new luxury property listing is offering lush gardens of bright bougainvilleas, panoramic terraces overlooking a shimmering tropical-like sea and one of the world's best beaches just a few steps from the garden gate. Plus, the thrill of living in the home that inspired a great artist.
The beach house formerly belonging to popular Italian songwriter Domenico Modugno who penned the legendary hit "Volare" is up for sale on the spectacular island of Lampedusa, so far off the southern-most tip of Sicily that it's closer to Tunisian than Italian shores.
Perfectly blending in with the surrounding earth-red rocky cliffs, the 220-square-meter (2,300-square-foot) mansion looks like it's carved out of the rugged coastline. It is the only dwelling facing the beautiful Isola dei Conigli (Rabbits' Islet) beach, ranked the world's best beach by Tripadvisor in 2013 and featured several times in the top 10 Italy and Europe beaches. A private path leads down to the stunning shore.
"Modugno was madly in love with Lampedusa. This mansion was his place of retreat where he could not only escape from the stress and everyday frenetic life, but also enjoy the pristine natural surroundings and be serene, swimming alone for hours in the translucent water. It had a huge value for him," said Maurizio Pezzetta of La Commerciale Srl agency, an affiliate of Christies' International Real Estate handling the sale.
Price disclosure is restricted to private negotiations but Pezzetta claimed it was a "very fair price given the property and such unique location " and he hinted that it was less than what one might imagine.
Built like a dammuso, a low-cut, rustic-style stone dwelling typical of the Sicilian islands, the two-floor villa has five bedrooms and is divided into two main bodies connected by a maze of terraces, arched patios and wooden thatched verandas that allow to fully enjoy the open spaces and view, relaxing outside in the fresh air.
There's a 1,000-square-meter (10,700-square-foot) garden enclosed by a brick wall with exotic palms, pink bougainvilleas and agave plants. The external and interior living spaces, alongside the juxtaposition of rough stones and luxuriant green, explained Pezzetta, form a harmonious architectural continuity.
Secluded and tucked away in the Mediterranean bush, direct access is only by foot.
Modugno, who hailed from the town of Polignano a Mare in Puglia and was known worldwide as "Mr. Volare" after he won the Grammy Awards in 1958, used to spend months in his Lampedusa abode.
He loved to take long swims in the clear waters surrounding the heart-shaped Rabbit's Islet, separated from the beach by a narrow strip of land walkable only at low tide. The name could refer to the rabbits that once inhabited the islet or to an ancient Arabic term meaning "connection."
The spot is part of a natural protected reserve featuring tall white limestone layered crags where locals like to sunbathe.
The Rabbits' Islet beach is what makes Lampedusa special. The baby powder sand has a pinkish hue while the sea is streaked with shades of blue ranging from cobalt to aquamarine depending on the depth.
The water's color is so spectacular that islanders and tourists still call that stretch of sea by the nickname rumored to be coined by the artist: "The swimming pool of God."
It is also is one of the few shores in Italy where endangered Caretta Caretta loggerhead sea turtles, apparently beloved by Modugno, come to lay their eggs at night under starry skies.
Lampedusa is a marine wildlife sanctuary, popular as well for dolphin and whale watching. Its ragged cliffs, fluorescent blue waters, and dry desert scenery fascinated Modugno.
The villa was formerly an old cabin which the artist purchased and refurbished in the 1970's. He lived there until his death in 1994, later on the property changed hands and the new owners recently carried out a minimal restyle before placing it on the market.
"It's a magical, dreamy place. During the day the beach may get crowded but in the evening and early in the morning you can indulge in bleeding sunsets and dawns. It's just you and nature," Pezzetta, who knew Modugno and recalls how the songwriter enjoyed mingling with locals "honoured" by his presence on the island, and how he never had a starry attitude.
Local legend has it that the artist, who died at the mansion at the age of 66, requested to be buried with a vial of seawater and sand grains from the Rabbits' Islet beach inside his coffin.
"I would not be surprised if it were more than a legend. From what I have heard Lampedusa did inspire his work in many ways, and the love for that beach was so profound it was immense," said Pezzetta
OP-ED: Eco-tourism: An opportunity for Bangladesh
It presents an opportunity to both protect the environment and expand Bangladesh’s tourism industry
The 2020 edition of World Tourism Day, which was celebrated on September 27 with the theme of “Tourism and Rural Development,” is to celebrate the unique role that tourism plays in providing opportunities outside of big cities and preserving cultural and natural heritage all around the world.
The tourism industry of any country is a profitable industry. Bangladesh is no exception to the fact that tourism can make a huge contribution to the economy of any country. Bangladesh also has many tourist destinations to attract tourists, such as Cox's Bazar, the world's longest uninterrupted natural sea beach, the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, Kuakata, Sylhet, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Rangamati Kaptai Lake, Paharpur, Mainamati etc.
