This weekend we ventured to Elba Island, about 12 miles from the coastal town of Piombino, Tuscany.
After Italian class on Thursday night, Natalie, Molly, Lexi, Kelsey and I left at 10pm by train and headed to Lavorno. It was a sleeper-style type train with six seats per cabin (and looked EXACTLY like the train in Harry Potter to Hogwarts. Just guess how excited I was.) We weren’t sure how enforced the whole assigned-seats situation was, so we jumped into a cabin where we could all fit. We introduced ourselves to the only other person in the cabin, a young guy named Paolo. Lexi casually asked if he had ever seen the Lizzie McGuire movie (since the main character’s name is Paolo). Paolo said no and we all laughed. Unfortunately, a few stops later an older man opened our cabin door and pointed to one of the seats, stating it was his. Paolo was so sweet and decided to move so we could all stay together. A few stops later, when we had finally gotten comfortable and turned the lights off, a family came in and kicked us all out. (Oops, our fault.) We all went to our assigned seats and four hours later, we arrived in Livorno.
Unfortunately, it was 2am and our next train wasn’t leaving until 5am, so we were inclined to find a well-lit corner in the train station. After laughing about the situation (but really crying on the inside), we all tried to sleep on the train station floor. We diverted some awkward situations with homeless people, survived the night, and finally boarded our train to Piombino. Within an hour, we were stepping outside to a gorgeous sunrise over the Mediterranean ocean. At the docks in Piombino, we grabbed cappuccinos at a small café and waited for the first ferry to leave for l’Isola d’Elba. Unfortunately, our rough night was just the beginning of a very crazy weekend.
After the hour-long ferry ride, we got off and were stunned by how
beautiful Elba Island was. We went into the first hotel in sight and
asked a concierge how to get to our hotel in Rio Marina. She just
starred at us and said, “Oh. But why are you staying there?!” We sort of
just shrugged; it was inexpensive, one of the only places we could find
and a cute little town. She pulled out a map and said we were first off
in the wrong city (we were in Portoferraio), and should be in Rio Marina (an hour by bus.) She
then pointed to the best part of the island, Marina di Campo, twenty minutes
from where we were, but way too far away from our hotel. Bummed, we
grabbed breakfast, sat down with maps and tried to figure out our next
move.
(In case this post starts to become very confusing with town names,
here is a map of Elba Island. We arrived in Portoferraio (by accident),
spent Saturday in Marina di Campo, and stayed in Rio Marina.)
Elba Island
We decided to hike to the top of the Medici Fortress that was so beautifully built into the cliffs of the island. The fortress was built in 1548 by Cosimo I, and had a great view of the island & the Mediterranean. :)
An hour later, we caught the bus to Marina di Campo, the most famous part of the island, stopped at a tiny store to grab snacks, and laid on the beach all afternoon. The water was crystal clear and it was all-around exactly what we needed. (Except for the fact we were still lugging around our huge backpacks and probably looked ridiculous on the beach.)
By late afternoon, we grabbed a bus back to Portoferraio and then another bus to Rio Marina (where we were staying.) The buses going across the island were big charter buses, had air conditioning, and were only
€2 for the sweet deal of seeing the entire island: mountains + the quaint towns + sprawling countryside.
View from the bus, so pretty!
Finally arriving in Rio Marina, we were floored by how perfect our little town was. (When we had told our professors earlier this week that we were going to Elba, many were just like, "Why?!" We were a bit worried.. until we got there. Elba was stunning.) Our hotel was a mom-and-pop type place, and after taking much needed showers, we headed out for a late dinner. We found a great restaurant on the water overlooking the bay of boats. Delish!
Natalie & Molly
The next morning, we were surprised by a continental breakfast downstairs, and our hotel concierge (most likely the owner of the tiny hotel) recommended a great hike nearby. We checked out, were able to store our backpacks in a closet, and set off. Great scenery and perfect weather.
Kelsey, Natalie, Lexi & Molly
After the hike, Kelsey and I went to go check out the Napoleonic Villa of San Martino, where Napoleon had lived while exiled on Elba Island.
