Able was I ere I saw Elba

Today there was another sort of conveyance in the cards - a ferry! But being that we were still quite a few miles inland, we had to make the ride from the Maremma to the port city of Livorno. Livorno is not one of the more picturesque Italian cities, it being famous more for chemical plants and the Italian equivalent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis than anything else…

So we hit portside, scampered off the bus which was promptly swallowed up by the mammoth ferry and we boarded just behind. It was another GORGEOUS day - low 70s, dry, and clear sunshine. We had the option of taking the ride from Livorno to Porto Ferraio (Elba’s main town) in the dingy deck that reminded me of my high school classrooms or topside al fresco. I chose to get a little Mediterranean sun and air.

As we apprached the island (after about an hour) we could see the lay of the land. Elba is an almost entirely mountainous island that’s bigger than you think it is (though I admit I really have no idea how big you think it is). In any event, it’s not a fazzoletto (handkerchief) as they say in Italian. In ancient times, Elba was an important source of metal ores such as lead, copper, and iron (Portoferraio literally means “ferrous port”), and there are still a few small mining concerns in operation even today. Elba’s other, bigger claim to fame is the site for Napoleon Bonaparte’s first exile. It didn’t take long for someone to spring him, but before he did, he made full use of one of the island’s greatest assests, the Aleatico grape.

Aleatico is an aromatic red grape variety that is one of the members of the Muscat family of vines. It is almost always vinified sweet, but it’s never made in any kind of syrupy, “sticky” style, but rather in a gently soft style with the alcohol levels of a dry wine (usually about 13%). It is redolent of red flowers and a slightly peppery quality underlying. The first place we tasted Aleatico was at Tenuta La Chiusa. Their Ansonica passito (Ansonica is another rare white-berried variety found in Elba and along the southern Tuscan coast) was also notable.

Elba is, to perhaps use a cliche, a Mediterranean paradise. The landscape is rocky, but still silver-green with olive groves and spattered with the intense yellow flowers of broom. The roads twist, climb, and decend through quiant but never cheap or honky-tonk little towns. One knows clearly that one is in a “vacation spot” but due to the fair expense of the accomodations as well as the relative remoteness of the island, Elba has been largely spared the curses of mass tourism. Elba is very popular with Germans and Scandinavians which pleases the local boys no end let me tell you (wink,wink)…

At about 1 in the afternoon, we arrived at Costa de Gabbiani (if you pop over to their site, check out the photo gallery - there is not a trace of lily-gilding in any of those pictures - that is Elba!). We were escorted to the rear of a beautiful old villa that overlooked the sea, and enjoyed a little Prosecco under an arbor before lunch. And what a lunch it was! (it was one of the best meals of the trip)! I won’t bore you with evey course or worse, lord our great pleasure over you, but we were served a home-made fresh black pasta (made with squid ink) that was dressed with a sauce made from FRESH anchovies (don’t knock ‘em till you try ‘em), pinoli nuts, sultanas (white raisins), and red pepper flakes. For dessert I chose a artisanally produced tequila/mandarin sherbet…all this with clear rays of Mediterranean sun dappling the table through a canopy of umbrella pines (the very ones that supplied the pine nuts that garnished our pastas).

No one wanted to leave (duh!), but we managed to pry the silverware from our hands, get back to the pulmino (”little bus” - in Italy they call tour buses “pullman” [like the rail car]), tapped our ways across the gangways, and enjoyed the late afternoon sun glinting off the azure waves.

We made it back to hotel just before dinner (more great food - what a drag). I made my way to my room with two pairs of fingers and two pairs of toes crossed, but alas, nothing - still no suitcase…uffah! Despite the “suck factor” of this situation, with all these other pleasures, I decided that I was still pretty lucky. I spent an hour after dinner looking at the ten thousand stars in the Marremano sky…

TOM CIOCCO