Abandoned mafia prison reopens as tourist attraction « Euro Weekly News

Part of a historic prison on the idyllic island of Pianosa, where Italy’s most notorious gangsters were held, has been restored to boost tourism.

Located between Corsica and mainland Tuscany in Italy’s Tyrrhenian Sea lies the remote yet paradisiacal island of Pianosa, where some of Italy’s most notorious criminals and mafiosi have served long prison sentences.

Now the island – with a current population of five – is set to open a newly renovated section of an abandoned prison in a bid to boost visitor numbers. Known as the ‘Alcatraz of the Tyrrhenian Sea’, Pianosa became a penal colony in 1856 under the reign of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. From Roman times until the 1990s it served as an island prison.

In 1992, some 55 mafia bosses, including Michele ‘the Pope’ Greco, the first head of the Sicilian mafia, were imprisoned and held incommunicado on the island after the murders of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Rehabilitation program

Five years later, the Italian government decided to close the prison for good and transfer the prisoners, leaving the island deserted. From then on, the island came under the management of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago, which restored part of the prison and is now open to the public.

The island has remained connected to the prison system as part of an innovative rehabilitation program; convicted criminals who have served a third of their sentence are transferred to Pianosa to work as cooks, receptionists and cleaners at the Milena Hotel, the only one on the island.