With 5 square kilometers and 1,900 residents is the smallest town in Tuscany, founded in 1884 as a marine hill town of Marciana, where the maritime trade became more intense. Today is one of the most famous seaside villages not only the island of Elba, but the whole region.
The original core of the village, still today the most striking, is located at the western end, is the neighborhood Cotton that has nothing to do with the fabric, deriving from the word "cote" with which in local dialect means a large boulder of granite. In fact, the ancient houses of this neighborhood have been built on a powerful granite outcrop in the vicinity of a tiny natural harbor surrounded by "cote" of pink granite.
On the opposite side of a cylindrical tower and powerful, probably of the Renaissance, controls the passage to the north. The Cotton and the tower are connected by a promenade dotted with tamarisk trees, shops, bars, pizzerias, restaurants and excellent and good in the summer evenings stalls of all kinds.
The port, in addition to mariners summer hosts some fishing, the last vestige of an important tradition in its own stretch of sea between Marciana Marina and Enfola peninsula, in the town of Portoferraio, has flourished in popular traps, the last of which closed in 1958, today the former trap dell'Enfola is the home of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.
The small harbor is so clean that many swimmers use the beach front, but the beach of Marciana Marina is Phoenicia, under the tower, sheltered by a large "cote" of granite, and consists of rounded pebbles of granite and beautiful (which is prohibited possession).