Italy and Greece

The Isola d’elba - what a stunning island. Len and I have had the best time here. The island is so beautiful, from gorgeous hilltop villages to turquoise beaches - it is the full La Dolce Vita. Great food and great hospitality (apart from the ladies in the aqua dell Elba shops). But I will leave that story for a face to face.

Elba is famous for hosting Napoleon for 11 months after he was soundly defeated by English, Prussian and Russian forces and exiled from France. He set up camp here and brought a great deal of wealth and trade. He was good for local business in a big way. Today we followed the Napoleon trail and visited his villa in Portoferraio. He claimed some buildings strategically placed between two forts (Falcons and Stella). He also had a villa out of town called Villa San Martino, which is also very beautiful. He returned to France to recapture the empire, only to be eventually defeated at the battle of Waterloo. This saw the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He was finally exiled again- but this time to Saint Helena in the Atlantic. He died there shortly after.

After climbing 1000 and 56 stairs to these locations we retired to Capoliveri for an aperol spritz and a panini. This town was home to Franca Forde and Dino Capocchi - whose families migrated to North Queensland. It is such a special place and as we wanderied the streets of Capoliveri, enjoying the stunning scenery, we marvelled at the courage it must have taken to travel across the world to an unknown destination to make a new life. The immigrants who transformed Australia were very brave. We are very thankful for everything - but especially the food - and the coffee!!!Leia mais