Capoliveri, of Etruscan-Roman origins, a former medieval fortress of Elba, one of the most beautiful and touristic villages on the island and bla bla bla… All things already written and known!

The noise, the boiled octopus, the dolls and the bridge: discovering a somewhat unusual Capoliveri!

The Capoliveri that I want to tell you about is made up of farmers and miners who got up at dawn to carry out their tiring work. It is made up of narrow streets with stones in plain sight, alleys so close that they take the nickname of “chiassi” (from “chiasso” which means “confusion”). A quarrel or dispute between husband and wife and the whole neighborhood knows right away.

That Capoliveri in which the given word was worth more than any piece of paper and the schiaccia briaca was prepared exclusively with Muscat wine and strictly without alchermes. The Capoliveri made up of nicknames, in which “tizio” (guy) if you called him by his first name nobody knew him, but the mind opened as soon as word such as “Las Vegas”, “Il Pioppo”, “Mezzobischero” or “I Possidenti” were used. Nicknames that no one uses anymore and that most have forgotten, but when someone names them by chance they still cause pleasure and joy.

A boilded octopus on the spot and a grin stuck in a fork was the most coveted Sunday street food  and the popular festivals were really made for being together and laughing, eating, and drinking the wine that has always gushed lavishly from the grapes of the island.

“Li bamboli” (children) to have fun went to the bridge in via del Calamita and there they played rope pulling or jump rope while the mothers washed clothes by banging them into those rocks that who knows how many joys (and pains) they will have heard, and how much mineral they hide. Every now and then we would get a: “And whose son are you?” and then the altercation started that I imagine like this: “I ‘m poor Adilio’s son” – “oh Adilio who?” – “what do you mean by Adilio who? Adilio, the one with the crippled donkey “-” Ahh, now I understand! Adilio, Flora’s husband!”

The Capoliveri that I want to tell you is the one made up of stories and legends, some romantic like the Legend of the “Innamorata”, which is remembered every year in the historical re-enactment, and others terrifying like the poor fate of Malopecio, in that boat, in that beach so beautiful (and today so popular) but full of evil witches.

Capoliveri is a village that speaks to you, whispers to you, bewitches you. If you know how to listen and understand it, from that square with the terrace overlooking the sea, you will never be able to move away, bewitched by a spell from which you cannot (or do not want to) escape.