Tenuta delle Ripalte is a splendid place on a splendid island, enclosed between sky, sea and land covered with forests and vineyards. At the end of the 19th century, a Swiss-Italian entrepreneur, Oscar Tobler, bought several hectares of land in that blessed and still sparsely populated area, where over time he created farms, cultivated the land and built a manor house.
Shortly before the Second World War, the estate, which at the time was called ‘di Capo Calamita’, was bought by Umberto Quintavalle, vice-president of Magneti Marelli and my maternal great-grandfather, who turned it into a place of delight, especially for hunting, but also for relatives and friends to enjoy. This caused the gradual decline of agricultural activities, as the Quintavalle family did not take an interest in it. In addition, some hectares of the estate are expropriated to open the Regie Miniere (Royal Mines) to extract magnetite, Elba’s gold.
When great-grandfather Umberto died in a mountain accident in 1959, the property passed to one of his daughters, my grandmother Luisa Quintavalle, who was married in her second marriage to Marquis Nicolò Theodoli.
With her, the summer periods at Ripalte are one of the most beautiful childhood memories: Grandma Luisa drives around the hunting estate in a jeep, with the dogs Pluto, Ambrogio and Uchi [below as she escapes from Aunt Diana’s arms], among hares, pheasants, partridges and barn owls. I love the wilderness of that corner of Elba among animals, woods and iron ore.
Violetta and I also spend whole days at the beach, in the pine forest in front of the house or in the abandoned tennis court, playing with Bruno, the gamekeeper’s son, who secretly loves Violetta; and Andrea – known as Andretta -, the son of grandmother Celestino‘s beloved driver, who can’t stand her.
When the grandmother can no longer afford a chauffeur, Celestino goes to work for Gina Lollobrigida whose son, Milko [Skofič], will be at school with me in Switzerland, at the Institut Le Rosey . The constant meeting of life’s paths is sometimes surprising.
My grandmother Luisa’s last years are actually very difficult. She has to sell almost everything, and between 1976 and 1978 the paradise of Elba is also gone.
Today it has become a tourist resort, ‘Costa dei Gabbiani’, while maintaining its agricultural vocation and producing highly appreciated wines from its own vineyards. For me, Tenuta delle Ripalte remains a great regret, even if it is embellished by memories.
Sources:
Albiate (MB), Villa San Valerio, ‘Villa San Valerio Archives’, ‘Giuseppe Caprotti Photographic Archive’
Bibliography:
G. CAPROTTI, “Le Ossa dei Caprotti. Una storia italiana’, Milan, 2024/3.
ID., “Le Ossa dei Caprotti”. I luoghi dei Caprotti: Isola d’Elba, Tenuta delle Ripalte, Comune di Capoliveri, anni ’60 – ’70. Cues from the book’.
Website of the Tenuta delle Ripalte, Costa dei Gabbiani, Island of Elba.
A. LI CALZI, “Tenuta delle Ripalte: un viaggio nel cuore dell’Elba“, in “L’ Acquabuona”, March 27, 2026.
