Os United States continental islands seem to close to the south in its capricious peninsula of Florida. Don't stop there. More than a hundred islands of coral, sand and mangroves form an eccentric tropical expanse that has long seduced American vacationers.
Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
The Spanish discoverers named it Purple Island, but the predominant tones are those of countless coral reefs in a shallow sea. Confined to her five Keys, Islamorada remains peaceful, in an alternative halfway between Miami and Key West, the Florida cities that the prodigious Overseas Highway has long connected.