Portoferraio, located in Tuscany, Italy, is one of your hidden gems in Europe. The Port of this magnificent destination is designed in such a way that it protects the city of Portoferraiao from the wind; the climate is perfect all year long. Portoferraio has little less than 12.000 inhabitants. City of ancient origins and known as Porto Argo in the mythological narratives, since the Etruscan-Roman era it has been called Fabricia in reference to the ancient iron and steel works present in the area.
Centuries after its foundation, Portoferraio still retains its ancient Renaissance charm. The mighty walls built in the 16th century by Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who renamed the new city a fortress Cosmopoli, represent a work of high engineering and extraordinary architectural beauty.
Who arrives with the ferry hardly remains impassive to the particular beauty offered by the dock with the fortresses that overhang it.
At the entrance of the port, considered the safest in the world even by Admiral Nelson, is the Martello Tower. Belonging to the fortress of Linguella, it is also called Passannante’s Tower after the fact that, during the period in which the fortified nucleus was used as a penal bath, the bomber who wounded King Umberto I, from whom it took its name, was imprisoned there.
