In Italy, some cliches just seem to work. The food was better and the prices cheaper than all of the urban pizzerias I've tried in the eastern United States.
Our individual pizzas arrived on the most impossibly thin crust I've ever seen. Yes, I've eaten plenty of pizza crust that's "paper thin," but this stuff was razor thin, supple and covered with fresh buffalo mozzarella and sweet tomatoes.
The ancient hill town of Capoliveri, on the Italian island of Elba, could make even an exiled emperor happy with its lively street scene.
(Robert V. Camuto)
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As we left, one of the ragazzi handed us a flier: On Friday nights, the restaurant -- in concert with local wine and olive oil producers -- serves up a menu of antica cucina Elbana, old-fashioned local cooking.
I had to laugh. I'd seen Elban cookbooks around the island -- the most popular one featured a nona on the cover in a peasant dress. She was old enough to be these guys' grandmother. Was it Grandma, I wondered, who was preparing the menu, which promised octopus salad, tuna in tomato and basil sauce, and baked local fish? Or was it a Florentine cooking school graduate in red Pumas?
I later studied the flier, laid out on cream linen paper, and noticed that a chef had signed it. I cannot make out the name, but judging from the cool, careless scrawl, I would not bet on Grandma.
Robert Camuto, a writer living in the South of France, is a frequent contributor to Travel.
Details: Elba, Italy
GETTING THERE: The best route to Elba is to fly to Milan or Rome, then connect to Pisa, where you can rent a car and drive about 60 miles south to the ferry port. From D.C., such airlines as Air France, US Airways and Alitalia offer service, with fall rates starting at about $670 round trip.
Ferries run regularly for the one-hour trip from the Tuscan port of Piombino to Portoferraio on Elba. Round-trip adult fare is about $16. You can take your rental car with you on the ferry for as little as $1.25 on the region's largest ferry operator, Moby. For reservations and information: www.moby.it.
GETTING AROUND: Island rental companies such as Spazio Mare (www.spaziomare.it) not only rent cars but also dinghies, motor boats, sailboats, scooters and mountain bikes. Economy car rentals run about $50 per day.
WHEN TO GO: Elba's high season is May through September. Avoid peak periods of June (German vacations) and the last three weeks of August (Italian vacations.)
WHERE TO STAY: Elba has all manner of holiday accommodations, including a string of four-star resorts. For a splurge, check out the Hotel Villa Ottone (Loc. Ottone, Portoferraio, 011-39-0565-933-042, www.villaottone.com), based in a 19th-century seaside villa. Nightly rates are about $120 to $200, depending on room and season, and include breakfast and dinner.
We found an incredibly natural seaside setting at reasonable prices at Hotel da Giacomino (Loc. S. Andrea, Capo Sant'Andrea, 011-39-0565-908-010, www.hoteldagiacomino.it) on the island's northwestern tip. Rooms are $60 to $100, based on season, and include breakfast and dinner.
In southeastern Elba, the Hotel Capo di Stella (Loc. Capo di Stella, Capoliveri, 011-39-0565-964-052, www.capodistella.com) is a handsome, modern hotel on a choice panoramic point surrounded by sea and nature. Doubles with terraces overlooking the sea start at about $85 per night in low season (April, May and most of September); breakfast included.
WHERE TO EAT: In the delightful little port of Marciana Marina, Ristorante Rendez Vous (Piazza della Vittoria 1) serves up fresh fish, seafood, homemade pasta and Elban specialties from its relaxed terrace on the bay. Lunch or dinner is about $24 per person, plus wine.
In Porto Azzuro, the Elban seafood place with a Michelin reputation is La Lanterna Magica (Via Vitaliani 5), built on stilts over the bay. Lunch or dinner runs about $35 a person, plus wine. We discovered impossibly thin-crust pizza in an impossibly cool postmodern Italian beach party atmosphere at Essenza Ristorante-Pizzeria (Lacona Beach). Individual pizzas are about $7 to $10 and full meals about $25. Friday nights, enjoy elaborate Elban menus and wines at a fixed price of about $42 per person.
NAPOLEONIC MUSEUMS: Follow the steps of the emperor's exile at two of Napoleon's residences in Portoferraio. Just above the city center is the Palazzina dei Mulini (Piazzale Napoleone; admission about $3.50), with majestic views and a few period pieces. A short drive outside town is Villa San Martino (Loc. San Martino; about $3.50), a country manor now hidden from view by a colossal neoclassical structure built as a museum after Napoleon's death. It's worth a trip just for Napoleon's Egyptian Room.
INFORMATION: Elba Island Web Site, www.infoelba.com. Italian Government Tourist Board, 212-245-5618, www.italiantourism.com. -- Robert V. Camuto
