Napoleon's exile island — iron-red granite beaches, Ansonica wine, and the villa where the Emperor slept for ten months before Waterloo
Elba is the largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago (224 km², population 32,000), 10 km off the Piombino coast in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The island's geology is dramatically varied — the eastern half is dominated by iron and copper mining (Etruscan, Roman, and medieval iron smelting produced the metallurgical wealth of this coast; the iron mines at Rio nell'Elba operated until 1981) and its characteristic red-and-orange granite beaches; the western half has white granite, pine forests, and turquoise water. Napoleon was exiled to Elba (May 1814–February 1815) after his first abdication, ruling t…
Elba's iron ore (the richest in the Mediterranean) was known and exploited since the Bronze Age — Etruscan smelters processed it from the 7th century BCE, producing iron for the entire Etruscan civilisation. The Romans (who called the island Ilva, origin of 'Elba') continued the mining; the medieval Pisans built the fortifications at Portoferraio. The island passed through Pisan, Florentine Medici, Spanish Habsburg, and Napoleonic rule before absorption into unified Italy in 1860.