Island of Elba Mineral Park

From the Mineral Museum in Rio Marina you can go on a visit to the open air Mineral Park in Rio Marina, the oldest mine on the Island of Elba (access is allowed only on guided tours).

You can go on excursions on foot along the mineral paths or on the characteristic small train. As you go along the guides will show you the different types of minerals and explain how extraction in the mine was carried out.

The mine is of great historical and scientific importance, and as you go past the truly suggestive sites with a somewhat moonlike appearance, rich in colours and full of work plants of the past, you will be able to admire and fully appreciate the scenic and cultural importance of the area.

The most common minerals found here are hematite and oirite, but other minerals like quartz, Elbaite, goethite as well as white and green marble have also been found.

Guided excursions

Tours are held every day from April to October but prior booking is compulsory.

Trekking

You start off at the Museum and follow the road that was once used for transporting the minerals that had been extracted, and this takes you across the main sites of the Mineral Park in Rio Marina, each with its own name and unique characteristics: Bacino, Valle Giove, Falcacci, and Conche.

Activities for groups and students only are held all year round but only on prior booking.

Ticket prices inclusive of visit to Museum:
Groups 9,00 euros per person (no charge for group leader)
Schools 8,00 euros per student (no charge for teachers)

Looking for minerals

A truly enjoyable excursion in search of precious samples of hematite and pyrite in the exact area where they were once extracted. At the end of a brief historical and geological description, the guides will help you "become" a miner and look for samples of minerals that you can collect and keep as a souvenir of your visit to the mine and your holiday on the Island of Elba.

Activities only for groups and students available all year round but only on prior booking as long as you phone at least three days beforehand.

Ticket prices inclusive of visit to the Museum:
Groups and students: 5,00 euros per person (no charge for group leaders and teachers)

The little train

Tour of the mines on a characteristic little train that goes through the main sites of the mine in Rio Marina, each with its own unique colours and characteristics.
Along the way you will stop at the Valle Giove Site where you have the chance of looking for mineral samples you can collect and keep.

Ticket prices inclusive of visit to Museum
Groups and students: 10,00 euros per person (free of charge for group leaders and teachers)
Individual: 12,00 euros adults and children over 12
7,50 euros children from 4 to 12
No charge for children under 3