Giglio: The Exclusive Roman Summer Vacation

It is perhaps one of the best kept secrets but Giglio is an Island where all the Romans spend August vacationing. It has recently come to the attention of the modern news media because of a cruise ship sinking there as it was run a ground by rocks. Everyone and anyone who has ever been to Giglio knows about those rocks on the coast. It is one of the most attractive features of Giglio. It is inaccessible by big ships. You have to take a little boat to Giglio as it is relatively unscathed by modern industrialization.

But there are other things to love about Giglio besides all of Rome heads to it during the brutally hot summers. It is an unplugged society quite literally. You live in a little beach cottage with a hot plate and make due with whatever you have for the food. Your days are spent on the beach and the evenings are spent at the disco or atleast this was the case in the 1980(s). I remember we had to walk through a cemetery to get to the Disco. Italy was always comfortable with the dead and he living commingling.

But for all intents and purposes Giglio was untouched by modern civilization. It was not a tourist town at all. There were no hotels. To stay there you had to rent a house for a month of the year and they were relatively expensive. There were no telephones and no hospital as there was really nothing that was required. It was paradise. The waters were beautiful and the beaches were just as gorgeous. And life was centered around the relaxing and vacationing but not sailing because of the rocks. Giglio had natural barriers to massive tourism and the nautical community.

So when I heard the news report about a Carnival Lines Cruise ship being sunken right off Giglio I was very suspicious. Because even as an American I knew large ships should not be brought close to Giglio. And it is now January and Giglio would practically be uninhabited. No one stays on Giglio during the winter months. It is literally a Summer hide a way for all of Rome. So to me to hear of this ship sinking in January sounded extraordinarily strange but it is Italy.

There are many vacation places in Europe which are difficult to reach and therefore are very exclusive. The Italian Riviera for instance can only be reached by small boat and is therefore rather exclusive. But Giglio will always have a special place in my heart as I remember the fun summers there and I am forlorn for them as they harken back to my youth in Europe.

And everyone who was anyone in Rome was on Giglio in August.