Spiaggia di Naregno: The Fortress Built to Rival an Emperor’s Town

Italy | Tuscany | Elba Island | Tuscan Archipelago

The Fortress of San Giacomo towering over Porto Azzurro, directly visible from Spiaggia di Naregno, exists because of a genuine rivalry between two competing powers occupying the same small island at once. King Philip III of Spain built it starting in 1603, modeled deliberately on the citadel of Antwerp, specifically to counterbalance the fortifications Cosimo I de’ Medici had already raised at Portoferraio on Elba’s opposite coast, two separate European empires each maintaining their own fortified stronghold within sight of the other’s territory. The fort changed hands repeatedly over the following two centuries, French forces briefly seizing it in 1646 before Spain retook it, and by 1814 it had become genuinely significant to Napoleon’s exile, the emperor staying there so often across three separate visits that year that some historians consider it his true third residence on Elba, used more frequently than his more famous villa at San Martino.

The fortress’s later history turned considerably grimmer. In 1890 it became a penitentiary, eventually ranking among the toughest prisons in Italy, and it still functions as a working prison today. The town below it carried the name Porto Longone for centuries, directly referencing that prison, until local administrators finally renamed it Porto Azzurro in 1947, a deliberate rebrand meant to shed the association and better reflect the coastline’s actual scenery.

A Long, Sheltered Bay Facing East

Naregno stretches roughly 500 meters, a comfortable mix of soft sand and fine shingle that curves gently along the shore, sheltered enough from westerly winds that I found the water staying genuinely mirror-flat on most summer days. Facing east, the bay catches the full warmth of early morning sunrise, and the seabed’s extremely gradual slope kept the shallows extending a real distance from shore, well suited to swimmers of every confidence level.

Sailing Schools and a Ferry Straight to Porto Azzurro

Naregno has built a genuine reputation for water sports, established sailing, windsurfing, and wing-foiling academies operating alongside an active dive center, and I found the shuttle boat connecting directly to Porto Azzurro’s harbor a genuinely pleasant way to see the fortress from the water before exploring the town itself on foot. Given how thoroughly organized much of this beach is, I’d expect dogs to need explicit permission at the managed lido sections, with the free public stretches between them likely following Italy’s standard rule for leashed access.

Snorkeling Beneath Forte Focardo’s Pines

Forte Focardo, a second, smaller fortification bordering the bay’s far end, adds another layer of the same defensive history to Naregno’s own shoreline, and snorkeling along the rocky headlands beneath its pine cover rewarded the effort with sea bream, octopuses, and damselfish settled comfortably into the coastline.

Spaghetti alle Vongole With the Fortress in View

Beach bars, hotel restaurants, and casual pizzerias line the promenade, and I found the spaghetti alle vongole genuinely excellent, eaten on a shaded terrace with a clear view across the gulf toward the illuminated fortress as evening settled in, a chilled Ansonica in hand for the aperitivo hour that followed.

Getting There and Settling In

Naregno sits about 2.5 kilometers down a paved municipal road from hilltop Capoliveri, or reachable from Portoferraio via the Mola junction onto the coastal road directly into the resort; shaded private parking serves the beach, the Capoliveri municipality runs a summer Marebus shuttle from Piazza del Cavatore directly to the sand, and the local shuttle boat from Porto Azzurro’s harbor offers a genuinely relaxed way to skip parking entirely. Anyone touring this stretch of southeastern Elba will find Zuccale Beach Capoliveri Elba within the same municipality, a considerably wilder, more secluded cove compared to Naregno’s fuller resort infrastructure.

Standing Where an Emperor Chose to Actually Live

By the time I left Naregno on my last evening, the fortress across the bay had lit up against the darkening sky, and I thought about Napoleon, technically exiled to a much grander villa elsewhere on the island, choosing instead to spend the bulk of his time in these fortified rooms built originally by a rival empire, a small, telling detail about which residence actually felt most like home to him during his year on Elba.