and clear, but it was so beautiful!
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| Crystal clear water |
As the sun now sets much later at night we headed home around 7.30pm although it seemed to be 4.00 in the afternoon and went out to dinner around 9pm.
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| The sunset as we were heading to the restaurant around 9pm at night |
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| A classic Maddie choice; tartufo |
After dinner we went for a walk on around the part of the Island where Lydia has the house, called "Marciana".
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| Cute little Crêpe cart! |
On Tuesday Chiara decided to take us to one of their favourite parts of Isola d'Elba, a place called "Pomonte". To get there we had to take the road which circles around the edge of the Island, on the side of the mountains looking over The Mediterranean Ocean.
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| Arrived at Pomonte, the view from the little cafe/restaurant there |
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| I don't think I have EVER seen water so clear and so beautiful in my life |
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| Filippo! |
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| Then it was my turn to jump. But I stayed in this position, absolutely terrified for about 10 minutes before I actually got the guts to do it |
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| Chiara and I |
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| The rock I fell asleep on for about half an hour, convincing small children passing by that mermaids ARE real |
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| Chiara and Lydia |
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| Filippo, naturally taking the opportunity to draw |
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| Gelato time! |
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| Driving home we stopped over on the side of the road where there was a little fountain of fresh water. Looking closer, there was written that it was a fountain in honour of Napolean, constructed when he was imprisoned on this Island hundreds of years ago. |
We then drove to another part of the island as it turns out that also Chiara's brother, Giorgio, has a house on Isola d'Elba, although his is further away from the sea, on a mountain.
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| The view from Giorgio's house |
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| Giorgio's house |
After that, it was time for Chiara to leave us and go back to work for the rest of the week! So Lydia left Filippo, Alice and I in Procchio (a tiny little tony next to Marciana) while she took Chiara to the ferry on the other side of the island. Filippo went to go for a swim but Alice and I went for a walk around the shops at Procchio and bought ourselves a huge piece of watermelon!
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| As Alice's hair gets longer we've been seeing a striking resemblance to a certain Christ Almighty... |
After dinner we walked into the town of Marciana to get a yoghurt and see the little town I hadn't yet seen a lot of.
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| It turns out the Isola d'Elba has its own perfume! |
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| A yoghurt and a half! |
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| The wall of the Yoghurteria covered in messages from visitors |
On Wednesday we decided it would be nice to walk to the beach at Marciana and stay the day there.
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| Despite the fact that I reapplied sunscreen about 50 times that day being the religiously-skin-cancer-afraid Australian that I am, I STILL managed to get sunburnt. So when we got home there was nothing I wanted to do more than have a nice cold outside shower |
I wasn't the only sunburnt of the three of us though and so on Thursday we were so tired and sore we decided to stay at home and rest up.
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| The room where Alice and I slept |
That afternoon though Lydia decided we needed to make a move and took us to another part of the Island called Marciana-Marina to get a yoghurt and see the pretty little town.
While Lydia sat down to enjoy her yoghurt and Filippo went in search of a book store Alice and I went for a walk out onto the jetty and looked into a few little shops.
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| I finally decided to purchase the perfume, Acqua dell'Elba! |
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| Elba water, clear as ever (yep, I'm going to keep being amazed at the clear water. Sorry guys!) |
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| A kind of hidden Piazza we found |
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| Fishies! |
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| Marciana-Marina houses |
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| One of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen; a policeman on a Segway! |
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| As the sun set the houses all became a wonderful shade of yellow! |
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| Times like these I have to remind you all that I do not edit any of my photos. Ever. Italy really just is this pretty! |
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| Lydia |
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| I took this opportunity to finally take a photo of these hilarious little cars I've been laughing at all year. They're called "Ape Cars" which means "Bee Cars" because they're tiny like bees and you kind find them everywhere in Italy! |
On Friday morning Alice and Filippo wanted to stay at home to relax a little more so I took the bike and went to Marciana to look around the shops and what not.
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| A wall I passed riding into Marciana |
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| The wild flowers growing near Lydia's house |
Afterwards I asked if we could go back to Pomonte because had enjoyed it so much earlier in the week, but unfortunately when we arrived the weather had turned very windy, bringing some rubbish and jelly fish close to the shore! Although there were some people swimming anyways, as Italian jelly fish can't hurt you nearly as much as Australian jelly fish, after eighteen years of being taught to stay away from jelly fish I just couldn't bring myself to go in.
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| The jelly fish were also purple! You can see one in the middle of this photo |
Driving home we stopped over on the side of the road for Lydia to show us that off the edge of the mountain we were on there were steps going down to the seaside! So of course I asked if we could go down to see.
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| The history of the shore |
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| This photo really doesn't capture just how steep these steps were |
It turned out to be the strangest beach I have ever seen, with a sand completely grey that closer to the water became big smooth pebbles!
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| Trying to skip rocks after a lesson from Filippo and I'm proud to say that in the end I actually did it a few times! |
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| A friendly gesture from Alice, telling me how happy she was I made them do the stairs with me |
On Saturday we were lucky to receive a bit of a history lesson when Lydia took us to see "La casa di Napoleone"; the house built by Napoleon while his was imprisoned on Elba Island! It was really fascinating to see; nowadays, the upper part of the house has been left as it was, but the part underneath is a gallery of art of Napoleon done by different artists over time. The most incredible part is that Napoleon only stayed on Elba Island for 100 days before he was rescued! 100 days (little over 3 months) and he constructed this fortress!
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| The view from the house, constructed to look out over to Porto Ferraio, the entry to Isola d'Elba, so that Napoleon could know straight away if any pirates (or rescuers) arrived. |
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| Napoleon's bathroom |
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| Dining room |
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| Napoleon's custom-made bed! What a short man! |
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| Napoleon was fascinated by Egypt, so this room (the biggest room in the house) was dedicated to that |
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| A chair shipped over from Egypt for Napoleon, in front of the wall of pyramids |
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| "N" for Napoleon and bees; a symbol of royalty |
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| Some of the art in the gallery below. Some of the art honours Napoleon whilst other pieces make fun of him! |
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| Lydia and I out the front of the Gallery part |
Afterwards, Lydia took us to yet another part of the Island, this time much further away. This is the part with the peninsula although the part joining it to the island is so small it is often mistaken for being a smaller island next to the main Island.
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| Another pebbly beach! |
We had lunch at the restaurant looking over the beach and the food really was excellent!
Next to the restaurant there was a set of steep stairs going up the side of the hill and, wondering where they lead, when we finished eating I went exploring. It turned out to be a camping ground! And one of the most stunning camping grounds I have ever seen at that, climbing up the side of the hill, looking out onto the stunning blue ocean! So I loaded up on photos, especially for my travel-savvy Poppa and Grandma.
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| At the very top of the stairs I found the bathroom, again climbing up the side of the hill/mountain. |
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| The view off the side of one of the camping lots |
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| The restaurant where we had lunch |
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| Some rocks on the side of the small beach where I played later; full of tiny little colourful fish! |
Heading home we stopped over at Lydia's favourite Gelateria in Elba.
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| A game that will never get old; trying new gelato flavours. This time round, mint! |
I then took the bike and went riding through Marciana for the last time before we leave tomorrow morning.
On Sunday it was time to head home! Lydia took us to Porto Ferraio and we walked around the streets to see the city a bit before taking the ferry back over to the mainland and then a three-hour bus ride back to Milan!
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| Our ferry! |
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| Happy Hostsiblings |
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| The way I entertained myself on the bus home; starting to read Harry Potter as it is one of my main goals for this year to be able to finish reading a Harry Potter book in Italian! |
