The island of Elba is the third largest island in Italy and the largest of the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago with a surface area of 223 km². Its territory partly belongs to the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.

Elba is administratively divided into seven municipalities: the main one is Portoferraio, the others are Campo nell’Elba, Capoliveri, Marciana, Marciana Marina, Porto Azzurro and Rio, with a total of around thirty-two thousand inhabitants.

Because of the variety of its coastline (147 km in length), the beauty of its beaches (more than 130), and the majestic beauty of the Monte Capanne mountain range (1019 m), it has rightly become one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. The main road network (about 220 km) is completely asphalted, but there are also scenic dirt roads covering about 60 km.

An Italian seaside resort par excellence, Elba is wonderful from spring to autumn. The flow of tourists starts around Easter time, mostly related to hiking and outdoor sports. In fact, Elba is a perfect destination for nature lovers, and for sports enthusiasts of trekking, walking, climbing, paragliding, scuba diving, mountain biking, sailing, golf and all those sports that can be practised outdoors.

Already inhabited in prehistoric times and known for its iron mines at the dawn of the Historic Era, Elba, called ‘Ilva’ by the Ligurians, ‘Aethalia’ by the Greeks, first Ligurian, then Greek, then Etruscan, remained Roman for centuries. In the Middle Ages it was held by the Pisans, then the Appiani and the Medici. From time to time it interested the European powers who left numerous traces of their rule there.