by I kicked hard with my legs, broke through the surface of the sea, and gulped down a puff of Adriatic air as the salt cleared from my eyes. I bent over the surface to look around. In front of me were high cliffs. From the shore came the deafening sound of cicadas, as loud as a storm. He was bored that such a feeling of freedom could happen in a place that was once a prison for some.
The Tremiti Islands, about 15 miles off the north coast of Puglia, served for nearly two miles as Italy’s version of Siberia. Caesar Augustus is said to have banished his granddaughter here for alleged extramarital infidelity. Then, 800 years later, Charlemagne banished his father-in-law to its rocky shore, only to blind him and cut off his limbs. In the early 20th century, more than a thousand Libyans who were against the Italian colonial rule came up here (a third of them died of typhus within a year).
And then, in the 1930s, Mussolini’s regime rounded up hundreds of gay men, mostly from Sicily and Naples, and dumped them here, for the crime of being just who they were.
The Tremiti are much smaller in Siberia these days. In summer, ferries bring Italian holidaymakers from the mainland port of Termoli, an hour away. There is also a helicopter service from Foggia, although this is not a high roller paradise, like Capri. The shops here sell flip flops and beach bats, not Ferragamo or Bottega Veneta. Pugliesi comes to enjoy the slow pace of life, rent boats to explore tranquil harbors, and enjoy a spritz or two as the sun goes down. The islands are also a summer magnet for divers and snorkelers, with their warm, clear waters and overflowing schools of fish.
I am an avid open water swimmer but I was also interested in finding out more about the men who were imprisoned here at Il Duce. As far as I could tell, the descendants of the islanders from that time seemed to know little or choose to keep quiet about it.
“Yes, my grandparents mentioned them once,” one boat skipper told me, nonchalantly, skin wrinkled from the sun, a cigarette dangling from his lower lip. “But why the past?”
“To learn from history?” I answered in my basic Italian.
new book, L’Isola Degli Arrusi (Arrusi Island), by Rome-based photojournalist Luana Rigolli (available from her website), has gruesome pictures of the men, whose arrests have shamed their families back home. They seem defeated as they stare off the pages. However, even though a curfew bell rang at 8pm every night, locking them in, the community also gave them a sense of freedom, unknowingly creating the first gay community in Italy. For the fascists, they had to be saved and hidden because they went against the declaration that all Italians were strong, macho and virile. When war broke out in 1939, they were brought back to the mainland to face house arrest and distrust.
There are 11 fortifications in the archipelagoth-the monastery of the century which can still be seen far above the bay on the island of San Nicolá, where small boats ply the Adriatic and their owners, in Speedos, T-shirts and sunglasses, sit in cafes at gossiping over espresso.
San Nicola’s neighbor San Domino has a cluster of hotels and restaurants, a grocery store and post office, a small beach, secluded coves and a dense forest of Jerusalem firs – a 60-second water taxi ride away. The locals say that there is one tree for every sin committed by the monks.
I was here for a week for a sea bathing holiday and my base was the simple, charming La Vela Hotel, run by the husband and wife team Ornella and Tonino. Every morning I enjoyed homemade pastries and cakes looking down over the canopy of trees towards the shore, and every evening I went out on the front deck to watch the sun set. Every day I want to swim 2-3km along the coast of one of the islands in the morning, followed by a pleasant lunch break – pizza at La Fenice, or spaghetti alle vongele at A Smerza prepared by an 86-year-old chef . Vittorio – then another similar dip in the afternoon. I was always accompanied by my guide Giulia and a support boat (there can be up to 15 in a group) so if you want to hop off at any point, you can.
At night, there were drinks and dinner in local restaurants: tuna tartare by the pool at Da Elio for example. I also enjoyed an impressive aperitivi at La Torretta, in the shadow of the monastery on San Nicolá. If you find yourself at Il Torrione, don’t miss a plate of caponata (seasoned, chopped, fried aubergine).
Depending on where the usual wind was blowing that day, Giulia and our boat driver Salvo drove us out to the most sheltered spots before we slipped into the warm water. One day we swam along the cliffs below the monastery. Another time we wandered by an old lighthouse, the sun’s rays shining on the blue depths below us. Then we headed forward through rock arches and into pine covered bays hoping for small silver fish, before coming up to listen to the cicadas singing again. One evening I held my breath to dive down to a sunken statue of Saint Pio, which had been placed on the seabed for good luck.
When it was time to leave, I sat on the dock and paused thinking about all those who were exiled here over the years, especially the gay men who were deported to Tremiti almost 100 years ago. I wonder if they were ever able to go into the water here, feel the warmth of the sun, and find the feeling of freedom, even temporarily. I was grateful that, in this country at least, we live in more tolerant times.
Basics
Will Hide traveled as a guest of Swimtrek (swimtrek.com) which offers Tremiti trips for a week half-board from £1,190pp (two sharing), excluding flights. BA, Easyjet and Ryanair fly to Bari, which, from the central station, is a two-hour train ride to Termoli (trenitalia.com; from £15 one way), from where ferries take an hour to San Domino (nlg .it; from £26 one way).
Frequent plane and ferry schedules mean spending a night in Termoli is a must: Locanda San Giorgio is an easy walk from both the train station and the port, and close to restaurants too. Rooms are simple but clean and air-conditioned (locanda-sangiorgio.it; B&B doubles from £43). Another option is to take a train from Bari to Foggia and then a 20-minute helicopter ride to San Domino, but passengers can only take small bags on board (alidaunia.it; from £40 one way).
