Elba day ride

May 12, 2022

An excursion to “Pineta”

A bit of background: I’d long wanted to see the Montalbano TV show but couldn’t find a way of watching it in Canada until I learned about MHz Choice, a streaming service that carried it and was available in Canada. I subscribed and we worked our way through all the Montalbano episodes, Young Montalbano, and various other shows, including Murders at BarLume. This one is a comedy; its characters are send-ups of a few stereotypes and apparently it’s a hit in Italy.

BarLume is a bar, of course, in the fictional town of Pineta on the Tuscan coast between Livorno and Pisa. When I was reviewing the plans for this tour, I looked up the filming location since we’d be riding up that section of coast and was surprised to find that it’s actually filmed on Elba, mostly in Marciana Marina. And one of the day ride loops I’d created went through Marciana Marina.

We’d already decided that we weren’t going to do that massive loop I’d created, 87 km with 1600 m of climbing. What had I been thinking? Although basically if you want to do a loop ride of the west part of the island, it won’t be much shorter or lower. So, an out-and-back to Pineta aka Marciana Marina it would be. And it did start that way.

The very first part of the ride, from our hotel out to Enfola, was nice. This was a short out-and-back, though, and then we joined the main road along the north side of the island. The section from Portoferraio to Proccio wasn’t so pleasant. Too much traffic on a narrow road. But then things improved and the last few km to Marciana Marina were quiet enough to be enjoyable.

Capo Enfola, seen from the last tornante before the bottom. The road ends but you can walk up. We didn’t.

Marciano Marina is at the base of Monte Capanne, which we did not ride up.

We explored the waterfront and found the BarLume set under construction. I guess they will be filming some new episodes this summer. We will be interested to see them when MHz Choice gets them subtitled and added to the list. (While I’m on the topic, they filmed the most recent episodes during Covid and the pandemic, wearing masks, and lockdown were included in the stories.)

Beverages with lunch (lager for Al, Chinotto for me). We had burgers for lunch; there wasn’t a menu del giorno and other options were limited. It was a burger place, it seems.

A nice street in Marciana Marina that calls itself a borgo (village)

Looking past the BarLume set to the waterfront.

We had lunch in Marciana Marina and started our ride back. When we got to Proccio, we were feeling pretty good but not excited about the nasty bit of road coming up. So I looked on RideWithGPS to see how it would be to cross to the south coast and loop back that way. 24 km and only 500 m of climbing. Let’s go! What were we thinking? The idea was to have an easy day to be ready for the two long days coming up.

So our easy day wasn’t so easy—but it was still much easier than the original plan. And we got to see some nice scenery and vineyards on the south side of the island.

Al was waiting to get a shot of me riding but the bus (seen behind the trees) foiled his original composition. You can see the traffic piled up behind the bus.

Slowly working my way up the climb on SP 30, I noticed white wild roses along with the usual pink ones.

Looking down towards Lacona (which looked better from up here)

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And for a laugh, here’s a screenshot of what one of the tourism services has on their website regarding cycling on Elba

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 359 km (223 miles)

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Patrick O'HaraWell done! And, thanks for the next binge worthy TV suggestion.
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2 years ago

Jacquie GaudetThere are lots of shows we’ve enjoyed on that service. You can even search by country.
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2 years ago