We leave behind La Maddalena, as well. An incredible archipelago ruled, maybe more than any other place in the Mediterranean, by the wind, which from either side channels into the Bonifacio Strait and shapes places and people.

It’s a land which attracts many interests, then, sometimes sadly with a colonization-like approach only oriented to business and tourism. Therefore it’s a land where bold choices need be done, because the anthropic pressure is huge despite the small available space between and on the islands. It’s not an hazard that this is the first island where I’m asked to pay for. Maribelle’s mooring (well, I paid in the previous one, Capraia, too, but the context was very different).

I met a special, unforgettable guy, though. His name is Antonello Tovo, a natural born skipper from here who funded an association called Acque Libere (Free Waters). There, handicapped – but not only – people learn to sail autonomously. At the same time they are thought a different message, one of slowness, of community, one that comes and belongs to an island which always was an island of sailors, of pirates too, people who owned their own destiny, their own islands, their own identity.

Posted on: 14.Jun.2018   Leave a comment