Elba is the island where Napoleon was sent to in exile. He was made King of Elba but only stayed 9 months, then he escaped. We stopped at Portoferraio and it is just beautiful! Could very easily go back here.
This is just a sample of the views we had as we sailed in to the port.
The countryside is lovely and green, lots of gardens and vineyards. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm but not too hot.
We saw lots of bike riders around the place, including at Napoleans Villa San Martino. The villa was much less palatial than expected. Napolean only used the top floor which only had about 8 rooms. The bottom floor is a big open room, very cool, but probably only used for formal occasions (pic of it at the link). It was given to him to use by one of the wealthy families of the area.
There is a great view back to the town from the balcony area.
The walls were all decorated with trompe l’oeil, mainly to look as though they had drapes around the walls. Napoleans furniture is no longer in the house but it has been furnished with pieces from that time.
One of the larger rooms was The Egyptian Room – used as a the main dining and entertaining area.
That sunken area in the middle is all tiled with marble and was filled with papyrus.
Downstairs had a good display of cartoons about Napoleon.
The three bees are a symbol on the Elban flag that Napolean bought to the island and they are on the buildings and on the local flags. History about the bees and the flag here.
After our visit to the Villa we had a nice afternoon enjoying the local sights and eating gelato. The population is usually 30,000 but can get up to 300,000 in the summer months. Even though it was still holiday season when we were there it did not feel crowded or busy – had a very relaxed, beach holiday feel about it.
