{"id":9645,"date":"2017-10-11T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T06:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.underwatertales.net\/2017\/10\/11\/pianosa-la-perla-di-venere\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T12:28:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T11:28:09","slug":"pianosa_-the-pearl-of-venus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.underwatertales.net\/en\/2017\/10\/11\/pianosa_-the-pearl-of-venus\/","title":{"rendered":"Pianosa_ the pearl of Venus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Legend has it that a pearl necklace slipped off the necklace of the goddess of beauty which, falling into the sea, gave rise to the island of Pianosa.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I thought he was about my age but the harsh and hectic sea life made him look much younger. From the accent I understood that he was not Elban but from how he knew the archipelago I assumed that he had been here for a long time.<\/p>\n

As he drove the rubber dinghy that took me from Portoferraio to Pianosa, he illustrated to me in great detail every ravine of the coast of the Island of Elba and as we moved away he began to tell me, with very interesting details, the story of the “pearl of Venus”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This triangular rock, which is located about thirteen kilometers south-west of the island of Elba, appeared almost totally flat to the eye of the navigator, with no particular roughness or hills, in full harmony with the origin of its name Planasia , from the Latin planus or flat.<\/p>\n

Pianosa has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as documented by archaeological excavations dating back to the Bronze Age.<\/p>\n

But already in Roman times the island was used as a place of deportation and Agrippa Postumus, grandson and former heir of Augustus, was exiled here. The ruins of his villa and a system of catacombs are proof of this. At that time Pianosa was also an important center for the trade routes of the Mediterranean. Underwater archaeological expeditions have discovered and studied submerged deposits of Hispanic and African oil amphorae.<\/p>\n

In the Middle Ages, after a violent dispute between Genoa and Pisa, the island passed under the dominion of Piombino to subsequently become uninhabited and used, in the summer, by farmers and fishermen from Elba.<\/p>\n

But the union between Pianosa and deportation resumed in the mid-nineteenth century with the establishment of the agricultural penal colony, in which the future President of the Republic Sandro Pertini was also detained.<\/p>\n

The real isolation began in 1977, with the establishment of the maximum security prison and the forced evacuation of the Pianosina population. This new reality transformed it into a real fortress, inaccessible to all and guarded day and night by land and by sea. In those delinquent years such as the mafioso Francis Turatello and the brigatista Renato Curcio were locked up here.<\/p>\n

Only in 2011, after the surveillance system had been loosened for some years, did the prison activity cease.<\/p>\n

From that date the absolute ban on landing ended, which on the one hand had prevented tourist development and on the other had preserved the beauty that emerged and submerged.<\/p>\n

And so Pianosa, the flat island, once hell for the mafia affected by the 41 bis, today has a future linked to the environment and ecology.<\/p>\n

I got there by rubber dinghy, starting from Portoferraio, on a Friday in mid-September. The sky was clear but the sun could not give us the right warmth. After the hot summer, temperatures dropped drastically and even here, in the Tuscan archipelago, the climate was autumnal.<\/p>\n

The island of Elba was dressed up for the party and was awaiting the arrival of fleets of divers for the fifth stage of aSSIeme, the itinerant tour organized by local diving affiliated to the SSI<\/a> educational agency.<\/p>\n

The submerged heritage of Pianosa, uncontaminated for more than 150 years, was wild and reserves emotions and surprises for the scuba diver thanks to the richness of fish, which, not being used to the foreign and threatening presence of the freediver fisherman, is easily approached.<\/p>\n