Description: Pianosa’s small harbour, abandoned and decadent like most of Pianosa’s architecture, awakens the island’s surreal and mysterious soul in anyone who visits. We head to the beautiful Cala Giovanna beach from where the excursion starts and finishes. Here we put our kayaks into the water and start to paddle on the fantastically transparent sea of Cala Giovanna and head North along Pianosa’s Eastern coast: on our right the ruins of Agrippa Postumo’s Roman villa, with its connecting fish pools; behind is the “Dalla Chiesa Wall”, disturbing evidence of the maximum security prison. We paddle over a shallow sea with its rocky bed rich in sea life and along the low light coloured coast, beyond which is green scrubland with lots of Phoenician juniper and mastic. Going on through crystal clear sea we near small grottos eroded by the sea into the soft Pianosa coast which is made up of pressed shells. Pushing our kayaks forward through rocks and gorges until we pass three small coves, the largest is called “Cala dell’Alga” (Algae Cove), with lots of dead leaves of Posidonia oceanica (a species of sea grass), then we reach “le spiante degli scogli bianchi” (flat white rocks), where stormy north-east seas have deposited numerous sun and wind bleached tree trunks, they rest there defenceless like skeletons of sea monsters emerged from imaginary worlds. About forty minutes into our trip we get to one of the most spectacular points: the Scoglio della Lancia, in this area the sea is particularly beautiful, the fine white sandy seabed emphasises the blue colour of the clear water, it is so incredibly intense and luminous that it seems surreal. Now the coast has become higher: here erosion has designed phantasmagorical forms and cut into them spectacular grottos rich in stalactites and stalagmites. These grottos were probably inhabited in the Palaeolithic era and certainly in the Neolithic. On rounding Cala Brisighelli it is only a short paddle to another particularly evocative point, “Il Grottone”, a large grotto with a rocky seabed, where small shoals of white and saddled sea bream are often seen. On leaving the grotto we round Grottone Point, the home of many herring gull colonies and we start to follow the northern coast of Pianosa: after rounding Maestra Point, with its ex-prison lookout tower on top, we’ll enjoy the sight of a spectacular natural rock arch on our left, it is surrounded by caves and landslides, typical of this part of the coast; then we enter the small “Cala dello Zolfo” (cove) and we near the Punta del Marchese (point), this imposing promontory is surrounded by flat salt incrusted rocks: passing the shallows that border the Point we enter the spectacular Porto Romano bay. Porto Romano, also called Cala del Marchese, is a splendid semicircular bay with an extremely fine sandy seabed hiding ancient Roman cargo ships, it is surrounded by elegant white rocks of fantastic shapes, and it is thought to be the most beautiful small bay of Pianosa. We continue to paddle along the coast until we round the Secca dei Cormorani, then we return in a northerly direction, we leave the coast to circumnavigate the Scoglio della Scarpa a small island to the North of the geomorphological structure of Pianosa, then we return to coast along the eastern margin of Cala dello Zolfo, where the high white coast has web-like rocks. After passing over the luminous water in Scoglio Forano area we continue our excursion in this absolutely silent sea, which is only interrupted by the squeals of seagulls and the sound of cormorants taking off. Then after four hours we arrive back at Cala Giovanna beach (the only area on Pianosa where bathing is permitted) so we can go for a pleasant swim. Info: +39 0565 978005 -
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Sea kayak excursions 
