When someone mentions Tuscany, who doesn’t think of Florence? Well, we have now visited the road (or seas, as the case may be) less traveled and can recommend several new spots worth visiting!
Our next goal was to reach Rome (technically, Fiumicino) to collect Laura’s second round of friends from Cleveland. From the island of Ponza, we continued north to the beach of Torre Astura. We were simply waiting out some undesirable winds at anchor for a couple of nights, but Conor said I had to mention this place because its castle was neat and had an interesting history. 😉 Apparently, this fortress was built upon ruins of ancient noble Roman villas and has changed hands continually throughout the ages.
With a great weather window we arrived in Fiumicino, home of Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, the busiest airport in Italy. We literally docked along the Tiber River at the Porto Romano marina. Docking along a river was neat and a first for us. I must also say that Porto Romano was incredibly inexpensive and likely the nicest marina we’ve experienced in Italy to date! The facilities were extremely nice, the grounds beautifully done, and we enjoyed a lovely dinner in the marina restaurant once Rachel and Tessa arrived.
With no rest for the weary, we took off the next morning and anchored for a night at the beach of Santa Marinella. Conor enjoyed a beautiful paddle in the kayak, and the girls enjoyed their first swim. Continuing on, we spent another night at anchor at the beautiful island of Giannutri, which is the southernmost island of the Tuscan archipelago. We affectionately dubbed it the “kidney bean” island due to its shape on the map. We also called it “gull island” after being immersed in a huge seagull colony for the night. Giannutri is really tiny. We’re talking maybe 30 residents, and much of the land and sea are protected as a national park with restricted access. More fun swimming and kayaking ensued.
Our next port of call was Porto Santo Stefano, a popular mainland beach destination for Italian vacationers in Tuscany. It has beautiful beaches and is the jump off point for ferries going to the various Tuscan islands. It has a lovely harbor with plenty of shops and restaurants, and the girls enjoyed finding seafood lunches. They were also on a mission to make the most of the Italian shops. Their mission included the continuation of Rory’s transformation, and success was had in the form of his first linen shirt. 😉
For our second night in the area, we simply moved out of the marina and to the anchorage just outside at the beach. Unfortunately, the wind and swell forecast was grossly incorrect, and we experienced an extremely bumpy and unpleasant night. By the time we figured that the conditions were not going to improve, it was too late to move back into the marina. We had to take our weather window extremely early the next morning to make our way to the much anticipated island of Elba. If we had moved back into the marina, the office wouldn’t be open early enough before we needed to depart and we’d miss our current opportunity to make the crossing. Suffice it to say, I think all the girls were taking motion sickness pills and keeping their eyes on the horizon. To their credit, they were extremely great sports, but we felt terrible as we never want any guests to have such an experience! #unpredictableweather #boatlife
Conor and I were up quite early in the morning as the crossing was long and the wind was going to continue to build later in the day. We weren’t even sure where we were going to land on the island, and plans evolved as we grew nearer. The southern marina Conor had his eye on could not tell us until it was too late if they would have room for us or not. The back up marina said it was too windy to dock there. We changed course and headed to the north side of the island instead. We had strong downwind sailing the whole day and experienced strong squalls even in the northern bay, so at the last minute we secured a berth in the marina of Portoferraio. We felt so badly about the night before that we were determined to have a secure, calm night ahead. The kids all slept for most of our journey, thankfully, and were somewhat disoriented to wake up in a new location. 😉 Thankfully, Elba was well worth it.
Elba is the largest of the Tuscan islands (with a population around 30,000), and Portoferraio is the largest city on Elba. Portoferraio was founded by Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1548, and was originally called Cosimo. You can still visit the Medici fortresses today and have amazing views of the area. Portoferraio is also famous for being the location of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile in 1814-1815. Napoleon had to abdicate from the French throne, and he chose Elba to become his new “empire.” He made great improvements, and his influence can still be seen today.
