Meloria

An islet, or more precisely a rocky outcrop surrounded by reefs that brush the surface of the sea, situated in the upper Tyrrhenian Sea. Nine kilometres long and two wide, it faces Livorno, from which it is separated by a narrow stretch of sea. This is the Meloria, very famous for the battle of 6 August 1284, when the Pisan fleet was routed by the Genoese. But the Meloria is also a place, whose origins stretch back into the mists of antiquity, renowned for its amazing scenery and natural beauty, as well as the outstanding morphological features that distinguish it. In this volume, a famous explorer of exotic seas and of the Mediterranean in particular, Folco Quilici, a historian and pupil of Marco Tangheroni, Olimpia Vaccari, and a Livorno naturalist, Gianfranco Barsotti, who knows all there is to know about the Meloria and what lies beneath its waters, assemble and analyse all the important aspects of this amazing place, which truly belongs to the collective unconscious of Mediterranean civilisation. The book also boasts the photography of Fabio Taccola, for the part above sea level, and of Guglielmo Cicerchia and Federico Fiorillo for the underwater part: remarkable images that bring to life this Tyrrhenian seascape.