Fonte di Coppi in Rio Elba

In the summer of 1956, the world famous champion Fausto Coppi, while on holiday in Elba, did a lot of training on the island and always stopped to fill up his water bottle with cool water from the natural spring that has now become so well known by the locals.

There are many old photos to prove this to the point that over the years the local Municipality had a marble stele engraved right under the source of the spring with the words: "1960 - 2010, here for more than thirty years, the champion used to love to stop and quench his thirst while out cycling".

The place is in the area known as La Ginestra, just outside the town of Rio nell'Elba, and is now considered a legendary place by all the cycling lovers on the Island of Elba.

In 2016Paolo Bettini and in June 2017 Vincenzo Nibali, each with his Gazzetta dello Sport Pink Cycling Jersey (from the "Villaggio del Ciclismo" project) while on holiday in Elba, after arriving third in the Tour of Italy, both stopped to drink some water from the Fonte Coppi spring.