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Discovering the Mines of Elba on mountain bike |
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Discovering the Mines of Elba on mountain bike |  | Real fun on these varied and spectacular routes in the surreal and unique context of the Island of Elba’s mines.
| | | | Dates 2011 and prices: | Half day: Friday time: 8.00 - € 40,00
Children up to 12 years old (accompanied by their parents): 50% reduction
|  | Eastern Elba has a mineralogical heritage of exceptional historical and archaeological importance. Elban iron has, since antiquity, been regarded as exceptional, and the extraction of oligist, the bright Elban hematite, began by the Etruscans, continued for 3000 years of history, moulding the land and the people of Eastern Elba. For more than two thousand years the mineral was extracted: in the past by digging tunnels, then from the eighteen hundreds the mineral extraction was carried out in the open air, by the means knocking down great horizontal slices of mountain, creating a striking panorama of enormous concentric steps.
Today, for the first time, it is possible to take a guided excursion on foot or mountain bike within this surreal environment, to discover and get to know one of the most interesting and fascinating environments on Elba, with the precious collaboration of the mine guides, who will enrich our visit with their deep knowledge of stories, secrets and anecdotes.
There are wide roads, once travelled by enormous caterpillar and excavating machinery, indeed we will find some of their carcasses rusted to harmonise with the red earth and rocks of the mine. Paths that lead to mysterious descent shafts and also spectacular single track, set in the thick Mediterranean maquis, flanking prehistoric settlements and iron furnaces of the Etruscan era.
Our mountain bikes will find rail tracks that just disappear, as if they had been swallowed by the rock, and old stations to shelter engines. We will discover surreal red lakes, of changing colours, pedalling between history and nature, up and down with spectacular glimpses of fantastic views, exalted by the contrast of colours between the bloody earth and the blue of the sea and the sky, until we arrive at “Martian” villages, and at the mythical “half-pipe” at Monte Calendozio.
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Mountain bike excursions 
