A Spiritual Encounter with Nature and One’s Inner Self
There are places that cast a spell that cannot be just described in words, but that can be immediately pleasantly perceived. These are places where emotions and memory play a leading role. These are places where time seems to have stopped to allow us to “dig” into the depths of our being to “find our inner selves”. These are earthly paradises where the hand of God seems to have completed a perfect design. On the stretch of the south-eastern coast of the Elba Island, immersed in the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, man has left traces of his past in the colors and shapes of the landscape that, since the very first encounter, arouses surprise and a remarkable allure. It is from Capoliveri, a “land” marked by the fatigue of hard work in the mine and in the countryside, where we set off for a journey to discover an oasis of peace, an island within the island. A succession of natural postcards show us at times a verdant Mediterranean chaparral, at times a lunar landscape where industrial archaeology has become the symbol of this land. A jagged coastline looks at the sea toward the infinite, prompting us to contemplation. On the horizon rise the mysterious island of Montecristo and the island of Giglio. You have the feeling that time is stopping. We fall into a kind of oblivion, abandoning our conventional “clothing”. The last stretch of unpaved road takes us back to the past.
Tenuta della Ripalte was established in the late 19th century, thanks to Count Tobler, a Swiss nobleman in love with Italy, who in this corner of earthly paradise fulfilled his great passion: the cultivation of vines and the production of great wines. The ancient nineteenth-century villa, once the mansion of the ancient family is today a Boutique Hotel, an exclusive 10-room jewel with an antique flavor; from the terrace, the gaze drifts leisurely over an age-old pine wood that imperiously watches over the sea. The ancient mansion is surrounded by farmhouses, which harmonize with the landscape and which have been turned into 52 apartments; their style is typical of the country houses of Tuscan Maremma. For those who want to spend a holiday immersed in nature, glamping, a new form of luxury camping, is an opportunity to regenerate one’s body and soul. The 16 villas, comfortable and refined in the furniture and furnishings, are located in the hills that dominate the sea. Tenuta della Ripalte boasts a magical place, a terrace that embraces the immense. It brings to mind the bow of an ocean liner from which to admire the grandeur of the ocean and then let yourself be lulled. Our ocean is an infinite expanse of vineyards that reach the sea and dissolve into the horizon. Here the mind is stripped of every thought to make room for ecstasy and delight. It is pure poetry! And then, at night, the contemplation of the stars hypnotizes the mind, taking it to distant galaxies. Tenuta delle Ripalte is the first and only structure on Elba certified by Astronomitaly (the Astronomical Tourism Network) as among the “most beautiful skies of Italy”; GOLD level. It is a magical terrace with a thousand faces. It is the terrace that watches over the estate’s cellar designed by architect Tobia Scarpa, a modern building in which pure and fine wines are produced, capable of encapsulating all the peculiarities of the terroir from which they come: Aleatico, the native praiseworthy vine and the most characteristic of Elba, Alicante, Carignano and Vermentino. The natural terraces overlooking the sea, rich in mineral, iron and salt, are covered with endless rows of vineyards where the harvest still takes place as an ancient and fascinating collective ritual.
