Island of Culuccia

The Island of Culuccia was until 1996 owned by the Sanna family, a family of landowners known throughout Gallura. From 1923 to 1996 the only inhabitant of the island was Angelo Sanna, known by everyone as Ziu Agnuleddu. He arrived at Culuccia after abandoning his job as a postal officer in Santa Teresa and retired, like a hermit, to his island, where he lived with a dog and a mare. Without running water, electric light or other "devilry" of modernity, as he called it. Ziu Agnuleddu lived on the island raising pigs, kids, cows receiving reservations for his livestock from Porto Pozzo, San Pasquale, Santa Teresa and Palau. The kids of Culuccia were considered the best of Gallura because the salty pasture of the island made their meat particularly tasty. The island was also a self-managed hunting reserve; the hunts were the occasion for Ziu Agnuleddu to maintain a network of political, military and social relations of the highest level. The rules established by Ziu Agnuleddu were very strict: only people invited by him were allowed to participate, each guest was explained the territory where to hunt and the number of partridges and hares that could be shot was indicated. Any person, including politicians and military personnel, who did not follow his instructions was sent away without any pleasantries. Given the size of the Culuccia Ziu Agnuleddu always moved on horseback and in many photos is portrayed with his mare, dog and rifle. In order to move from the island he had two boats: a "chiattino" used mainly for fishing and a wooden "gozzo" used to go to the Maddalena or to Santa Teresa; both boats were kept in a bay still called "Lu Portu di Ziu Agnuleddu". In the 50's Ziu Agnuleddu planted the vineyard in Puntata with autochthonous Gallura vines: Vermentino, Pascàle di Cagliari and Nieddu Addosu. In the 60's the Island of Culuccia attracted the attention of many investors interested in buying it to develop a tourist project complementary to the Costa Smeralda, but Sanna refused, regardless of their importance, all the proposals that were submitted to him. From 1970 Ziu Agnuleddu lived on the island in the company of Mrs. Angela Fais, the following year the mother was joined by her two twin sons of whom Ziu Agnuleddu took care of, making them attend school and introducing them to the world of work. In 1985, following the victory of a civic list headed by a friend of Ziu Agnuleddu, the island of Culuccia was declared an area of total environmental respect in all the town planning instruments of the municipality of Santa Teresa. At his death at the age of 94 years as indicated in the will the property of Culuccia and what was on it became the property of the Italian Association for Cancer Research. From 1998 to 2017 the Island was owned by two wealthy Italian families. On April 17, 2017 Marco Boglione became the sole owner of Culuccia Island.