History of the real estate market

14 October 1767 was not a day of conquest. It was a day of choice. That morning, a small Sardinian-Piedmontese garrison landed on the deserted island of Bocche di Bonifacio. They did not come to colonise. They came to defend: the Kingdom of Sardinia feared that revolutionary Corsica, led by Pasquale Paoli, would claim these strategic islands. But the soldiers did not find an empty island. They found a...

From "From the Shack to the Sea-View Loft: 250 Years of the Real Estate Market in La Maddalena" Imagine you are a Gallurese shepherd in 1750. In the winter, you bring your sheep to graze on the island facing Palau. It doesn't have a stable name; the few documents available call it Porcaria, after the pigs that roam there, while others call it Bicinara. Centuries earlier, the Romans had christened it Ilva,...

Certain mornings, when I walk through La Maddalena, I stop to look at the old constructions. I observe the dry-stone walls of the historic center, the narrow windows overlooking the harbor, the worn steps of the fishermen's houses. And I ask myself: who built it? With what stones? Why right there, in that precise spot on the island? How much was that piece of land worth when perhaps there wasn't even a...