Best hotels in Isola d'Elba

Tucked into the golden curve of Procchio Bay on Elba, the largest island jewel in the Tuscan Archipelago, this family-run hotel has been welcoming sun-seekers since 1955. Back then, it was the haunt of Nobel Prize-winning poets and Italian artists; today the De Ferrari family (four generations of hoteliers, no less) keep things polished but refreshing. With its private stretch of sand, seawater pool and Mediterranean gardens shaded by pines and oleanders, it's a proper Italian seaside retreat. Add two excellent restaurants, a clutch of bars, and an island small enough to explore in a day but interesting enough to fill a week, and you've got yourself a winner.

Elba may be only an hour's ferry from mainland Tuscany, but the island has its own character: less polished than the Amalfi Coast, wilder than Sardinia, and laced with beaches the Italians have long kept quiet about. Biodola Bay on the north coast is one of the best, a pale sandy stretch bookended by low cliffs and backed by scented Mediterranean maquis. The Hotel Hermitage has occupied it since the 1960s, when the De Ferrari family built a scattering of cottages through a 50-acre park running down to the sea. Still family-run today, it's built for the long, slow Italian summer with three seawater pools, four restaurants and a private beach.