History of the archipelago
A brief history of the Archipelago
The U.S. Navy presence
Benvenutti! A Film by Adriano Tovo (1979)
The movie is a satirical account of the reactions of the local community to the arrival of the U.S. Navy to La Maddalena. Written and directed by local director Adriano Tovo in 1979, the film features several members of the Theatrical Collective L’Elicriso, active in the archipelago since the beginning of the 1970s.
Synopsis: The opening scene takes place on a golf course in Sardinia where the American ambassador in Rome, the Italian minister of foreign affairs, and the Italian undersecretary of defense, presumably Christian Democrat Francesco Cossiga, make an agreement about the concession of La Maddalena to the U.S. Navy. The film describes how the obsequious mayor of La Maddalena and the greedy, assertive priest of the archipelago plotted with the Italian government to welcome the Americans and to assuage the local opposition. The story contains a self-reflexive and particularly critical analysis of La Maddalena’s historical acquiescence towards military and political authorities. With its hyperbolic representation of local and American characters, and of the circumstances leading to the installation of the U.S. Navy base, Benvenutti! offers an accurate and polemical, albeit minoritarian, reading of traditional histories of La Maddalena, which describe the local community as naturally predisposed to live in symbiosis with military installations.
The “American years.” A photographic archive
Credit: Tatiano Maiore 1988, Palau, Militari USA 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1988. US Navy tender Frank Cable moored at S. Stefano pier. 
Credit: US National Archives. Author: unknown, 1984. A starboard beam view of the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS BATON ROUGE (SSN 689) underway near La Maddalena, Italy. 
Credit: US National Archives. Author: PH3 Lange, August 1983. The Fulton class submarine tender USS ORION (AS 18) services a submarine in S. Stefano, La Maddalena. US National Archives. 
Credit: US National Archives. Author: PH3 Jodi L. Vogelsong, USN, 2001. USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39) at US Naval Support Activity (NSA) La Maddalena, Italy. 
Credit: Adriano Tovo, 1976, personal archive. Manifestazione contro base USA, La Maddalena. 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1982, nuclear submarine approaching La Maddalena 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1976, protesta antimilitarista a La Maddalena organizzata dai Radicali 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1976, protesta antimilitarista a La Maddalena organizzata dai Radicali 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1989, protesta Greepeace difronte alla base USA, S. Stefano. 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1975, Commodore Burkhalter in his office in La Maddalena 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1975, US Navy S. Stefano pier, La Maddalena 
Credit: Tatiano Maiore, 1988, US Navy tender Frank Cable servicing two nuclear submarines in S. Stefano.
Public engagement
Public conference: “The Environmental Monitoring Program around the US Navy Base of La Maddalena: Politics and Science in the Archipelago during the Cold War,” City Hall, La Maddalena, May 16, 2017.
Interview excerpts on Gallura Informazione
Davide Orsini 