 If
you are ready to renounce to the confusion and the turmoil of
entertainment arranged for tourist and the worldly pleasures
you could enjoy the naturalistic beauties at Giannutri marine
park which for the transparency and the varying bottom is one
of the most suitable for scuba-divers. And if you do not know
how to use tubes and nosepieces you can relax in a virgin oasis
in the Tuscan Archipelago while your children play safely on
the few streets on the island, where cars can not drive. Giannutri
is situated farthest south of the Tuscan islands, a small calcareous
sickle that immerges from the water with high and rocky coasts.
Sailors and poets, lovers of the search for small dreamlike
capes, photographers, ornithologists and scuba-divers have been
coming here for a long time and even if you can see a few private
villas between Cala Maestra and Cala dello Spalmatoio, the land
still preserves the stimulating charm of a wild and uncontaminated
place. |
|
|
Cala dello spalmatoio and Cala Maestra, the latter got its name
from the fact that the Mistral wind blows here, are the only
points along the coast where berthing motor-boats is allowed
and just behind the second one of these small bays you will
find one of the most important archeological sites in the whole
Archipelago, the so-called Villa di Domizio Enobarbo. The Roman
aristocrats through the Enobarbi chose Giannutri for their idleness
and built this splendid villa in the 19:th century. 
The remainders of the Roman residence leave you to know the
existence of storehouses, residential and menial rooms, luxurious
spas, reservoirs for the water supply and a large belvedere
facing the sea. Fragments of mosaics, stuccoes and marble that
decorated the villa as well as other Roman villas used for idleness,
still testify their majestic elegance. At Giannutri, even as
centuries have gone by, you still breathe that calm and relaxed
air that normal mortals unfortunately only can allow themselves
during vacation. Almost nothing is left, unfortunately, of the
ancient Roman gate at Cala Spalmatoio since the construction
speculation boom in the 60'ies and 70'ies has suffocated all
of it under concrete, while the "Grottoni", a series
of cavities and cracks opened by the sea and the wind, near
Punta di Capel Rosso, still emit enormous charm. Walking on
the slopes of the homonymous hill and those of Poggio del Cannone
you can catch a glimpse of the ancient sanctuaries in the middle
of the bush, erected in honor of Diana to whom the Romans dedicated
the island thanks to its sickle-shape. The knick-name "Sea-gull
Island" comes from the many colonies of gulls that, just
as swifts, come to the coasts to rest during the migrations
and to reproduce. But Giannutri's avifauna, so rich that it
becomes a Mecca for bird-watchers, also count the wren, the
Italian sparrow, greenfinches and goldfinches and together they
make up the non-migratory population.  On
the southern cliffs nest one of Europe's fastest falcons, the
Pilgrim Falcon that in its' amazing dives reach a speed of 250
kilometers per hour. In the tortuous ravines in the Mediterranean
bush you also find the grass snake, a completely harmless coluber
even though its' dimensions can arouse some instigation as it
can become two meters long. No amphibians exist on the island,
but the reptile family is present and apart from the grass snake
you will see lizards and geckoes, mostly nocturnal species,
absolutely harmless and not poisonous. The bottoms at Giannutri
are hard to describe as they are so beautiful and so varying
in flora and fauna. The calcareous bottoms with their grottoes
and caves, the tortuous ravines and the periodic ruins create
an incredible multitude of animal and vegetable species that
find a safe shelter here. The protection measures on behalf
of Ente Parco make a bulwark for the survival of many threatened
species or even at risk of extinction. Rare limpets, urchins,
anemones and octopus populate the coastal plane surrounded by
saddled breams. As you get deeper down in the waters you find
prairies of posidonias, the most important as well as threatened
marine plants in the Mediterranean sea that produce as much
as 14 liters of oxygen a day and between which layers scorpion-fish,
urchins, cuttle-fish and the rare sea horses. 
As you reach the coral reefs you find madrepore, sponges, red
and yellow sea-fans, false black coral and from the dens morays,
see-eels and lobsters peep out. Around them swim baracudas and
on the bottom lie starfish and the very rare triton and groupers,
whose survival is much threatened in the entire Mediterranean
sea, but here they find safety. The luckiest ones will have
an extraordinary encounter with minor rorquals or a playful
group of dolphins, witnessing how the intelligent protection
programs for the habitat can actually be useful in order to
preserve the natural beauties that often are sacrificed on the
altars of profit and modernity. On Giannutri island only Cala
Spalmatoio and Cala Maestra allow landing, there are no hotels
ma a couple of hundred small apartments that can be rented and
that however remain at real nature lovers' disposal, as they
will know how to move around with awareness and respect in this
angle of paradise, without deforming the countenance to bring
home a sponge o a piece of coral to place as a nick-nack in
the living-room.
Photographs granted by David Ricci and Francesco Massimo
Pozzi
|
|
