5. Elba Island

writedanielwatson
Jul 2
7 min read

Updated: Jul 7

Day 11. Saturday 6/1/26

Elba Island, Italy Day 1! Music & Street Food Festival

Elba Island (Isola del Elba). Fabri drives us 2 hours to Port Piombino, and we say our goodbyes. We board the Ferry on foot and travel 1 hour to the famed Elba Island. This Island is famously where Napoleon was exiled to. Additionally, this is the Island where Italians and Germans go to vacation, not Americans. It’s much more of an authentic/local space, free of American tourists because they don’t know about it and it’s harder to get to. For this reason, in the travel planning process, we swapped Cinque Terre for Elba, to experience more local traditions and space.

Seafood. I immediately ordered the fish of the day: local whole, langostas (small lobster? I forget the name. Prawns?), grilled octopus, and some of the best fried calamari I’ve had in my life. It was just so stinking crispy and tangy. I was proud that I was able to deconstruct the whole fish and keep the fillets intact. Not sure I’ve ever done that so successfully. Fish was good. Langostas were so sweet and delicious. Bethany enjoyed a mixed seafood risotto that was a comical serving for 5 people — not even the States would serve this much food!

Music & Street Food Music (“Mangiami”) and the Plant Festival. This trip is focused on experiencing local traditions and experiences. One of those highlights was exploring the 3-day Plant Festival and 5-day Music & Street Food Festival. We saw so many new plants that we have never seen before! Gardening is a traditional habit of many native Italians. Cultivating a garden, window-dressings, and plants throughout the house is a very Italian thing. You can immediately spot local homes vs rented/tourist spaces throughout Italy, because the local homes always have an abundance of greenery and flowers.

Day 12. Sunday 6/2/26

Elba Isalnd Day 2! Beach, Music Festival

Went to Beach Ghiaie and lounged there for the day. When I think beach, beaches should be sand beaches. Well, many beaches throughout Europe are rock/stone beaches. You won’t get covered in sand, but you have to have tough feet to walk around on the rocks. We enjoyed the street food vendors throughout our time. The beef skewers (I forget the name) were beautifully marinated and cooked perfectly. Why would I ever pay $60 for a steak in America when I can get 8 skewers for 11€ on the beach that are better!

Tonight, the local Music Festival line up included high school students from the local school being backed by a stationary band. As the students circulated through, I enjoyed seeing the encouraging and laid-back energy from the young singers, performers, and the audience. There was an energy that seemed more supportive and relaxed than if this were to take place at home. Every song was sung in English. Every single one. They were all pop songs such as Amy Winehouse, Jonny Cash, and The Beatles. The younger the performer, the better their American English accent was. The older the student, the heavier the Italian accent influence was. I presume this is due to younger students having an earlier dialectical exposure to the music. Several singers performed with strong pop style with relaxed diction and more casual phonation throughout. Overall, I also had the thought that my students should sing the pants of these students; however, out of decency and respect for others, I request everyone keep their pants on.

#1 Export. You know what America’s number 1 export is? Culture. Our number 1 export is culture. America exports culture to the entire world: music, film, shows, sports, and celebrities. I had a professor share this with me many years ago, and it rocked my world. I have witnessed the profound influence of American culture throughout Western and Central Europe. Folks who don’t know very little English, sing along in full English to American music and learn much of their English skills from music! This is a whole unit lesson for another time. Pop music of today (last 100 years) is truly a unique crossover into folk music, making pop music a kind of “international folk music” that didn’t exist 100 years ago, prior to the digital age.

Day 13.Monday 6/3/26

Elba Island Day 3! Sand Beach & More Composing.

We showed up at the name Ghiaie Northern beach the next morning, and it was empty. Food trucks gone, stage empty, and like 3 people on the beach sunning. It was the strangest thing. Then I looked out at the waves. Northern winds made the water pretty choppy and the wind annoying. I had read about the winds in Rick Steves’ books. “In the morning, you should check the weather to see where the wind is coming from and go to the beaches accordingly”. Well, we failed to check, but now we know. We hopped in a taxi and drove over the mountain crest in the middle of Elba (those views!!) to Lacona beach, one of the prettiest sand beaches in Elba. We rented a cabana and soaked up the sun.

