SeaLogItaly · reef · beginner
A 70 m shingle cove north of Cavo with rocky shoulders, reached by an unsignposted stairway; a snorkel, not a briefed dive site.
Cala dell'Alga, also written Cala delle Alghe, is a small cove on the north-east tip of Elba, immediately north of the village of Cavo in the comune of Rio, under the Capo Castello promontory and looking out across the Piombino channel to the islets of Palmaiola and Cerboli. It is about 70 m long and only a few metres wide, sand mixed with shingle, and it takes its name from the posidonia that washes up on it seasonally. Both shoulders of the cove are striped rock, and every local beach guide points at those rocks rather than at the sand: they are where people get in the water, and infoelba describes the combination of shallow water a long way out, the rock at either end and the clarity as what makes the cove work for snorkelling and for diving off the rocks.
Be clear about what this pin is, though. No dive centre publishes it as a dive site. The two operators based in Cavo itself both list their sites openly, and neither includes it; their programmes are boat dives to Cerboli, Palmaiola, the Secca di Capo della Vita, the Secca di Santa Lucia and further afield. There is no published depth profile, no briefing, no mooring and no operator watching it. Treat Cala dell'Alga as a self-guided shallow shore entry, which is a real and useful thing to have on this coast, rather than as a site with a known maximum depth.
Getting in is the fiddly part. From the Cavo seafront you follow Via Bernardo Procchi past the built-up area, turn right into Via di Capo Castello, keep going about two hundred metres and then drop down a narrow stairway between the houses. Nothing is signposted, which is precisely why locals treat the cove as a refuge from the main Cavo beach. There are no facilities of any kind on the beach; Cavo itself is a few minutes away and has everything.
The cove sits well inside the gulf and is sheltered from every wind except the easterly, which is the one condition that will ruin it. Occurrence records logged in the surrounding 1.5 km read like a shallow rocky shore next to a seagrass patch rather than like anything deeper: damselfish, painted comber, moray, striped seabream, broadnose pipefish, fan mussel, common cuttlefish, spiny starfish, brittle stars, thorny oyster and a long list of encrusting sponges and sea squirts.
Shore access on foot from Cavo, which is a few hundred metres away. From the seafront take Via Bernardo Procchi past the built-up area, turn right into Via di Capo Castello, continue about two hundred metres, then turn right again and descend a narrow stairway between the houses to the cove. There is almost no signposting, which is the usual complaint about finding it. Free and paid parking and a bar are available in Cavo; nothing at all is available at the beach.
You can reach the site independently.
The Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago Toscano states on its own FAQ that it is not a marine protected area but a national park with competence over certain stretches of the archipelago's sea. Diving inside those stretches is allowed only in type-2 marine zones, plus type-1 at Pianosa through park-authorised dive centres; type-1 zones ban access, navigation, mooring, anchoring, fishing and diving outright. At Elba the park's strictest land zone is the summit of Monte Capanne and its surroundings, at the opposite end of the island. No source consulted places a park marine restriction on the sea off Cavo, and no permit or ticket is documented for this cove. Spearfishing is allowed only outside the sea zones the park protects.
No source gives a season for this cove. The two facts that bear on timing are that it is only exposed to winds from the east, so pick a day without one, and that the beached seagrass which gives the cove its name is seasonal.
Sheltered from all winds bar the easterly, with the Capo Castello promontory covering the northern side, so a normal day is calm and clear with shallow water well out from the shore. Posidonia washes up on the sand seasonally, which is where the cove gets its name.
On current: No source consulted gives a current, visibility or depth figure for this cove, so none are recorded. What the beach guides do agree on is shelter: the cove lies well inside the gulf and is protected from every wind except the easterly, so the water is normally calm and clear, and it stays shallow a long way out from the shore. Its northern side is further sheltered by the Capo Castello promontory.