Various infrastructures were developed around the tourism industry such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. When building these infrastructures, the environment is often neglected. When travellers travel, they perform activities for their own enjoyment, and as a result of which the environment is constantly polluted.
The number of vehicles is increasing as a result of the improvement of the transportation system, increasing air pollution. The sludge of rotting waste is polluting underground water. Plastic packets used by tourists (single use glasses, plates, etc) are polluting both soil and water. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), tiny plastic particles have been mixed into seawater, which is responsible for about 30% of marine pollution.
Biodiversity and habitats are being destroyed as a result of deforestation and construction of infrastructure to facilitate the recreation of tourists. To protect coastal and wetland biodiversity, the Department of Environment declared Teknaf Beach and St Martin's Island in Cox's Bazar an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) in 1995.
According to the Environmental Protection Act, 1995 (Gazette 1999), the collection and sale of corals, algae, snails, and oysters has been completely banned in the affected areas. Any kind of work that is harmful to fish, turtles, and other aquatic animals is prohibited. Unfortunately, no one is paying attention to these laws.
Eco-tourism is needed to get rid of this situation. Eco-tourism is a responsible tourism activity conducted in delicate and sensitive natural areas in ways that has the least negative impact on the natural features of the place, and contributes to the socio-economic development of the local people. Eco-tourism can educate travellers in natural education, and a portion of the money earned from such tourism activities is used to protect the natural environment as well as assist the local population in the area.
There are several things to keep in mind when it comes to eco-tourism. Eco-tourism must be conducted in a protected natural environment. There must be minimal harmful effects on the environment. It will help raise awareness about the environment. It will help directly in preserving the natural environment, assist in providing financial assistance and empowerment to the local people, and teach to respect local sociality.
Tourism has been among the hardest hit of all sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic. No country has been unaffected. Restrictions on travel and a sudden drop in consumer demand have led to an unprecedented fall in international tourism numbers, which in turn have led to economic loss and the loss of jobs.
One thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us is how nature can be restored if there are no disturbances by human beings. That is why we should be very careful while exploring nature for tourism.
Through the implementation of eco-tourism, on the one hand, it is possible to preserve the country’s biodiversity and natural environment and on the other hand, it is also possible to expand the tourism industry in Bangladesh. This requires awareness of the residents, along with the tourists themselves along with the policy makers of the tourist area.
We must preserve these wonderful gifts of nature for ourselves and for the next generation. If we can't save, then tourist places will no longer be suitable for travel. If we are to expand Bangladesh’s tourism industry, we must keep these things in mind.
Developing sustainable tourism
It is not for long that someone's curriculum vitae (CV) or bio-data has started including travel as a hobby. No one in our country would have thought that travel or tourism could be one's profession even two decades ago. But a review of the global economy reveals that tourism has been a thriving industry for decades. In our country, though, the context of tourism is different. Yet for travellers in our country, travel means going abroad and for those who are regular travellers, travel is an adventurous activity or extreme entertainment, much of which is stuck in the midst of low-cost outing at home and a trip abroad.
To have an idea of the burgeoning tourism industry, a look at India's economy may be enough. In 2017, 9.2 per cent of the total GDP of India came from the tourism sector amounting to 240 billion US dollars. In 2018-2019, the total budget size of Bangladesh was 55.33 billion US dollars! The tourism sector has provided employment for about four and a half crores of India's citizens, which comes to 8.10 per cent of the total employment.
Now how does tourism fare in Bangladesh? A review of the "Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019" reveals that Bangladesh's position in world tourism is 120th. Had the earlier trend continued, the country was supposed to be at the bottom of this position. But it has made some progress of late in the welfare of nature. It is ranked 49th in the "Total Number of Known Species" and 43rd in the "Oral & Intangible Cultural Heritage". There has also been some progress in "Safety & Security" from 123rd to 105th.
The good sign is that tourism is becoming popular with the young generation in this country. If the policymakers can make good of young tourists' enthusiasm, the sector indeed has a bright future. In a land of 160 million people, internal tourism can generate substantial revenue. The country is endowed with several tourist attractions of unique nature like the world's longest sea beach and the Sunderbans, a mangrove with a difference. A lack of professionalism stands in the way of promoting natural sites and spots of tourist attraction. Investment in the sector under public-private partnership (PPP) for quality hospitality, ensuring social safety and security can be an answer to the many problems facing tourism here.
In order to achieve the sustainable development goals, Bangladesh needs to place more importance on the tourism industry to become a middle-income country through the implementation of the charter 'Vision-2021'. In line with this, if the sector can achieve the target of 2.5 million tourists' itinerary in Bangladesh by 2021, through infrastructure development, increased international publicity, unique and traditional cultural performances, foreigners will be interested to visit the land. However, the security issue has to be addressed effectively. But for a country of Bangladesh's size, overexploitation of tourist sites may spell disaster. From the very beginning, the emphasis should be on eco-tourism.
