The private Mediterranean islands are quite rare, but Punta Pennat, the Earth’s Earth’s Earth’s Land, with the demolition of the walls of the old Roman villas congested in the midst of its overwhelmed flora, has been on the market for several months.
Located about 20 miles from the center of Naples, a narrow island with a sudden cliff sits like an exclamation point right next to the Bacoli.
“Surrounded by lush Mediterranean vegetation and Roman relics, it offers a fascinating and unique withdrawal,” writes in promotional blurring from Sotheby’s International Realty. Punta Pennat, he adds, “an exclusive opportunity for prestigious investment.”
This is one version of the island future.
The second comes from Jos Gerard Della Ragione, Mayor of Bacoli, who prefers the island as a public park. In his private hands for decades and barely visited, his untouched Flora would attract residents and visitors to the lesser known part of Italy coast, the mayor states.
“It’s like Neverland,” he said in an interview in his office, evoking the fictional island of Peter Pan. “It’s a place where you can only go to the living room,” he added. “Bacoli is small, but it can still be chaotic.”
The sale became something of populist struggle, setting up a deep pocket to buy a more utility alternative. The main obstacle to the mayor’s plan is the price Sotheby put on about 10 million euros (approximately $ 10.3 million.)
Since the island was estimated at about two million euros just a few years ago, the price is “the speculation of Baron’s robber,” said Mr. Della Ragione, a 37-year-old former journalist who was a mayor as a whole, presenting a free Bacoli, a domestic leftist party that was from a blog founded by civil activists.
Asked about the price of inclusion, Sotheby pointed to the unique nature of the property.
The last flourishing in luxury real estate occurred about 2000 years ago, when the northern coast of the Bay of Naples was a playground for the aristocracy of the Roman Empire. “It was Monte Carlo of his time,” said Mr. Della Ragione. Extensive thermal baths were part of the draw. Even the occasional emperor went through the passage. The whole region is part of the Campi Flerei, or Phlegraean Fields, a huge area of volcanic activity that includes a nearby Vesuvius hill. The country has grown and fell over the centuries – a seismic process known as Bradiseism.
The vibrant mosaic floors of former palactic Roman villas on the beach are now sitting on the seabed, four or five meters under crystal blue and peridotic waters, visible divers and divers. Small temblori regularly occur.
The port along the island of Punta Pennat used to serve as the Roman Navy Port to dominate the Western Mediterranean, record records. Some of his galleys saved the survivors fleeing Pompeius after Vesuvius broke out in 79 years.
Ciro Amoroso, an amateur historian, accepts the idea of a park on Punt Pennat. “It’s our history, our heritage,” he said. “It’s a part of who we are, so we don’t want to sell.”
There is at least one possible. The Italian law gives each municipality the right to correspond to the requested price of assets with historical meaning. Although the mayor is ready to spend his budget for cultural activity on buying and expecting the help of the regional government, the potential sum does not approach the requested price, he said.
Instead, he hopes to mobilize certain allies, starting with the dead. City records say that between 1830 and 1860, about 1,000 people were buried on the island, many of whom are plague victims. The position of the graves remains a mystery, but since the cemetery is public ownership, the mayor wonders if the island has been privatized using some illegal bureaucratic Shenanigans.
The sale includes 5,000 square meters of land (about 54,000 square meters), including a decaying house of 200 square meters. The house is different from the ruins of the old Roman villa, though it also returned the surrounding forests. He was last used 10 or 12 years ago by his grandfather’s grandfather who was selling the land, and he usually sat there to watch migration birds, said Diletta Giorgolo, housing head for Sotheby’s International in Italy.
The island is already under the general action of the competent authority for the park, so that any owner will need a permit to decorate the environment such as the cutter of trees, said Francesco Maisto, president of the Campi Flerei Regional Park. This mandate extends to the surrounding water, a protected area because of its rare sea grass of Posidonia.
“Even if you buy an island, you can’t just come and do what you want on it,” Mr. Maisto said. “It’s green lungs in the area.”
Mrs. Giorgolo shows a raft of limitations as a point of sale, keeping a buklik but historical character of the island. This also means that all the new owner would most likely make the home renovation.
It is even subject to a dispute. Since the original building permit enabled the structure of 120 square meters, the mayor said, an additional 80 square meters are suspicious. Various bureaucratic obstacles can distract any customer, the mayor said, laughing. These obstacles include that sales and any construction requires its permission.
Mrs. Giorgolo holds that someone in the hope of making the withdrawal will not be distracted. “That will be a certain type of customer,” she said. “It’s for people who may be rich but also simple.”
The review will only begin when the weather improves. Not even shown to the mayor. The family owned by the island rejected the requests for the interview, and Mrs. Giorgolo described the owner as “shy”, and the mayor said that the Napolita family considered the public attention to the public.
Not that it takes a lot to get to Punt Pennat. It used to be a peninsula, not an island, until the angry storm in 1966 swallowed the sandy beach that connected it to the mainland. This side is now a popular beach, and you can descend a few meters to just landing the island, a small cement brain. From there, tall, the rusty fence blocks access.
The state has the coast throughout Italy. Theoretically, the public could cover the edges of the island like a ridge, but there is no beach, only steep cliffs and occasional rocky shoots.
Some residents of Bacolia suspect the wisdom of the city acquired by the island. Antonio Puglies (50), which promotes the use of traditional sailboats, believes that the island park would be too expensive to maintain. But most people randomly questioned the idea in the city.
Inside the Scairdac Deli cage, with cheeses and ham that is treated in the raft, Giuseppe Scamardella offers visitors a number of local delicacies: Scaccco from the first pane, bread baked with potatoes and Mocarel, and Friarielli,, Local green that is a bitter version of broccoli.
Mr. Scamarardella, 67, is one of the few people in Bacoli who remembers he was on Punta Pennat. As a boy, he gathered mushrooms and wild asparagus, while his father hunted quail and rabbits. He has not been on the island since the Storm.
Bacoli has to do something to compete for visitors, otherwise all young people will leave, he said, even if his daughter is the fifth generation leading the family store.
“If someone buying an island privately, it will be a terrible thing,” Mr. Scamarardella said. “We’ll lose some Bacoli’s soul.”
Virginia Digaetano contribute to reporting.
