THE AGA KHAN’S EMERALD HIDEAWAY
Aerial view (above) of the Costa Smeralda shows the port facilities, which berth yachts bearing such notables. as Tony and Margaret, the king of Greece and even Liz and Dick
After a day of water-skiing, skin-diving and boating under the Mediterranean sun, young tourists cram themselves into a noisy discothèque where a small Scotch costs only $2.50.
On the Costa Smeralda, princesses po native in grubby chines, and Sardinian girls affect dark glasses, hoping to be taken for royalty. The maiden royalty, above is a tourist from Switzerland.
The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of 15 million Ismaili Muslims, often trans acts business aboard his yacht off the Costa Smeralda, a project which likely will turn a profit for his sect.
When hen Prufrock claimed he heard the mermaids singing each to each, perhaps he dreamed of just such a nymph as the one above, sheltering her beauty in a sea-carved Mediterranean cave. Not the Mediterranean of the Côte d’Azur, the Costa del Sol or the Costa Brava, those once fashionable resorts littered with endless acres of bodies slavered with sun gunk, over which peanut vendors run a dawn-to-dusk obstacle course. No, this is the Costa Smeralda or Emerald Coast on the northeast corner of Sardinia, so named by the Aga Khan IV.
This outrageously wealthy young man, written off by many as a mere playboy, happens to be a shrewd businessman who, with some friends, snapped up 35 miles of unspoiled coastline backed by 32,000 acres of potential building sites. Before long, the expense of cutting serviceable roads, installing electricity and providing drinking water proved so costly that the shrewd prince laid off some of the action on professional financiers with the ironclad understanding that no development would take place at the expense of the island’s primitive beauty.
Because Sardinia has a tradition of banditry, the local constabulary initially detailed armed guards to protect the Aga’s hideaway. According to one informant, well connected with the outlaws in the hills, the guards might just as well have stayed home: “The bandits think he’s good for Sardinia and wouldn’t hurt the Aga for anything……”
Basking in the sun, the Sardinian peasants above spend hours recounting their ofttimes outlaw pasts, or boasting of young kinsmen who have taken to the hills to live as brigands.
Guests sun themselves on the terrace (left) of Cala di Volpe, one of sever al elegant hotels kept filled by the Aga’s Alisarda air line, which runs flights from both Italy and France.
Though it is a source of many jobs, not all Sards approve of the Costa Smeralda. Some oldsters, like the shepherd above, often mutter that the sea washes up strange things on Sardinia.
The Aga knew that in developing Sardinia he risked destroying the beauty which initially attracted him. Thus he commissioned buildings (above) which seem part of the landscape.
The architects retained by the Aga agreed the island had no distinctive. architecture all its own, but they found many houses like the one at left which hint at Sardinia’s quiet dignity.
Celebrity spotters have a thin time on the Costa Smeralda because the really beautiful people laze the days away aboard their yachts riding at anchor in the harbor. But now and then a yearning for the excellent local cuisine drives then ashore. Here visitors enjoy a lunch of suckling pig and roasted baby lamb–and the conviviality of a donkey who dropped in uninvited.