Back up to Elba

Watching the bridge go up from the cockpit

Northerly winds kept us in Fiumicino a few days longer than intended. We stocked up with Italian delicacies and enjoyed more riverside fish lunches as well as our ritual evening drinks in the cockpit watching the comings and goings up and down the river as the bridge opened at 7pm. Finally we had a break in the weather and planned to leave with the 9am opening of the bridge. Thankfully, as it happened, we were up early topping the boat up with water when we noticed a large number of yachts milling around us at 8am. To our horror we discovered the bridge times had changed the day before. The alarm sounded and the bridge started to rise. There was a queue of boats waiting to leave so we reckoned we just about had a chance of making it and managed to extricate ourselves from the wall just in time. We planned to head over to Corsica but decided to break the journey in Elba as we still had our inland trip and the ascent of Monte Capane, the island's highest peak, to do.

Circa Mosca's big top

We had an uneventful passage back up to Elba and dropped anchor in a bay just east of Portoferraio. It was lovely to be bobbing and swimming in clear waters again. The following day we moved over to the Portoferraio anchorage. We went ashore and explored San Giovanni a small village to the south of us and discovered the Circa Mosca was in town along with a variety of animals including lions and tigers which were caged along the shoreline. 

Marciana

       

Marciana

An empty "parrot cage"

With a clear forecast the next morning we got up early and caught a bus to the picturesque mountain village of Marciana. We found a wonderful little place for a sandwich lunch at the top of the town which afforded great views of Monte Capane towering above us at 1019 mts. To spare our legs we decided on the easy option and after lunch made our way down to the cable car station. The rather precarious looking bright yellow parrot cages were constantly on the move in a never ending loop and we had to enter them on the run which was a bit scary. Safely aboard we ascended the mountain and reached the top an exhilarating twenty minutes later. We really had reached the top of the island and the views of Elba and over to mainland Italy and Corsica were stunning.

View down to Marciana from our "parrot cage"

View of Elba and over to mainland Italy