ELBAMYLOVE.com Social Media Tour… here is the participants' "Dream Team"

The names of the participants were revealed today at a press conference in Portoferraio at Confesercenti.

Exactly one week before the start of the Social Media Tour, the ELBAMYLOVE.com managers Andrea Fustaino and Federica Berselli presented to the media, invited for the occasion to the Confesercenti offices in Portoferraio, the profiles of the bloggers who will land on the Island of Elba from 21 to 24 May.

The meeting opened with a heartfelt and well-deserved thank you to Confesercenti, in the persons of Franco De Simone and Giorgio Leonelli, always ready to support new initiatives promoting local businesses.

ELBAMYLOVE.com is the new all-round portal promoting the businesses of the Island of Elba. With an elegant and refined design, it was developed to attract more and more visitors to our beautiful island. Once they have arrived, it aims to suggest shopping or leisure itineraries that match their interests. Thanks to the Elbamylove APP and its cutting-edge utilities, everyone will be able to browse it from computers, mobile phones and tablets with the greatest of ease, right through to the businesses themselves.

ELBAMYLOVE Social Media Tour - #myelbatour15 - was created precisely to support the launch of the portal towards new potential visitors. "We started planning this operation last year, as soon as Instatour #Napoleone200 had finished" – says Federica Berselli. The goal of the project is to link the Island of Elba to Florence. "Through this operation we want to let travellers from all over the world who visit Florence every year, including in the low season, know that not far away, and now well connected too, there is a beautiful island with a wonderful sea and a great deal to offer."

For the organisation of the Tour and the selection of the bloggers, to achieve our communication goal as well as possible, we relied on Tuscanybuzz: a project born of the need to promote the local area, the companies linked to Tuscan excellence, businesses, events and festivals. Ilaria Vangi - professional photographer - and Ilaria Gori – social media specialist - share on their blog and on the related social channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, G+) everything that makes up the dolce vita of one of the most beautiful and dreamed-of places in the world.

Truly precious for this year's Tour are the partners who, as last year, are Acqua dell'Elba, Baia Bianca Suites and Blu Navy. Never change a winning team! On top of that, this year the sponsors will play a very active role in entertaining the bloggers during their stay on Elba.

Blu Navy will give them a warm welcome during the ferry crossing from Piombino to Portoferraio and will see them off when they leave.

Acqua dell'Elba will take them along the Via dei Rosmarini to discover the wonderful essences that inspire all their fragrances, as well as enjoying magnificent views between sea and mountains.

Baia Bianca Suites will host them in an oasis of luxury and elegance in the perfect setting of Biodola.

Besides them, Elbamylove.com also warmly thanks all the businesses - the many hotels and restaurants - in Marina di Campo that made themselves available to welcome the tour participants.

And now …. we can finally reveal the participants in the ELBAMYLOVE Social Media Tour:

Sophie / Ciao Tutti - Ciao Tutti is the most important Dutch blog about Italy, with  over 50,000 unique visitors a month. "All four of us are crazy about Italy. We write two posts a day about everything beautiful and interesting we discover in the Bel Paese: culture, history, beautiful cities and unknown places; we publish recipes and talk about wine, we give advice and offer ways to get to know the country even more deeply. With every word we write, we share pretty much all our love for Italy. Tuscany has a special place in our hearts, since we have been there so many times." Sophie has lived in Florence for 5 years and will represent Ciao Tutti with great enthusiasm and affection for Elba.

Lourdes / Discover Tuscany - "I came to Italy from California 18 years ago, falling in love with the country first and with a Florentine shortly afterwards." Florence has become her second home and here, together with her husband, she founded a web marketing agency specialising in tourism. Lourdes' work allows her to cultivate her passion for Italian culture every day, and for Tuscany in particular, through the guide DiscoverTuscany.com, of which she is editor-in-chief and which, together with other sites she owns, reaches more than 500,000 visits a month. She runs a forum through which she is in touch every day with many people planning their trip to Tuscany, offering them the help they need,  as an "insider", to organise their holiday in the best way. Her first piece of advice? "Take it easy and travel 'slow', savouring everything the Belpaese has to offer."

Ilaria / Travel Fanpage - "Hi! I'm Ilaria and I have the best job in the world: photography is in my DNA, I love travelling and writing about travel." A freelance contributor to the online publication Travel Fanpage, she will be on Elba not only as a mobile photographer and as part of the Tuscany Buzz buzz team, but also to tell a new chapter of #fanpagetour, a journey that began two months ago in the southern United States and that during #myelbatour15 will give her the chance to tell the story of a part of her beloved Tuscany.

Georgette / Girl in Florence - Georgette Jupe is Tuscan (by adoption) and Texan (by origin). She lives in the city of Florence, which she loves dearly. A blogger, travel writer and digital marketing expert, when she is not busy with her work for ITALIA Magazine or creating social media strategies for her clients, she writes about travel, food and life advice on the widely followed site Girl in Florence. Her work has appeared in various publications such as National Geographic, International Living and many books. Her hobbies are drinking plenty of wine and cuddling her beagle Ginger.

Valentina / Too Much Tuscany - Valentina @TooMuchTuscany is a young and dynamic freelance travel writer, blogger, social media specialist and instagramer by passion and profession. She adores the green Mugello, her family and the typically Tuscan Dolce Vita made of sunny balconies and washing hung out in the sun.

Alessandro / 100 Days - Alessandro Marazia @alemaraz100 will be there during #myelbatour15 for the site 100days. Born in 1988, an Aries, born and raised in Pisa, he works as a freelancer in the IT world and is a traveller with a wandering spirit. He generally likes to tell the story of little-known places, of stories that have never been told, of flavours forgotten in time. Travel identikit: nature, friends, food and wine, music festivals, camping. A quotation that reflects him: «Travel is a door through which one leaves known reality and enters another, unexplored reality that resembles a dream.» Guy de Maupassant.

Our guest will also be Agnese Ferrara - journalist at ANSA Lifestyle.

The ELBAMYLOVE Social Media Tour has not started yet, but it is already contributing strongly to the image of our beautiful island. Thanks to the partnership with Elbamylove, on 8 May Ilaria Vangi wrote for TRAVEL.FANPAGE a long article about the Island of Elba … which to date has reached over 2,000 shares. This is a huge success, considering that an article by the same author on the beauty of Sardinia, posted last month, reached "just" 1,400 shares.

Next appointment: Thursday 21 May – 6.30 p.m. at the Council Chamber of Marina di Campo Town Hall, to welcome our bloggers together.