Elba: Paesi Campesi Gravel

A route to ride wer bike from the sea to the hills in the Campo nell'Elba area.

We start from the center of Marina di Campo, leaving the tourist center developed behind the wider seashore of the Island of Elba, in the direction of Colle Palombaia. Here we turn away from the road leading to the "Costa del Sole," heading for the first hillside village along the route.

San Piero is called the "granite village" because here the centuries-old tradition of extracting this material still continues. The granite is skillfully transformed by stonemasons, heirs to the historic workings that left their mark on monuments such as the Roman Pantheon or the Fountain of the Ocean in the Boboli Gardens.

The route continues following the Via dell'Accolta, in the direction of the other Campese hillside built-up area of Sant'Ilario in Campo. A quiet village at the foot of Mount Perone, it is the birthplace of Giuseppe Pietri, composer of operettas such as the most famous Acqua Cheta.

Leaving the village along via del Salicastro, we switch to the dirt road also marked with the directions for routes number 119, 121 and Gte (Grande Traversata Elbana – Great Elban Crossing) of the Parco Nazionale dell’Arcipelago Toscano. Among the scents of the Mediterranean maquis we ride to a small-sized farm, where the downhill stretch of via dei Forcioni begins and leads back to the plain around Campo dell’Elba.

Crossing the provincial road and skirting the Galea ditch and passing amid the houses of the hamlet of Bonalaccia, we reach Viale degli Etruschi bike path. We end the loop-shaped route by following the beach line until we return to the starting point.