At the other beach, I swam in the ocean. May = cold ocean. (Technically the Tyrrhenian Sea, which is part of the broader Mediterranean Sea). This was also obvious by the low number of people in the water. And most and folks were standing with no more than their feet and knees submerged. I took the plunge to shock me awake because it was getting sleepy — awake I was! Woo! Cold, cold water. The water was magically blue and very clear. When icecicles started to form on my nose, I exited to thaw in the sun.

We went to a beach restaurant called “White Hole”. I presume it’s because it’s built into the rocks of the beach and it’s white. Regardless, it was strangely in English for a non-English-speaking and non-touristy area. We had incredible pizza and some of the best wine-by-the-glass (red) we’d had in Italy. I don’t remember what we had. Between us: Nose: campfire, wet wood, hay. Palate: bright red fruit, cherry, chocolate. Finish: chocolate.

Composing. I have been doing a lot of composing the past several days. It’s been sprinkled throughout the trip, and I’m taking time to document some of that here. I spent most of the time on the beach composing, sketching on paper.

A focus of this trip is to compose. To write new music. To spark new ideas. Very simply put: to be inspired. “Inspired” means to breathe life into, and that’s how I think about the word. Being inspired gives new life, new purpose, new energy. And if not “new”, it stirs in us something that is already there, awakens it, reminds us or encourages us to see something in a new way.

How do I write music? Boy, that’s a big question. Here’s some context/ideas, but definitely not exhaustive. It’s a fluid process that is part systematic/calculated and half “crazy artist”, experimenting/dreaming/uncovering the music. Michelangelo famously said about sculpting, something to the effect of: that he isn’t “making” art; he is simply removing marble to reveal the art that is already there. Simple and clear and brilliant. Definitely makes clear sense for sculpting a block of marble; however, not entirely the same for writing music, because we are literally making something/organizing sound. Perhaps one could argue that the sounds are already there, and we just need to order them.

I usually start with some kind of inspiration: Time, place, the 5 senses, a thought/idea, a concept, a feeling, a poem, a picture, a sound, a tune/theme, a chord, a soundscape. Sometimes the text itself is the singular starting point. Rarely is it the only inspiration or starting point.

Regardless, when composing for voice or choir (my focus on this trip), I do try to have a similar inspired process for allowing the music to unfold. The text and the idea/affect are my focus. What is the music of the text? What music is already there that I need to find? How does the text want to sing? What is the text? What is the text saying? On what level? Literally, metaphorically. What are the themes and underlying messages? How do the words sit on the page and in the mouth? What is the poetic form of the text? Number of syllables per line. Syllabic structure. Rhyme scheme. Assonance/consonance. VERBS. What/where are the verbs — the action of the lyric. Vowels. Are these vowels going to be msierable sing sing/set to music? What’s the form of the poem? Are there distinct structural or thematic sections? What would the feel/sound of them be?

For the two pieces I’ve started sketching, this has been my approach: being saturated in the text. (This is one approach). Even before I found the text, I was inspired by the wildflowers on my bike rides, the rolling hills, the clearness of the sky and the sea. So I sought reading through texts and texts and texts of poetry before I arrived at the two I’m currently exploring. No, I’m not telling you here. It’s a mystery. Well, I guess if you can make out the chicken scratch of these images you can figure it out.

Here are two first drafts of sketches I made on the beach. These sketches are the skeleton of a new work. This is the single most important resource I make in the venture from nothing to music. Including here for anyone that may be interested. And perhaps to hold myself publicly accountable to keep going.

Sometimes this process has 1 draft before it moves to the staff. Sometimes it takes 10 drafts. I feel good about these two. Time will tell.