Italo Balbo (Ferrara 1896 - Tobruk 1940).
Was one of the leading figures of Ferrara agrarian Fascism Movement, the founder of the Fascist Army, Minister of Aeronautics from 1929 to1933 during Mussolini's government. He directed air raids: West Mediterranean in 1928; East Mediterranean in 1929; South America from December 1930 to 1st January 1931 and North America in Inglago in 1933). After these enterprises he was appointed Air Warrant Officer. He was elected Governor of Lybia in December 1934, died in Africa on June 1940 because his aircraft was shot by mistake by the Italian Air Force in Tobuk. Punta Ala was wild and semi-desert. Two cultivated farms: Gualdo and Molletta. A few buildings: the tower of Torre Nova - the Castle -, Hidalgo tower and the Navy Observation post, in the extreme side of the isle of Troiaccia. The remains of the tower, destroyed by the privateers at the end of the 1400, are visible on the isle. In the plain there was an inhabited farmhouse (outside WC, oven at the top of the stair and a little stable on the ground floor); today the site hosts the Alleluia Hotel. Near the seaside there was a little house, inhabited by shepherds. Life was hard and lonely there: cattle were watered by wells near the farmhouses; farmers provided their drinking water from a spring in the Omomorto valley, which they reached on donkeys. Italo Balbo flying over the country was fascinated by the green hill going down to the sea and decided to by the land. Here there are the bills of sale: Atto Borgua of 14th december 1931...(click here to read the deed)

Italo Balbo bought all the promontory of Punta Troia, from the North of Poggio del Piastrone to the South of Poggio Rio Palma. The estate did not include any piece of land which belonged to the Bonzellotti. This extends from the inside of Balbo's estate to the Omomorto valley. The name of the promontory from the original Punta Troia was changed by Balbo to Punta Ala; the near isle of Punta Vecchia was named Lo Sparviero . The rocks maintained their name of I Porcellini (The piglets) due to the legend about a female wild boar that went down to the sea with its piglets to run away from the hunters. Italo Balbo planned improvements in the farmer's way of living during his stays there. His first task was to smooth the 6 kilometer-long road, which connected the estate to Pian D'Alma, changing its direction farther away from the seaside and through the rocks of Piastrone and Scoglietto right up to the castle. Between the castle and the sea a Fascist Party symbol was raised up, then destroyed. He then fenced in the estate with wire to prevent the cattle from falling down the ravines. A large area was smoothed and deforested to get two more estates: the first one was near Gualdo and the second one near Tartana. The actual polo playing field was a marsh reclaimed by Balbo and filled in with soil from a nearby hill. The soil was carried by a little wagon on tracks. He also built storehouses (the actual offices of Punta Ala SpA) and a farmhouse (below the castle - Tre Pini). Balbo planted the land of Pozzino, Fornino and Renaione with domestic and wild pines, using a farm oil Fiat 30 tractor - coming from Turin - to pull the plough for the farrow. At Fornino you can still see how the domestic pines originally planted in straight lines. He established a waterworks at the farm Tre Pini where an engine pumped the spring water of Omomorto to the Castle. A coal engine carried the electricity there. Punta Ala started changing. Much has been said about Balbo's stays at Punta Ala. Farinacci talked to Mussolini about it in a letter sent in June 1933:   "Y.Excellency Balbo has bought ..(click here to read the letter)"