It is on the north-east tip of Elba, immediately north of the village of Cavo in the comune of Rio, under the Capo Castello promontory. From the Cavo seafront follow Via Bernardo Procchi past the built-up area, turn right into Via di Capo Castello, carry on for about two hundred metres and then descend a narrow stairway between the houses. There is almost no signposting, which is the usual reason people fail to find it.
You can get in the water, but this is not a briefed dive site. Infoelba says the shallow clear water and the rocks at either end suit scuba as well as snorkelling, yet neither of the two dive centres based in Cavo lists the cove among its sites; both run boat dives to Cerboli, Palmaiola and the local shoals instead. There is no published depth, profile or entry description, so anyone diving here is planning it themselves.
No source publishes a depth for this cove, so none is claimed here. What the beach guides do say is that the water stays shallow a long way out from the shore and that the bottom shelves gently, which is part of why the cove is recommended for children and for snorkelling. Nobody describes a drop-off or a wall.
Yes, and this is the activity the cove is genuinely written up for. It is small, sheltered from everything but an easterly, calm and clear, and the striped rock at both ends of the beach is what holds the life. Local guides single out those rocks as the place to get in and swim. Bring your own kit, because there is nothing on the beach.
None at all. It is a free beach with no services of any kind, roughly 50 to 70 m long and only a few metres wide, made of sand mixed with shingle and seasonal beached seagrass. Cavo is a few hundred metres away and has free and paid parking, a bar and the rest. The lack of signposting keeps the cove quiet even in season.
No dive survey exists for the cove, so the honest answer comes from occurrence records logged in the surrounding 1.5 km, which read like a shallow rocky shore beside a seagrass patch: damselfish, painted comber, moray, striped seabream, broadnose pipefish, fan mussel, common cuttlefish, spiny starfish and brittle stars, plus a long list of encrusting sponges, sea squirts and shelled molluscs including thorny oyster and cowrie.
No source names a season. The wind is what matters: the cove sits well inside the gulf and is sheltered from every direction except the east, so it is recommended in northerly, southerly, south-westerly, westerly and mistral conditions and should be avoided with an easterly. The seagrass that gives the cove its name washes up seasonally.
No permit or ticket is documented for this cove. The Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago Toscano states on its own FAQ that it is a national park with competence over certain sea areas rather than a marine protected area; it bans diving in its type-1 marine zones and allows it in type-2 zones, and at Elba its strictest land zone is the summit of Monte Capanne at the far end of the island. No source consulted places a park marine restriction on the sea off Cavo.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Pelagia noctiluca | rare | 3 |
| Acanthochitona fascicularis | rare | 3 |
| Chromis chromis | rare | 2 |
| Syngnathus typhle | rare | 2 |
| Pinna nobilis | rare | 2 |
| Didemnum lahillei | rare | 1 |
| Lissoclinum weigelei | rare | 1 |
| Ascidia mentula | rare | 1 |
| Ascidiella scabra | rare | 1 |
| Pyura dura | rare | 1 |
| Pisidia bluteli | rare | 1 |
| Xantho hydrophilus | rare | 1 |
| Athanas nitescens | rare | 1 |
| Coscinasterias tenuispina | rare | 1 |
| Ophiothrix fragilis | rare | 1 |
| Muraena helena | rare | 1 |
| Serranus scriba | rare | 1 |
| Lithognathus mormyrus | rare | 1 |
| Pleraplysilla spinifera | rare | 1 |
| Ircinia variabilis | rare | 1 |
| Phorbas fictitius | rare | 1 |
| Aplysina aerophoba | rare | 1 |
| Placospongia decorticans | rare | 1 |
| Spirastrella cunctatrix | rare | 1 |
| Rhizostoma pulmo | rare | 1 |
| Bittium latreillii | rare | 1 |
| Columbella rustica | rare | 1 |
| Luria lurida | rare | 1 |
| Hexaplex trunculus | rare | 1 |
| Sepia officinalis | rare | 1 |
| Spondylus gaederopus | rare | 1 |
| Tritia incrassata | rare | 1 |
| Terpios gelatinosus | rare | 1 |
| Rhyssoplax olivacea | rare | 1 |
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