The earthly paradise is armored. The surveillance cameras are those of Fort Knox. Each side of this enclave is forbidden by infrared and discreet gates. Day and night, for 48 years, this peninsula in the heart of Porto Cervo has been off limits. It is impossible to see that park of villas placed in front of the Islet of Mortorio, in the exclusive proscenium of Romazzino, an enchanted reserve, close to Cala di Volpe. Here, in this stage of nature and sea, unbridled luxury and "private" beaches, impressive pages of history have been written, not only of the Costa Smeralda.
Oil & dollars
In those lounges, overlooking the blue waters of the Aga Khan's dream, the fate of the world was also negotiated, from the bloodiest wars to the stratospheric oil deals. Heads of state and powerful have passed through here, from the Americans to the Arabs. Never an image, never a draft. From those regal rooms wedged into the rocks of Gallura it is impossible to discern a single secret. Impossible to get close. This heavily armored triangle of paradise on earth is still today one of the most impenetrable places on the richest coast of the Mediterranean. It is useless to try to fly over with a steel seagull. The national civil aviation agency has imposed the no-fly drone. The bonds here have remained those of the sheikh, the supreme head of oil branded Saudi Arabia, the number one power of black gold, that Minister as powerful as he is rich. In this strip of land, the man who came from afar has taken root since 1974.
The sheikh in Sardinian land
He, Ahmed Zaki Yamani, known to all as Yamani, lands in Porto Cervo when he is not yet 44 years old, but has already been oil minister of Saudi Arabia for twelve. It is he who, the year before his ascent to Sardinia, had imposed on OPEC to quadruple the price of oil. An operation that made him suddenly climb the world peaks of the richest men ever. When he sets his feet in that Sardinian hermitage he doesn't use half words: “Heaven is here”. The negotiation for the purchase of that park full of rocks and junipers is not exhausting. The Arab with Western elegance, from turban to tie, knows how to manage a sale, albeit with a colossus of the caliber of Henry Ford II, the president of the powerful American car manufacturer, owner of that piece of Costa Smeralda. That land in 1974 will be his. Already the following year the first palace will be built. It starts with 23 rooms, all princely, to arrive at the current 30. Yamani is not satisfied. He wants that whole strip of exclusive land. First conquer the portion next to it, with another gigantic villa to be remodeled for the use and consumption of that Camp David where to host prime ministers and business man, and then get his hands on the very private residence of Giulio De Angelis, the victim entrepreneur a few years later of a dramatic kidnapping.
