Trekking on the Island of Elba

Well-signposted and well-kept tracks and pathways of varying lengths and difficulty are just waiting to be explored and are assured to satisfy every enthusiastic trekker or cyclist wanting to discover the island of Elba that few know.

From the sea-front alongside the hotel, the two ancient little hilltop towns of Poggio and Marcianacan be reached following pathways that lead through woodlands of pine, chestnut and oak trees.

These by-ways offer breathtaking sea views with the little islands of Capraia and Gorgona on the distant horizon.

The Hotel Yacht Club offers all the information and help necessary to enable you to plan outings either alone or with the assistance of a guide to discover this land which is full of history and charm.

To go trekking on Elba means to go through the thousand-year-old history of its inhabitants, from the prehistoric grottos to the ancient, high stone villages; to re-discover Etruscan forts and furnaces; and to visit the ancient granite caves from which the Romans carved out the columns for their monuments.

It means to enter into the heart of the earth into the now dis-used iron mines, discovering the places where iron was extracted for thousands of years and to immerse yourself in the surreal colours of the land and the minerals. You can re-live the age of the Saracen scourge and visit their battle fields, defensive forts, and places destroyed and never-more rebuilt.

But the thing that makes trekking on Elba even more fascinating is the enormous variety of scents and vivid scenes, from the geological formations that in a few kilometers can hold more than 150 geological species of the 200 known (some of which were discovered for the first time right on Elba) which make the environment extremely varied and colourful, to the beaches below, always present in the panoramas seen from the splendid high vistas. Not to mention the variety of plants that a few hours’ walk allows the trekker to admire: coastal vegetation, rocky or sandy beaches, passing flowers and the scents of rosemary, lavander, and other species of the native scrub; which also allows room for broom, the strawberry tree, juniper, myrtle, and other types of Mediterranean macchia–up to the forests of oak, and climbing again towards the chestnut woods and conifers of the massive peaks of Mount Capanne.