Villa di San Martino sits in a wooded valley about five kilometres south-west of Portoferraio, well away from the heat and noise of the town. It was the summer residence Napoleon bought in May 1814 and used as a quiet retreat during his exile, escaping the formality of the Palazzina dei Mulini. The original villa is a modest single-storey country house with frescoed rooms decorated by Pietro Ravelli — the Egyptian Room with its painted ceiling of palm fronds, the Knot of Love Room with intertwined initials on the floor, and the small bedroom with the iron field bed Napoleon used.
In front of the original villa stands the much larger Foresiana Gallery, the Neoclassical pavilion added by Anatole Demidoff in the 1850s. Inside is the Galleria Demidoff — an extensive collection of Napoleonic portraits, busts, prints, and documents, together with paintings collected by Demidoff himself, including works by Andrea del Sarto and Canova.
The site is reached by car or bus in about ten minutes from Portoferraio. The combined Napoleonic ticket covers entry here and at the Palazzina dei Mulini.