In 1968, Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa completed a 400-square-meter platform in international waters off the coast of Emilia-Romagna, declared it the independent Republic of Rose Island, and named himself president. This episode dives into the unbelievable true story of a man whose architectural dream provoked an entire national navy, and the enduring debate over whether he was a utopian pioneer or a clever tax dodger.

We explore the ingenious telescopic steel-tube construction that let Rosa build without heavy cranes, his choice of Esperanto as the official language, and his attempt to meet the Montevideo Convention’s criteria for statehood. We follow Italy’s swift crackdown, the naval blockade led partly by financial police, the platform’s astonishing survival of two bombing attempts, and the storm that finally toppled it, after which Italy invoiced Rosa for the demolition.

• How placing the platform just past six nautical miles put it in international waters
• The commercial amenities and post office that doubled as a bid for sovereignty
• Why the inclusion of the Guardia di Finanza revealed Italy’s view of it as tax evasion
• How Rosa’s flexible pylon design let the structure absorb the navy’s explosives
• The platform’s afterlife in stamps, a comic book, and the 2020 Netflix film Rose Island