Caldane Beach on Giglio Island
The story of l’Isola del Giglio does not begin with disaster, and it doesn’t end with it either. So much more defines this island that, through centuries, continues to emerge resilient. One of the seven Tuscan islands, it has lived somewhere between hardship and grace, where survival often feels improbably close to something beyond.
“What happened here was nothing short of a miracle. It was the hand that intervened to block the ship. It caused it to rest against that terrace, where the ship was later found. There were lives lost, but so many more could have been lost. It was a matter of a few meters, a miracle,” said Marina Aldi, a local of the island of Giglio and a tour guide.
Marina is referencing the Costa Concordia shipwreck, which happened on January 13, 2012, off the coast of the island. One of the largest shipwrecks in recent history, and the miracle is that although there was loss, there could have been so much more.
Giglio, one of the seven Tuscan islands, has always carried that tone in its history. Less known to foreign tourists, it is a place shaped by pirates and princes, by migration and agriculture, by endurance and reinvention. And, depending on who you ask, by the occasional miracle.