UK: Mysterious Sea Creatures Washed Up On Beach, It's Edible And Worth Thousands
A mysterious sea creature washed up on a beach near Caernarfon in North Wales, UK, worth a fortune, stunned a couple on a vacation. In a post on Facebook, a resident of New Brighton, Martyn Green, shared the images of the bizarre tentacles covered sea creatures as never seen before. The family, who had initially assumed the animal to be a log of driftwood, went in for closer inspection and found that the creature was a rare specimen, one of the most expensive in the world.
“Know how you all love things weird and wonderful. This gooseneck barnacle-covered log washed up on a Welsh beach yesterday. So rare. Mesmerizing to watch,” Martin wrote in a Facebook post. He shared short footage and a collection of images that portrayed the “alien” creature with thousands of stems ending in goose eggs. However, Martin mentioned that the crustacean was perhaps edible, and in Portugal and Spain, is known by the term Percebes. Further, he told a local media, Liverpool Echo that he searched about the species on Google and found it to be about £25 each, and on the log, there were about 2,000 of them.
The modern island of Hulhumale is taking shape 8km off the north-east coast of Malé island in the Maldives in direct response to the threat posed by inexorably rising sea levels.
Scattered across the Arabian Sea, south-west of Sri Lanka and India, the Maldives present the face of a dreamy, tropical idyll to travellers from all over the world, who fly in to savour picture-perfect coral atolls fringed with white sand, luxurious resorts and world-class water sport.
We are one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth
But perhaps no other nation faces an environmental threat quite like the Maldives. Its luxury beach resorts may be world-famous, but with more than 80% of its scattered 1,200 islands less than 1m above sea level, rising oceans threaten its very existence.
“We are one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth and therefore need to adapt,” said the country’s vice president Mohammed Waheed Hassan in a 2010 World Bank report that warned how, at current predicted rates of sea level rise, all of the Maldives’ around 200 natural inhabited islands could be submerged by 2100.
But Maldivians are determined to fight back to preserve their existence. Back in 2008, then-president Mohamed Nasheed made global headlines by announcing a plan to buy land elsewhere so his citizens could relocate should islands become submerged. That plan gave way to considering whether it might be best to work with the sea rather than against it, by building floating urban developments – as has been done in cities like Amsterdam.
Instead, the Maldives turned to a different form of geo-engineering: creating a 21st-Century city, dubbed the “City of Hope”, on a new, artificial island christened Hulhumalé.
Pre-Covid, curious tourists could visit the new island city as it takes shape around 8km from the capital city of Malé by hopping on a 20-minute bus from the airport over the bridge. Yet, few who come to the Maldives on short luxurious breaks will think about the pragmatic social issues Hulhumalé aims to solve. With more than 500,000 inhabitants scattered across the archipelago, delivery of services is one resource-draining logistical nightmare. Lack of job opportunities is another, driving youth unemployment to more than 15%, according to a 2020 report by the World Bank.
As well as the long-term threat of submersion, increasing coastal erosion also threatens the 70% of infrastructure – homes, other buildings and utilities – located within 100m of present shorelines. There’s also worries over encroaching salty seas tainting precious fresh water sources, plus risks posed by unpredictable natural disasters, like the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 100 people in the Maldives.
“After the 2004 tsunami, a programme for enhancing resiliency through safer islands was introduced,” explained Areen Ahmed, director of business development at the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) that oversees the City of Hope. “Hulhumalé is being developed through careful considerations of climate change in its architecture and communities.”
Ongoing land reclamation using millions of cubic metres of sand pumped from the seabed has raised the new island more than 2m above sea level, while the island’s growing City of Hope is seen as a vital new settlement to relieve the over-crowding that currently blights Malé, where more than 130,000 people cram into 1 square mile (just more than 2.5 sq km).
You may also be interested in:
• Is the future of travel underwater?
• A Maldives you can actually afford
• The island with a key to our future
“Malé is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth,” said Kate Philpot, who worked as a science officer in the Maldives, researching reef fish for the Korallion Lab marine station, before becoming senior ecologist at UK-based consultancy Ecology By Design.
Phase one of Hulhumalé’s land reclamation, consisting of 188 hectares, began in 1997 and was completed in 2002. Two years later, the island celebrated the arrival of its first 1,000 residents. Further reclamation of 244 hectares of land was completed in 2015, and by late 2019, more than 50,000 people were living on Hulhumalé.
But ambitions for Hulhumalé are far greater, eventually envisioned as hosting up to 240,000 people in well-designed style by the mid-2020s. This vision includes a diverse mix of quality housing, new employment opportunities plus open recreational space three times larger per person than Malé.
