“It was immediately clear to me that there’s no place in Sardinia like it—in fact, only a few spots in the whole Mediterranean can claim such a level of environmental integrity,” says freediver Alessandro Masala about his early immersions in waters surrounding Asinara, an island dotting the western Mediterranean off the coast of Sardinia.
In the early 2000s, when Masala began exploring Asinara’s 68-mile (110 kilometers) coastline, the island had only recently gained the national park title. The pristine state of its marine environment, though, had earlier roots: For over a century, the rugged silhouette of this remote slice of earth had been off-limits for anyone but prisoners and guards.
