Piombino, Italy

The earliest mention of the port of Falesia, which was to develop into modern Piombino, dates to the fifth century AD. Rutilius Namazianus arrived there in the year 417.A port for the disembarkation of raw materials – above all iron from Elba – it was also a point of departure for finished products, which were already distributed throughout the Mediterranean in Etruscan times.

The port became of noteworthy commercial importance when, at the close of the 19th century, two iron foundries were established in Piombino. Increasing in size through the years, as a consequence of their activity the commercial traffic of the port increased tenfold between1887 and 1908, passing from 28,000 to 323,000 tons.

The infrastructure which transformed Piombino into a real port, in all senses of the word, was planned, and begun, at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to this it had been an open harbour without particular port installations, save a dock and four jetties for the exclusive use of the metal factories. In the 1930’s the annual traffic passing through the port reached an average of more than 700,000 tons each year.

Almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, the port was rebuilt on its previous layout in the years between the close of hostilities and 1965.

A return of industrial traffic was accompanied, from the 1960’s, by the development of tourism and consequently passenger traffic to Elba, with an annual average of more than a million passengers a year.