The ship "Costa Smeralda" docked in the port of Cagliari in Sardinia. As soon as we set foot on the shore, I knew I was going to love this town. Cagliari was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia under the Savoy dynasty until 1720, and then Piedmont on the mainland joined this state, and Turin became the capital.
The Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont were the pivot of the Unification of Italy in 1861. Hence, the toponym Piedmont became a symbol for unification around the world.
The line of the royal house of Savoy ruled Italy from its unification until 1946, when citizens voted in an institutional referendum to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. Many Italians condemned the royal family for its collaboration with the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, which continued before and during World War II. The royal family fled Rome in 1943 on the eve of the German invasion. After the referendum, King Umberto II and his family went into exile in Switzerland, and Italy enacted a constitutional ban on the return to the country of all male heirs of the discredited royal family. That decision was abolished only in 2002.
This February, Vittorio Emanuele Savoy, son of Umberto II, the last king of Italy (see "Time" 87), died in Geneva at the age of 1727, and with him, very infamously, the dynasty of Savoy.
His death reminded the public of the investigation 46 years ago in the case of the death of Dirk Hammer, a nineteen-year-old German, because he was shot in the leg by the prince with a rifle shot. Vittorio Emanuele was acquitted of manslaughter by a Paris court. However, in 2006, the public was shocked by the information that Emanuel, while in prison, confided in a roommate that he shot and hit Dirk, boasting that with the help of a lawyer, he managed to deceive the judge. Having already been acquitted in court, Vittorio Emanuele could not be prosecuted for the same crime. This is how the story of the Savoy dynasty ended ingloriously, starting from here, in Cagliari, on the long road to the unification of Italy.
However, a trace of the Savoys remained in the city: at the top of the bastion of San Remi is the Umberto I Terrace, which offers an unforgettable view of the city, the port and the Mediterranean Sea. By the way, the bastion is the main attraction in the city. It is a monumental building built at the end of the 19th century, whose staircase connects the lower and upper parts of the city, and was named after the Baron of San Remi, the first Viceroy of Piedmont.
A little further, after a few minutes of walking through the steep streets, you will reach the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary with one of the most beautiful interiors I have seen in the Mediterranean. It was built in the 13th century in the Romanesque style, and later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, interventions were made in the Baroque style. Its present appearance dates from the thirties of the 20th century, when the facade received a neo-Romanesque style inspired by the appearance of the Pisa Cathedral.
In front of the cathedral, I heard a woman speaking in German to a group of tourists and mentioning the Agu Khan. I became interested in the story and found out that the name of the ship "Costa Smeralda" (Emerald Coast) also represents the name that the famous prince Karim Aga Khan gave to the northern part of the coast of Sardinia. "There are many sandy beaches where no one walks. Green and gray mountains plunge into the sea, and a carpet of purple, yellow, red and blue flowers wafts through the air. It's warm, warmer than in the overcrowded resorts of South France!", that's how Prince Aga Khan described this region to a journalist from the American magazine "Sports Illustrated" in 1964.
In fact, Prince Karim Aga Khan is responsible for making this part of Sardinia a meeting place for the world's jet set, as famous as the Cote d'Azur.
"This is my friend for 75 years. We met in 1942 when we were in exile in Kenya with our families!" said Princess Jelisaveta Karađorđević, introducing me to Amina Aga Khan, a year younger brother of the famous Karim. It was under a white tent in the courtyard of the White Palace in October 2017 during the wedding of Prince Filipa Karađorđević and Princess Danica.
...…Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan;…
Karim and Amin are the grandsons of Sultan Mohammad Shah-Agh Khan, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad. Mohammed Shah Aga Khan enjoyed a great reputation in the world, as evidenced by the fact that in 1937 he was elected president of the League of Nations. On the other hand, no less public attention was occupied by his private life, especially his marriage to Yvette Labrose Blanche, Miss France in 1930, before which he was married to Cleope Teresa Maggigliano, a ballerina from Turin who played in the Monte Carlo Ballet and Opera.
Their son Alì, born in 1911, is the father of Princes Karim and Amin Aga Khan. He inherited from his father a passion for horse racing, but also for beautiful women - especially Rita Hayworth, whom he married after she divorced Orson Welles. In 1949, the couple had a beautiful daughter, Jasmin Aga Khan. Ali's first wife, British starlet later Princess Joan Ali Khan, gave birth to two sons – Karim in 1936 and Amin in 1937.
......Karim Aga Khan
Karim graduated in medieval history from Harvard and, during his studies, succeeded his grandfather Shah Agha Khan as the Imam of the Shia Muslims. A very young Karim thus became a Shiite leader with millions of followers around the world. He moved to Aiglemont Castle outside Paris and continued the family tradition of breeding racehorses. He often went to the Cote d'Azur where he also met John Duncan Miller, who was working for the World Bank on a malaria control project in Sardinia. Once he took Karim to Sardinia, and the latter, impressed, began to buy piece by piece of land around the small port of Olbia and build hotels on them. Soon, celebrities from all over the world started coming here - from British Princess Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon, through Greek King Constantine to Audrey Hepburn, Prince Reny of Monaco, his wife Grace Kelly and many others...
Both brothers, Karim and Ali are in their late years, but very active and can often be seen here.
