We went over to the island on a boat that was called the
"Moby Love". It was filled with geriatric Germans. Here
I am trying out my german on a couple of hotties. "Woher
kommen sie?" "Ich komme aus Maryland." I was
looking for a little bit of Moby Love. I ended up hooking up with
the one on the right.
The Island of Elba is pretty close to where we are in Siena. It's
about an hour by car, but four hours by bus. We told our fruit
guy this (at the fruit stand next to our building) and he went
off on the Italian bus system, but he didn't offer to drive us.
So after leaving Siena at 6am on Saturday, we got to the port of
Piombino, and took a traghetto (a ferry) over to the island. As
we are on the boat we realize we left our clothes on the bus. It
turned out to be no big deal, because we only brought one days
worth, and once we got on the island we bought new stuff.
The boat takes about an hour, about the same as to Catalina from Long Beach. The island's claim to fame is that Napoleon was exiled here in 1801, and he supposedly said the famous palindrome, "Able was I, I saw Elba"
This is Naomi and our friend Kristy enjoying the beach in front
of our hotel. The hotel cost about $35 a person, and it was right
on the beach. It was a great place to stay. Breakfast was
included. Jeff had a seahorse.
The beach was a rock beach, not a sandy one, so we spent about an
hour skipping rocks and throwing them in the water. The water was
crystal clear, and we saw a group of scuba divers doing some
beach diving. The only problem was that the water was really
cold, like in Huntington Beach, not like in Hawaii (where we are
"Ohana" - family).
The centro storico (historic center) of Elba is in the
background. This is from the balcony of the hotel we stayed at,
and just barely on the left you can see the beach.
This is Saturday, when it rained. Sunday was beautiful, but
Saturday we decided to lay low and have a capuccino. Notice the
umbrella resting on the table. We had just bought that, but we
left that at a cafe the next day. Some people never learn.
Getting some more Moby Love on the way back to Piombino.