Galenzana beach on the Island of Elba, in Marina di Campo

Galenzana beach is located on the western side of the gulf of Marina di Campo, surrounded by vegetation and accessible from the town with a walk along a panoramic path.

The shore, consisting mainly of sand and fine gravel, no longer forms a single continuous beach. Erosion has in fact divided the beach - about 400 metres - into several sections, now separated in some places by walls and structures close to the shoreline. The main stretches of beach actually present extend for a total of about 270 metres.

From the beach, the view embraces the gulf of Marina di Campo, from the Pisan tower to the Fonza peninsula and, further away, towards the promontory of Capoliveri. 

Interesting fact: a unique feature on the whole of Elba is that from the beach you cannot see the open sea, but always a strip of land and for this reason Galenzana beach is sheltered from almost all winds, depending on their intensity; it is slightly more exposed to winds from the east, which are nevertheless very rare on the Island of Elba.

As it is not immediately accessible, the beach is not very crowded and those who reach it can therefore enjoy an exclusive and secluded place even in the height of summer.

Unspoilt from an environmental and landscape point of view, Galenzana beach is surrounded by tall Mediterranean scrub, pine woods and holm oak woods, with tamarisk trees reaching almost to the seashore. It is a place of extraordinary charm: the crystal-clear, transparent sea offers a wonderful display of colours and is rich in posidonia and marine life of interest to those who enjoy snorkelling.

Some areas of the beach have very shallow seabeds that slope gently, making it ideal for children too.

At the far end of the beach on the right-hand side there is a masonry pier for mooring small boats, with an additional wall providing protection from east/south-easterly winds.

Interesting fact: another special feature is that, since Etruscan times when Elba was exploited for its iron deposits, the beach was home to furnaces used to smelt the iron-bearing material on site before transporting it by sea. This was despite the fact that the Marina di Campo area was not rich in iron ore, but simply because this area had abundant woodland and therefore firewood; since each smelting process required hundreds of kilograms of wood to reach the melting point of the iron-bearing material, they preferred to transport the latter close to the woods, then reduce it and transport the resulting iron, which was much more concentrated than the extracted iron ore. Traces of this process are still clearly visible at various points on the beach today, with numerous fragments of smelting residue resembling smooth stones the colour of iron, ranging from dark brown to black.

Interesting fact: in summer 2023, which set a record for the number of sea turtle nests on the Island of Elba, Galenzana beach was the first where a turtle nest was discovered ›

How to get to Galenzana beach

The beach is accessible only by sea or on foot along a path that is easily accessible to everyone, starting from the centre of Marina di Campo, precisely from the steps leading up from Piazza da Verrazzano.

On the steps, follow a couple of signs, then take a marked path of about 1.5 km (10/15 minutes), which passes through the lush greenery of Mediterranean vegetation. At junctions, always keep left until you reach a votive chapel, then descend towards the beach, again keeping left.