On the coast of Sardinia, next to the much more picturesque Molaro and Molarotto, lies the small islet of Tavolara. Actually, you can only call it an island with some stretch: Tavolara looks more like a rock that suddenly grew in the middle of the sea. The rock is five kilometers long and only one wide. At one end of the island, the slopes of the mountains slope down to a narrow isthmus with a long sandy beach. The isthmus is the only habitable part of the island. It is here that the family and descendants of Giuseppe Bertoleoni, the monarch of the kingdom of Tavolara, who has already turned 200 years old, live.
Giuseppe Bertoleoni, a Genoese émigré, arrived on the island in 1807 - and brought a couple of wives with him. Actually, the enterprising Italian fled to the island to avoid being accused of bigamy.
Having settled down a bit on the island, Giuseppe declared himself king. Later, the Genoese claimed that the title was bestowed upon him by Carlo Alberto herself, the king of Sardinia, who came to Tavolara to hunt.
The story goes that upon arriving on the island, Giuseppe discovered goats there, whose teeth were stained golden yellow due to the algae and lichens they ate. When the rumor about the golden-toothed sheep reached Carlo Alberto, he decided to see the miracle for himself. The 24-year-old son of Giuseppe, Paolo, went out to meet the monarch - he introduced himself as the king of the island.
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Carlo Alberto was very pleased with the hospitality of the locals. When the Italian state machine tried to expropriate Bertoleoni's property, he sent his son to Alberto, where he received official papers confirming the family's right to own the island.
Paolo Bertolione returned to the island and created his own coat of arms. In the 1900s, Queen Victoria of Great Britain collected photographs of all the ruling dynasties of the world and sent her personal photographer to the island. A print from the original photograph (contained in Buckingham Palace) still hangs on the wall of one of the island's restaurants.
From then until 1934, the Giuseppe family ruled Tavolara. The inhabitants of the island (and except for the descendants of Bertoleone there is no one here) support the existence of agriculture and fishing. They also breed goats and run two restaurants for a few tourists.
In 1934, the official sovereignty of the Bertoleone family came to an end: the island was captured by Italy. Then, in 1962, NATO established a base in the eastern half of Tavolara, leaving the "ruling dynasty" with just 50 hectares of land.