The Tremiti Islands, which are situated a mere twenty-two kilometres from the nearest point on the coast of the Gargano (and are linked by daily ferry and speedboat services, to Manfredonia, Rodi Garganico and the Molisan port of Termoli, Vasto and Ortona), are a miniature archipelago. Covering a surface area of just 3,06 square kilometres and with a population of less than 350 inhabitants, the commune of the Tremiti Islands is the smallest and most sparsely populated in the whole of Puglia. The ancients found a much more poetic name for these islands, inhabited since prehistoric times: they called them the Diomede's Inslands as they believed that they were the burial place of Diomedes, the hero created by Homer who, having returned from the Troia War, landed here after his infinite wanderings. The Tremiti Islands are huddled together, consisting of a few calcareous rocks shaped by sea erosion. The smallest of the three islands, San Nicola, with a surface area of just 41 hectares, is the historical, administrative and religious centre of the Tremiti Islands, as the history of the archipelago for a long time corresponded exactly with that of the abbey that stands on it. A brave abbey, engaged in a permanent struggle to establish its autonomy and defend itself from the Saracen and Dalmatian pirates. A pirate raid, in the 14th century, left the monastery and the inslands abandoned and undefender for more than a century before the arrival of the Lateran Regular Canonical monks of San Frediano di Lucca who converted the abbey into an authentic fortress, which they defended steadfastly. With the advent of the Bourbons, the monastery, which had been defined as a Monte Cassino in the middle of the sea, began to fall into decay. If San Nicola is the island of the past, the island of San Domino, the largest (211 hectares) and the most beautiful, is the one which is quietly enjoying the present-day fortunes of tourism. The third islands, Capraia (which takes its name from the caper plant) is uninhabited and is almost completely without tree vegetation, like the distant Pianosa. The Bourbons, during the past century, transformed the Tremiti Islands into a penal colony and then, with the intention of repopulating them, sent about a hundred women there. As time passed the old colony of convicts turned into a rispectable society, whose economy was based on fishing, agriculture and small-scale trading. The only reminder of those times is, surprisingly, a hint of the 19th century Neapolitan accent in the local dialect. In 1932, the islands were given communal status, and in 1932 they received electricity for the first time. The warmth of the inhabitants, the pine forest of San Domino, the clear water, the beautiful sea-bottom, the inlets where, in the past, the Turks and the English landed, the caves with their violet-coloured water and the one with sparkling water, the Scoglio del Diavolo (Devil's Rock) and the Scoglio dell'Elefante (Elephant's Rock), the Renaissance facade, the wooden polyptych and the Byzantine-style Crucifix of Santa Maria a Mare, the tombs of Julia and Diomedes, with their noble legends, year after year, attract an evergrowing number of tourists and visitors.