Why 41

Dear attentive reader,
the following is my thesis.
In addition to nearly 8,000 km of coastline, Italy has a lot of islands, it is said to be 400.
Quite a lot. Let’s talk about it.
Let’s start by not considering the two largest islands. They are the two largest in the Mediterranean: in terms of history, traditions, culture and heritage they are up against any region in Europe and very often there would be no match. So, to be precise, we remove them from our considerations.
That leaves the so-called minor islands.
Which are not so minor, almost 50000 Italians live there, there insist municipalities, traditions, history, vocations, literature, museums, secular industries, culture, resources, dignity, moments of European history, appointments with millennia, myths, legends, yearnings, unlikely tales, sunsets, sunrises, borders, horizons, Italy and a thousand other Italy.
In short, as Herodotus said of Egypt, Italy’s smaller islands are a gift of history and geography.

At this point, a reasoned sorting is attempted.

We want to give ourselves a limit of size, of extent. A simple rock can be carrier of a lot of history, see Meloria with its tower and lighthouse in front of Livorno. But a limit must be given, otherwise every emerged rock or sea stacks, even though technically islands, become an entity. That is objectively too much for our purpose.
Let’s give ourselves a limit, purely geometric, let’s say 1 square kilometer, a hundred hectares.
Is it a little limit? A big one? It is questionable, like all choices. But reasonable.

Let us remove, that is, disregard, the lake islands.
This is not a rude denial, there are beautiful and fascinating ones, with so much history and landscaping that they carry with them, I am thinking of Bisentina, Isola Bella, Monte Isola, but here we want to deal with islands from which, hypothetically starting, one could sail to the new world, continents, without limits.

So, let us remove the lagoon islands.
We are referring to the Venetian and Grado lagoons, where these islands boast no fewer titles of merit (environmental, cultural, geographic, social, historical). They would have a lot to show, indeed. But they are so many, one next to the other, it is just another geography, almost a local fabric, they make history as one. But we think of ships or ferries and not urban lines such as the Venice’s ones, we think of peoples and civilizations that came to them, that landed and populated them, observing them first from miles and miles away. We think of “le reti al sole, i pescherecci in alto mare, conchiglie e stelle…..” [an Italian pop song, Ed.] , not a noble continental extension.

Let’s remove the city islands.
The home islands, like the ones that if you go down the street, you go a hundred yards and you’re there. It doesn’t happen everywhere, but if you live in Taranto, the Cheradi are part of the nearby land of the city. If you’re referring to the tenth municipality of Rome, Ostia, you go all the way down Via della Scafa and you don’t realize you’re on an island, Isola Sacra. Full of history, full of Claudius and Traiano emperors, yes full of whatever you want, it is an island but not the kind we think of, you will never take a ferry to get there. So is the Stagnone in Trapani, it closes off the salt pans to the west, it circumscribes a lagoon that compares with the centuries, with its salt pans it gives meaning to the work of generations of men, but it is part of the soul and the being of the city. So is Ortigia, where history blows by, prompting you to scan the horizon so much that it seems as if the Athenians are about to arrive at any moment. But you cross a street bypass to get there. So is to the Isola delle Palme in downtown Augusta, or the river Albarella on the Po Delta.
Let these above all be respectfully expunged.

Of all the small islands we have, whatever they might be: reefs, bits of land, rips in the sea, half-emersed volcanoes, tricks of nature, islets, whims of geology, beautiful thoughts of Poseidon, fortuitous occurrences and various landmasses…. Then, in the end, weighing, trying and measuring by the criteria one has given oneself, with the help of the heart and of the reason, we end up with a list.

Where we count 41 gems.

	Name	(km²)	Region in Italy
1	Elba	223,5	Tuscany
2	Sant’Antioco	108,9	Sardinia
3	Pantelleria	83,0	Sicily
4	San Pietro	51,3	Sardinia
5	Asinara	50,9	Sardinia
6	Ischia	46,4	Campania
7	Lipari	37,3	Sicily
8	Salina	26,1	Sicily
9	Giglio	21,2	Tuscany
10	Vulcano	20,9	Sicily
11	Lampedusa	20,2	Sicily
12	La Maddalena	20,1	Sardinia
13	Favignana	19,8	Sicily
14	Capraia	19,3	Tuscany
15	Caprera	15,8	Sardinia
16	Marettimo	12,3	Sicily
17	Stromboli	12,2	Sicily
18	Capri	10,4	Campania
19	Montecristo	10,4	Tuscany
20	Pianosa	10,3	Tuscany
21	Filicudi	9,5	Sicily
22	Ustica	8,1	Sicily
23	Ponza	7,5	Lazio
24	Tavolara	5,9	Sardinia
25	Levanzo	5,6	Sicily
26	Linosa	5,4	Sicily
27	Alicudi	5,1	Sicily
28	Spargi	4,2	Sardinia
29	Procida	3,9	Campania
30	Molara	3,4	Sardinia
31	Panarea	3,3	Sicily
32	Santo Stefano	3,1	Sardinia
33	Giannutri	2,6	Tuscany
34	Gorgona	2,2	Tuscany
35	San Domino	2,1	Apulia
36	Santa Maria	2,0	Sardinia
37	Palmaria	1,9	Liguria
38	Budelli	1,6	Sardinia
39	Ventotene	1,5	Lazio
40	Razzoli	1,5	Sardinia
41	Palmarola	1,4	Lazio