According to Ahmed, in contrast to the unplanned and over-crowded nature of Malé, Hulhumalé was designed with many green urban planning initiatives. “Buildings are oriented north-south to reduce heat gain and improve thermal comfort. Streets are designed to optimise wind penetration, reducing reliance on air conditioning. And schools, mosques and neighbourhood parks are within 100-200m walking distance of residential developments, reducing car use.” Electric buses and bicycle lanes are also part of the new city landscape.
Varied housing needs are also being catered for. “Hulhumalé comprises diverse housing projects: mid-range, luxury and social housing,” said Ahmed. “Sixty percent of mid-range housing units have to be sold under the pricing ceiling set by HDC.” Affordable social housing is available for specific groups, including single women and those affected by displacement and disasters. There has been detailed consultation to ensure housing and the wider built environment is accessible to those with disabilities.
Enviable digital infrastructure proposals complement green initiatives and social planning, said Ahmed, who describes Hulhumalé as “Asia’s first 100% gigabit-enabled smart city”, with fast digital access for residents based on widespread optical fibre technology known as GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Networks).
“The ultimate benefit of building a Smart City from scratch is that Hulhumalé will be seen as a city of resilience – built by the people of Maldives for the people of the Maldives,” said Professor Hassan Ugail, a Maldivian computer scientist who is helping to make Hulhumalé a smart city, alongside his work as director of the Centre for Visual Computing at the UK’s University of Bradford.
Malé is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth
Hulhumalé aims to tick boxes with regard to sustainable urban development too, including drawing around a third of its energy from solar power and harvesting rainwater to boost water security. Yet isn’t the very act of building an artificial island something harmful to the environment – especially in a place famed for coral reefs and pristine white-sand shores?
When Belgian company Dredging International completed the 244-hectare expansion of the island in 2015, the operation required sucking around six million cubic metres of sand from the surrounding seabed to then transport and pump onto Hulhumalé.
“Land reclamation work is particularly problematic,” said Dr Holly East from Northumbria University’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, an expert in coral reef islands with experience conducting research in the Maldives. “Not only can it destroy coral reefs, but [it] also creates vast plumes of sediment that travel to other reef platforms. Sediment smother[s] corals and blocks out sunlight, impacting their capacity to feed, grow and reproduce.”
But with its steadily growing population, land reclamation has become a simple fact of Maldivian life, with existing coral reef providing the obvious foundation. “Efforts have been made to reduce impacts of the development of Hulhumalé, including translocation of some corals,” said Philpot. “However, it can take a long time for them to become established elsewhere – and there is often a poor success rate.”
Yet with her years of experience in the Maldives, Philpot is well aware of competing demands. Tourists may come and go, but local people need land to live on and jobs. She also makes the rather ironic observation that Hulhumalé is rising in an area that has already, to some extent, been spoiled.
“Construction is likely to be less damaging than elsewhere in the Maldives,” she said. “It seems preferable to develop an area with relatively high levels of boat traffic and pollution compared to anywhere else within the Maldives that remains relatively unspoilt.”
In this view, she is backed by the World Bank’s 2020 report, which notes “the Greater Malé Region, particularly in Hulhumalé, do not have significant natural habitats – and the coral reefs are mostly degraded”.
Waste disposal remains a key issue – both in terms of construction waste for Hulhumalé, as well as waste from its growing city of inhabitants. “Much of the waste has been transported and stored in the purpose-built island of Thilafushi,” explained Philpot wryly.
Hulhumalé will be seen as a city of resilience – built by the people of Maldives for the people of the Maldives
Maldivian authorities counter the idea that this is basically a tropical rubbish dump, albeit rather vaguely. “All measures to minimise the impact of construction on the environment are monitored by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of the Maldives,” Ahmed told me.
While Hulhumalé is being fashioned primarily to improve the lives of Maldivians, its City of Hope also aims to be a beacon for a new cohort of tourists interested in more than just lying in a beachside resort bubble. A 2018 World Finance report, for example, highlights the potential for medical and sports tourism tied into upcoming projects such as the Maldives’ first multi-specialist hospital, water theme park and yacht marina.
Philpot also hopes the dreams driving Hulhumalé will extend to a greater appreciation of their surroundings by the next generation of Maldivians. “I taught coral ecology classes to Maldivian children between [the ages of] 14 and 17 – and more than half my class had never put their faces in the water with a snorkel on,” she said. “Their amazement at what they saw was so exciting – but also sad, that they lived so close to the sea but never got the opportunity to experience being underwater. Perhaps with more direct education aimed at marine biology,
there would be more interest in preserving and protecting the marine ecosystem amongst the young.”
Rather than just building a City of Hope, in other words, the people of the Maldives are taking an island-building path into the future that could make the Maldives a Nation of Hope.
The World of Tomorrow is a BBC Travel series that visits ingenious communities around the world that are adapting to environmental change or who are finding new ways to live sustainably.
