Small things make news, and last week’s stories (reported here in TravelGumbo) that Italian schoolchildren were raising funds to buy an unspoiled island and dedicate it to children seems to have awakened the conscience of a woman who once took home a bag of sand from the island.
In a letter to a newspaper, the woman said “I read in some newspapers…what this sand is and how it is made, how it is a natural park…I understood how unique Sardinia is. So I felt guilty and kept it hidden, always with the idea of returning it to the island.”
The island, Budelli, is off the coast of Sardinia and is renowned for its pink sandy beach, which can be visited by boat from Sardinia. On a day trip in 1987, the woman took home a small bag of the colored sand as a souvenir.
In recent years, the island has been the subject of legal battles between Italy, a New Zealand banker who wanted to buy it and make it a preserve, and others. When the banker finally won, he walked away from the deal and the children in a northern Italy town started a drive to buy it.