On our way to San Martino
It was a bit of a trek, but we made it to the base of his estate only to find not a soul in sight. Confused, we walked up to a shop where an older Italian couple were sitting, and asked where to go. They said the estate was closed. We were shocked and asked “perché?!” They burst out laughing and said something about it being Sunday. As if we were dumb Americans to think anything would be open on a Sunday. (Big lesson learned this weekend: Italians take their Sunday rest-day VERY seriously, every single thing is closed.)
Award for longest driveway in the world
Bummed, we still walked up the insanely long driveway and stood at the gates to take pictures; it had closed only 45 minutes earlier. We headed back to the bus stop in the middle of the empty parking lot (that should have been a bad sign), and proceeded to wait 45 minutes without seeing a single trace of a bus. We eventually walked up to a parked car where the wife was sitting in the front seat, and the dad was outside watching his young son ride his bike around the parking lot. We asked if he spoke English (he didn’t), and in Italian we asked if he knew the next bus time, or how to get back to Portoferraio (where we needed to hop on the ferry to meet the other girls, and to make our 6:30pm train home.) He said all taxis were 'gone' since it was Sunday, and there were no more buses. He quickly smiled and said he could take us to Portoferraio! He waved his son back over to the car, and gestured for us to get in. Soon we cruising down the mountainside with an amazingly generous Italian family, with Kelsey, myself, a seven-year-old boy, and our two huge backpacks squeezed in the back. They were awesome and we kept saying “grazie mille!” when they dropped us off at the docks. We made it to our ferry within 10 minutes and an hour later were boarding our train back home.
The rest of our evening was just as unpredictable. Our train leaving Piombino was supposed to be only a 20-minute ride before we changed trains at a much larger station. However, our first train was delayed for about 15 minutes (we still aren’t sure why.. it seemed like the conductors wanted a bit longer smoking break.) Anyway, our delay + the fact that our train seemed to be going aprox. 5 mph led us to miss our connecting train (our long, 5-hour one). We desperately asked a train conductor lady for advice, but she spoke minimal English and all we managed to understand was that she recommended staying on the train until the Pisa stop to then deal with changing trains there.
We looked at each other and were like, “We’re going to Pisa? Heck yes!” We jumped off the train at Pisa, found the ticket office, and had to choose between leaving at 3am or 6am. We decided since we had to pay an extra
€20 for the ticket change, a hostel wasn’t worth it. By now, it was after 10pm and we thought staying up until 3am would be a breeze, so we bought bus tickets heading to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We quickly ran into a hotel, splashed water everywhere, and tried to feel slightly cleaner before jumping on the bus to the Tower. It was so surreal to suddenly be walking on the lawn toward to the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Starving, we found a great restaurant next to the Tower and attempted to see how long we could stay before they noticed. We successfully milked it for a couple hours and became buds with our waiter. Something like 5 courses later, we finally left and still had a few hours to kill.
Cheers to spontaneity!
Molly had the idea to make a Call Me Maybe music video around the Leaning Tower of Pisa (since it was 1am and the only time of night it was totally cool, obviously.) So fun. Afterward, we to some bars and nightlife to be around people, grabbed some drinks and gelato, and met some (very) outgoing twenty-something Italian guys who ended up chatting us up. Their little English + our minimal Italian skills made for some great laughs and all around entertainment. We finally enjoyed a long stroll over the bridge and throughout the town back to the station, since all buses had long since stopped running. We passed out on the train back to Torino and were so glad to finally be done with traveling. When we got off the train in Torino, Paolo was coincidentally arriving as well, and we all sort of just saw him and yelled PAOLO! Too funny. Luckily, our Italian classes weren’t until 2pm so we had the rest of the morning to sleep in.
Night two spent in a train station.
Even though we only slept in a real bed one out of the three nights, my backpack got completely shredded, and I now have a plethora of mosquito bites in the most inconvenient places, I loved soaking up every minute of it.
