Many important events have marked the twentieth-century history of Ischia. In 1948 our estate was used as confinement by Rachele Guidi Mussolini, widow of Benito Mussolini. Donna Rachele, as she was called, spent here several years with three of her children. The circumstance intrigued Truman Capote: in 1949 he was on holiday in Forio and wrote this fact in his travel notes, later included in his book “The dogs bark”.

And while the sky turns red, a green ray appears on the horizon, a very rare atmospheric phenomenon that can be admired in few places in the world. Among these is Forio where just yesterday a splendid beam of green light was seen for a few seconds. The lucky ones were able to take some photos of this rare moment. But what exactly is the green ray? It is an emerald green glow that is observed at dawn or dusk and depends on the refraction of light in the air. The grazing solar rays, crossing a thick layer of the atmosphere, are decomposed like a prism into the various colored components, and among these the green stands out by contrast with the general yellow-orange tone of the sky.

Photo taken from our terrace on 21 July 2022.