The Island of a Thousand Fires The origins of extracting and working iron on the island of Elba (“Blue mineral” for the Egyptians, “sideros” for the Greek) goes back to the mists of time. The ores in Elba are among the oldest iron deposits in the world. Infact since the dawning of history, the position of the island has always been strategic both because of the sea trade control and because of its inexhaustible mineral resources that have always attracted the great Mediterranean powers.

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In this post I follow in the footsteps of Napoleon. A man that still intrigues many today. To put it mildly. There exists a genuine Napoleon cult. How do you explain a Napoleon apron? 🙂 Elba gets it right when it comes to merchandising.

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Situated at an altitude of 375 m, Marciana is the highest town on the island and one of the oldest, as testified to by the Pisan Fortress that dominates the town, and in which the population took refuge during pirate attacks.

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Elba, where Napoleon was first banished to and escaped from and St Helena where he was banished to a second time and eventually died. Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held captive and… Pianosa, where the most dangerous mafiosi serve(d) time. This post is dedicated to the lovely island of Pianosa, a stone’s throw away from the Tuscan island of Elba.

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Robben Island lies 9.67km from Cape Town, across the icy, shark-ridden waters of the Atlantic. Windswept and waterless, the 518ha island has long been a place of banishment and despair: Infamous as an apartheid-era, Maximum Security Prison from the 1960s to the 1990S, its most famous prisoner was Nelson Mandela. Today, the island is a national monument and World Heritage site celebrating the triumph of the human spirit over the shackles of the past.

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The Hebrides are a vast patchwork of islands big and small. In this post, I cover another four.

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South Uist and Eriskay are islands of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. In South Uist there is a nature reserve and a number of sites of archaeological interest, including the only location in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. South Uist, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Gaelic language in Scotland.

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Apart from the adjacent island of Vatersay, to which it is connected by a causeway, Barra is the southernmost inhabited island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. It makes Vatersay the westernmost permanently inhabited place in Scotland.

An island of an island… Gosier Island is just a stone’s throw away from the ‘continent’ of Guadeloupe. If you want to escape the rather busy beach of Le Gosier on the shoreside , this is your call.

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Known as the Jewel of the Hebrides, its fertile pastures, sheltered bays and mild climate have long marked Eigg as an attractive site for settlement, with human occupation dating back to 8000 years. Today, Eigg, one of the four Scottish Small Isles is to be the first 100% self-sustaining place on earth.

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