The private Mediterranean Islands are rarely on sale, but Punta Pennata, a ribbon of land in the Gulf of Naples with the ruined walls of an old Roman villa nestled in the middle of its invaded flora, has been on the market for several months.
Located about 20 miles from downtown Naples, the narrow island with its steep cliffs is as an exclamation mark next to the seaside town of Bacoli.
“Surrounded by lush Mediterranean vegetation and Roman relics, it offers a fascinating and unique retirement,” reads the promotional presentation text of Sotheby’s International Realty. Punta Pennata, adds, is an “exclusive opportunity for a prestigious investment”.
It is a version of the future of the island.
The other comes from Josi Gerardo Della Ragione, the mayor of Bacoli, who plans the island as a public park. Between deputy for decades and barely visited, his preserved flora would attract residents and visitors to a less known part of the Italian coast, according to the mayor.
“It’s like Neverland,” he said in an interview in his office, evoking Peter Pan’s fictitious island. “It’s a place where you can go just to reverie,” he added. “The bacoli is small, but it can always be chaotic.”
The sale has become something of a populist struggle, opposing the quest for a buyer with a deep pocket against a more common alternative. The main obstacle to the mayor’s plan is the price, which Sotheby’s has put around 10 million euros (around $ 10.3 million).
Given that the island was evaluated at around two million euros just a few years ago, the price is “Robber Baron Speculations”, said Mr. Della Ragione, a former 37 -year -old journalist who was mayor for seven years overall, representing a local bacoli, a local leftist party who pushed from a blog founded by civic activists.
Asked about the registration price, Sotheby’s underlined the unique nature of the property.
The last luxury real estate boom here occurred about 2,000 years ago, when the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples was a playground for the aristocracy of the Roman Empire. “It was Monte Carlo of his time,” said Della Ragione. The extended thermal baths were part of the draw. Even the occasional emperor came through. The whole region is part of the Flegrei campi, or the Phlegic fields, a large zone of volcanic activity which includes Mont Vesuve nearby. The earth has increased and fell over the centuries – a seismic process known as the Bradyseism.
The vibrant mosaic floors of the old Palatial Roman villas by the sea are now seated on the seabed, four or five meters under crystal and peridot waters, visible for divers and diving divers. Small Tremblaux occur regularly.
The port adjacent to the island of Punta Pennata once served as a home port for the Roman naval fleet which dominated the Western Mediterranean, the files indicate. Some of his galleys saved survivors fleeing Pompeii after Vesuvius broke out in 79 AD
Ciro Amoroso, an amateur historian, embraces the idea of a park on Punta Pennata. “It’s our story, our heritage,” he said. “This is part of who we are, so we don’t want it to be sold.”
There is at least one possible. Italian law grants any municipality the right to match the price requested for property with historical importance. Although the mayor is willing to spend his budget for cultural activity for the purchase and expects 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. The city’s files indicate that between 1830 and 1860, around 1,000 people, many of whom are victims of plague, were buried on the island. The location of the tombs remains a mystery, but as a cemetery is a public property, the mayor wonders if the island has been privatized using a way of illegal bureaucratic shenanigans.
The sale includes 5,000 square meters of land (around 54,000 square feet), including a decomposition house of 200 square meters. The house is distinct from the ruins of the old Roman villa, although it is also recovered by the surrounding woods. It was used for the last time 10 or 12 years ago by the family grandfather selling the field, and he was usually seated there to watch the migratory birds, said Diletta Giorgolo, head of residential sales of Sotheby’s International in Italy.
The island is already under the general field of the authority of the parks of the region, so any owner would need a permit for landscaping such as the slaughter of trees, said Francesco Maisto, the president of the Campi Flegrei regional park. This mandate extends to the surrounding water, a protected area due to its rare marine grass in Posidonia.
“Even if you buy the island, you can’t just come and do what you want,” said Maisto. “It is a green lung in the region.”
Ms. Giorgolo portrays the raft of restrictions as an argument of sale, preserving the bucolic but historic character of the island. It also means that the whole new owner could most likely do it is to renovate the house.
Even this is subject to dispute. Since the original construction permit has authorized a structure of 120 square meters, said the mayor, the additional 80 square meters are suspect. The various bureaucratic obstacles could dissuade any buyer, said the mayor laughing. These obstacles include that the sale and any construction require its permission.
Ms. Giorgolo maintains that someone who hopes to create a retirement will not be dissuaded. “It will be a certain type of buyer,” she said. “It’s for people who may be rich, but also simple.”
Visits will only start when time will improve. It was not even demonstrated to the mayor. The family who owns the island refused the requests for an interview, Ms. Giorgolo describing the owner as “shy”, and the mayor saying that the Neapolitan family has found all the attention of the boring public.
Not that he does a lot to reach Punta Pennata. It was once a peninsula, not an island, until a storm that rages in 1966 took the sandy beach which linked it to the continent. This side is now a popular beach, and you can divert yourself a few meters from the island’s only landing, a little cement pier. From there, a large and rusty fence blocks access.
Throughout Italy, the state has the coast. In theory, the public could shake along the edges of the crest -shaped island, but there is no beach, only steep cliffs and occasional rocky outcrops.
Some Bacoli residents doubt the wisdom of the city which acquires the island. Antonio Pugliese, 50, who promotes the use of traditional sailboats, thinks that an island park would be too expensive to maintain. But most people are questioned at random in the city supported the idea.
Inside the Cavelike Scairdac charcuterie, with cheeses and hardening hams in the rafters, Giuseppe Scamardella offers visitors a range of local specialties: first sciocco, bread baked with potatoes and mozzarella and friarielli.,, A local green which is a more bitter version of broccoli.
Mr. Scamardella, 67, is one of the few people in Bacoli who remembers having been on Punta Pennata. As a child, he gathered mushrooms and wild asparagus while his father hunted quail and rabbits. He is not on the island from the storm.
Bacoli must do something to compete for visitors, otherwise all young people will leave, he said, even if his daughter is the fifth generation to manage the family store.
“If someone private buys the island, it will be a terrible thing,” said Mr. Scamardella. “We will lose a little from Bacoli’s soul.”
Virginie Digaetano Contributed reports.
