Well it was over a month ago...sob. But I did say I would write about our journey back.
We were on the North West part of the island with a view of Corsica... just to give you some idea.
It was our last evening. We had had a glorious holiday. Perfect September weather, swims in the sea, not too many jellyfish days, just enough wavey days to enjoy the sea in all its moods, not one moment of rain. And our last day was idyllic - the sea was calm and transparent - maybe a hint of changing season in the air. So after packing, we went up to our little restaurant, a short uphill walk from where we were staying. We are old friends of the owners ,we've been customers for over 20 years! - seen them get older, have children, etc.

It was our last night, we went up to the restaurant in summer evening clothes, we would walk back, pack, ready for a not too early start.

As we tucked into our last meal, we saw that one of the owners was carefully folding up all the table cloths outside and basically packing up...and then came the thunder, lightning and rain. It was torrential... the lightning lit up the whole horizon and sea. It was spectacular. We hung out until late, but there was no end, we would have to walk back. We would have got totally drenched in a short walk back so the restaurant owner made us get into his van and drove us home! Our towels were on the line. Usually they would have dried - this time the line was broken and they lay filthy in the dirt. So we had to wash and spin them and hang them up inside instead of pack them.
The night was incredible - the rain lashed against the window, the wind howled.. although it wasn't cold at all.
We lay there worrying - would the flight leave, would we get to the port. WOuld there be blocked roads in the woods along the way? In the morning incredibly the towels were dry, the wind had dropped, the sky was wild but it wasn't raining. We said farewell to our restaurant friends with a last (free) capuccino, a long tradition, and we set off. Luckily the drive wasn't that bad, a lot of debris in the road, but we got there. We left the car with the car hire people, you have to understand, we have been going to Elba for so long that we kiss our car hire people hello and goodbye! That must be a first surely!
They lent us an umbrella to go and get our tickets - we were naive - why? it had stopped raining. And then again.... the heavens opened and it started to bucket, I mean bucket down. So we got back to collect our bags from the car hire, and a son of the lady, we didn't know him particularly, said... you can't go there on foot, I'll drive you, jump in. He took us down to the port area and insisted that we stay in the car, and that he would wait with us. We couldn't refuse. Rain was flowing past us, people were rushing past, having taken off their shoes to negotiate the floods. Tourists were piling out of coaches, looking totally miserable, soaked.
We waited at least half an hour ...I have never worked so hard to keep a conversation going in my life, in Italian as well... He was a sailor, most of their income (apart from our car hire fee!) came from renting out yachts - so we got sailor lore.In those seas at least, the lore is that the sea is not choppy when it is raining - he reasured us as we expressed concern about the crossing.
The guy was so sweet that he broke the rules and drove us right to the steps up to the ferry. And he was right about the crossing - despite the weather the sea was calm. Weird.

Anyway, our train journey to Pisa was long and tortuous as usual - and there was some lightning on the way, but generally the weather calmed down. We had a lovely afternoon wandering around Pisa, as the sky darkened and big drops of rain started to fall just as we were waiting for a taxi to the airport. We arrived at the airport in a rainstorm, and as we waited all we could see was sheet lightning lighting up the sky. Spectacular, if you weren't waiting for a flight!
Suffice to say that as we took off up into extreme turbulance the woman next to us got hysterical and started swearing and saying - What the f.. does he think he's doing going up in a thunderstorm?!
But we survived...as you can see!
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Two views of impending 'weather' and me on the ferry!