Off the south-western corner of Sardinia lies the island of San Pietro, and on it a single town whose history belongs elsewhere. Carloforte was founded in the eighteenth century, under the King of Sardinia, by families of Ligurian origin who had spent generations on the island of Tabarka off the Tunisian coast, working coral. They brought with them their dialect — still spoken today, closer to Genoese than to Sardinian — their cuisine, marked by North African influence, and their trade in tuna. The town they built faces the harbour in a long line of pastel houses, with arcaded streets and a piazza that fills at sunset. Around it, salt pans attract flamingos, and cliffs of dark rock drop into a clear sea. Filmed in 4K, the programme tells the story of a transplanted community that has kept its language and its rituals, and portrays a Mediterranean island town of remarkable character.
