Portoferraio, Italy

Portoferraio is a small town on the edge of the homonymous harbour. It is the largest and capital city of Elba, although its typical buildings grow on the slopes of a tiny hill surrounded on three sides by the sea. At the top of the hill a fortress rises with very large walls and shelters; it was built by the mighty Florentine family of Medici, and its purpose was to balance the power of Spanish citadel built in Porto Azzurro. Now the fortress hosts a correctional facility. The town center is crowded around the small marina drawn in a natural cove; on the deck a lot of delightful shops lies beside the calm sea. You have to visit the archeological museum and the Napoleon house; and you should taste the typical "schiaccia briaca" (whose name, which we could translate as "drunk cake", tell us a lot about the sanguinous character of Elba people) and the "cecina", a salt cake with chickpea flour. The name "Portoferraio" (="Iron Port") remind us about the past times when Elba was a centre of the iron mining; on the southern coast of the isle indeed we find a mountain whose name is "Calamita" (="Magnet") where is an ancient iron mine with sparse pyrite nuggets.