Legends says the archipelago originates from a necklace that Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty and sensuality, lost while emerging from the Tyrrhenian sea.

The Würm glaciation was followed by a warming phase, and the sea rose slowly to reach its current level.

[3] The archipelago is distinguished by some endemic taxa which are protected in order to avoid the loss of the biodiversity of fauna and flora.

[4] The introduction of the wild boar to Elba several years ago has caused problems regarding the conservation of some plant species.

The Falco peregrinus brookei nests on Elba and Capraia, the shearwater and the rare Audouin's gull are common on all the islands.

Elba has a complex orography including the mountain Mount Capanne which favoured the preservation of the chestnut, the holm oak and the black alder mostly on the northern side.

The main plant formations are those of shrubs of Erica, strawberry tree, Genisteae, mastic, Mediterranean buckthorn, myrtus and Phoenician juniper; On Elba and Capraia the cork oak is present, while the Aleppo pine and the maritime pine are widely spread on Elba and Gorgona.

Isola del Giglio is an Italian island and comune situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Tuscany, and is part of the Province of Grosseto.

They are located in open sea among the coast of the Natural Park of Maremma and Pianosa, approximately 13 nautical miles (24 km) from Porto Santo Stefano on Monte Argentario and 9.4 miles (15.1 km) from Marina di Grosseto; they are part of the comune of Grosseto and are placed in a nature reserve which makes part of a special protection area.

Meloria is a rocky skerry, surrounded by a shoal, off the Tuscan coast, in the Ligurian Sea,[14] 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) north-west of Livorno.

Scoglio d'Africa[15] (or Scoglio d'Affrica), also named Formica di Monte Cristo ("Monte Cristo's Ant"), is a solitary small skerry belonging to the Tuscan Archipelago located in open sea between Tyrrhenian Sea and Corsica Channel.