Everyone greatly enjoyed our two-night stay in Portoferraio. Conor the Explorer enjoyed a long kayak paddle around the area. Strolling through the city, we took in the famous sites and the gorgeous views. The beautiful green, green mountains and blue, blue water were all around. We enjoyed a day at the beach, a meander through a garden show, and yes, more shopping took place. Delicious meals were found as well.
For our third and last night on Elba, we moved to an anchorage at Marciana Marina. Another lovely spot, and the crew got back to swimming. Since we had yet to use UberDing while Rachel and Tessa were here, Laura took them out for a spin around the bay. Our stay on Elba was unfortunately brief, but we had plans to reach Pisa before all the kids needed to depart. Conor, in particular, fell in love with Elba, so I have a feeling we could be back someday. 😉 There is so much more to explore.
Our trek to Pisa from Elba was the longest with this crew. As far as sailing goes, though, it was the most pleasant, calm journey. All was going so well until we docked at the relatively new marina in Marina di Pisa, the seaside resort at the mouth of the Arno River. The cement dock was incredibly high, and my stomach dropped when I heard a terrible crunch and realized that yet again UberDing’s prop broke. 😦 (The first case happened last August.) Thankfully, we had the foresight to purchase a backup replacement prop last year, so though it broke Skippy’s heart, it was easy enough to replace. Marina di Pisa was an interesting enough place to explore with its mix of old and new. It felt very much like a man-made pop-up town to provide Italians from the area a beachside resort area.
The main attraction was Pisa itself. A short 20-minute bus ride brought us into town. While everyone’s heard of its leaning tower, there is so much more to this lively city. Not unlike Florence with its style, architecture and setting on the Arno River, this smaller and less crowded cousin was quite a nice surprise. (Florence has a population around 712,000, while Pisa is only around 90,000.) Pisa is a bustling town filled with young people due to its large, prestigious research university. The University of Pisa was founded back in 1343, so it is one of the oldest in Europe. The famous scientist, Galileo, even studied and taught here. With over a dozen Masters degrees taught in English, it also draws students from around the globe making Pisa a fairly international city. Given my line of work, I had to check it out. Rather than a central campus, its buildings were strewn across the heart of town. A really interesting site the university maintains is its Botanical Garden and Museum. Founded in 1543, this was the first and now oldest university botanical garden in the world. It was quite impressive in that it is really organized for scientific study and houses over 6,000 species from across five continents.
Overall, due to being a university town, we found a plethora of reasonable food and drink establishments. We even found a delicious, exclusively gluten-free restaurant. 🙂 Shops were also plentiful and reasonable, and there was a fun character to the place. Rory’s transformation continued with an Italian haircut and final touches to his wardrobe.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention the leaning tower. This is, of course, where crowds of tourists could be found, but with good reason. You may be surprised to learn that the tower never held a military function, rather it is actually the impressive free-standing bell tower of the Cathedral of Pisa. What you really visit in Pisa is the Piazza del Duomo – the unique and beautiful green square of the Cathedral of Pisa. It is made up of four monuments – the Cathedral, the bell Tower, the Baptistery, and the Camposanto (or cemetery), each with its own interesting history. As far as the leaning Tower, when it was built in the 12th century, it inadvertently began to sink due to its foundation settling unevenly. Through the years, engineers have continued to re-stabilize it, with the last work done back in 1990. The tower now leans only about 4 degrees, and it is expected to remain stable for at least another 200 years. For the price of a ticket, you can even climb up to the top for a view of the city. (We didn’t feel like climbing all those stairs.) The entire complex is just stunning. It sounds like a full restoration was just completed on the Cathedral in 2018. As a tourist, it feels obligatory to take the fun photos with the Tower. Even more fun is watching all the tourists doing so. 😉
After our fun stay in Pisa, it was finally time to say goodbye to all of our great go-with-the-flow crew. It’s never fun to say goodbye to Laura and Rory especially, but we were so grateful to have them with us for three great weeks. ❤️
A summary of our travels in this post:
Sailing Sabática 