LA MADDALENA, Italy — The ferry churns through royal-blue Mediterranean waters to reach this speck of an island off the northern tip of secluded Sardinia. Small houses are built into La Maddalena's gentle hillside, in colors of maize, eggshell and dusty rose. Languid, green palms hang over tranquil streets.
Only little by little does the U.S. Navy make its presence known.
Officers in crisp khakis stroll near the gigantic anchor that marks Commando Square. Locals know how to spot the license plates used by American seamen and their families. They can be seen shopping at an enormous, Wal-Mart-type store, sign-less behind large gates in the center of La Maddalena, or jogging along the edge of this island about 120 miles west of the Italian mainland.
Sardinia may be best known as a lush playground for the rich and famous who cavort amid its pristine waters and secluded beaches, but it also plays host to U.S. nuclear submarines and more military installations and activity -- American, Italian and NATO -- than anywhere else in Italy. Plans to draw down the U.S. military elsewhere in Europe and in the United States do not apply here.
That does not sit well with the man who governs Sardinia and a small but growing movement of activists who say the soldiers and sailors have overstayed their welcome.
"The real issue for us is, after 30 years, we still have an American base here in our archipelago. Is that necessary?" Sardinia's regional president, Renato Soru, said in an interview in Cagliari, the capital city at the opposite end of the island from La Maddalena.
For too long, Soru said, Sardinia has borne the brunt of this military presence, and it's time for other parts of the world to do their share. Moreover, he said, repairing and resupplying nuclear subs in a pristine area of national parks is dangerously inappropriate.
It is not that Sardinians don't like Americans, he insisted. It is a matter of national sovereignty.
"We love American tourists, entrepreneurs, professors.... We are good friends with the U.S.," Soru said. "But would you want a nuclear submarine next to your house?"
Soru, the 48-year-old son of a shopkeeper, earned a degree in economics and went on to make billions of dollars in Internet communications. He joined Italy's center-left political scene in the 1990s and was elected last year to the top government job on the island.
