After our first foray into the spectacularly beautiful landscapes of Elba – a coastal walk, nominally, but one which turned out to involve quite a lot of climbing – we were a little apprehensive before our second tour on our itinerary.
This route, after all, was to take us all the way up to Marciana Alta, Marciana Marina’s sister town high up in the clouds.
If Tour One was designed as an easy hiking trail, what trials and exertions would expect us easy hiking in Elba into the “Heart of Lushness“ on the western Mediterranean’s Emerald Isle?
We shouldn’t have been so nervous. This is a lovely walk, mixing stretches of excitingly dense Amazonian forests …
…with the spaghetti-western landscapes of the southern highlands …
… and a good sprinkling of Mediterranean views thrown in.
The bad news is that the walk does go up, even relentlessly so …
… but – this is the good news – only for the first 45 minutes or so.
When you reach this spot, 400 metres up from where you started, …
… you will have done most of the climbing, and you can take a breather in the safe knowledge that the hard work now lies behind you.
From here onwards, the trail is far more gentle, and you will have all the time in the world to enjoy nature’s drama and spectacle.
There is only one last climb ahead of you: steep but made enjoyable by the magnificent scenery all around you.
We had read about this rock before and knew that the island’s inhabitants, for centuries or perhaps even for millennia, had read human or animal features into the stone formations.
Some of the stone formations were given not just one but two names, due to the fact that you can see different things depending on your angle of approach.
The Giant, for example, is also known as the Ape (from my own angle of approach, it was difficult enough to make out the Giant), but it was only on this picture (taken by Mrs Easy Hiker) that I began to see something distinctly simian in the shape of the rock.
On this trail (slightly challenging but still easy hiking in Elba), once you have reached the top of the hill, the gentle descent back into civilization begins.
Go easy hiking in Elba and you will have Marciana Marina appear underneath your feet …
… and you can see how close Corsica appears to be across the sea.
From this part of the island, Elba’s much larger neighbour is only a few dozen miles away, and we agreed that the large settlement (seen here on the left side of the photo) had to be the town of Bastia. (Warning: If Mrs Easy Hiker and I agree on anything during our hikes – a rare event – we are usually both wrong.)
This is also the part of the island from where Napoleon contacted his Bonapartist allies across the water, plotting his escape.
Somewhere in the forest, they have even preserved his old semaphore station. We know this because Maurizio, our host at Hotel Ilio, had shown us the pictures. (Sadly, we failed to find the site. Shame on us.)
Along the trail, you will get even more spectacular views where Corsica, the island of Capraia (the northern outpost of the Tuscan Archipelago) and the mainland coast of the Ligurian Golf are neatly arranged one behind the other, like walls in a maze.
Photographs, however, fail to catch the essence of these views (on our pictures, at least, those stretches of land looked more like walls in a haze), so until you come to Elba to check for yourselves, you will have to take my word for it.
Another landmass you can see (albeit barely) is the island of Pianosa. That name rings a bell? Unless you are from Tuscany (or have holidayed extensively on its coast), there is only one place where you can have heard it: Pianosa is where much of the action in Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22” unfolds.
The novel’s large WWII US air base, however, is fictitious. In reality, Pianosa would have been far too small to accommodate an entire group of bomb squadrons. (Heller himself flew 60 missions as a bombardier from an actual US airbase on the island of Corsica, but it seems that he wanted to locate his novel’s action – for narrative reasons – in Italy.)
Pianosa, however, is only the second most prominent island of the Tuscan Archipelago in a work of fiction: the top prize must go to Montecristo, whose prison – it features to great effect in Alexandre Dumas’s Count Of Montecristo – is just as fictitious as Pianosa’s airbase.
In fact, Montecristo has been only intermittently inhabited by humans and is now a full-time wildlife reserve.
Our walk, meanwhile, has one last surprise up its sleeve. Its final destination, the town of Marciana Alta, is delightful, combining the visual charms of Tuscan hilltop villages with the lively atmosphere of a coastal resort.
It is also a great place for a snack or some souvenir shopping.
Alternatively, you can continue your conquest of Elba’s interiors all the way to the top of Monte Capanne, the island’s highest peak (altitude: 1000 metres). You can get there on foot (the walk on Via del Fosso is 5 km long one way) or, more realistically perhaps, by cable car.
Please note, however, that the cabinovia does not operate during lunch hours (1300 to 1430) and is closed entirely from December to March.
You can find the station near the southern tip of Marciana’s Old Town, but be aware that the trip up the mountain is not cheap (€ 18 per head round-trip).
Finally, some technicalities when you go easy hiking in Elba.: The walk to Marciana Alta is approx. 7 km long and will take you just under three hours.
You will find the trailhead just outside the village of Zanca (a 10-minute walk from Sant’Andrea), opposite the bus stop – on the other side of the road – when you come from Portoferraio.
Take the bus to Pomonte and ask the driver to drop you at Zanca. Buses on this line are relatively frequent (about one every hour throughout the day), but plan your trip (and your return) by consulting the schedule.
