Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island is a North Carolina barrier island just north of Wrightsville Beach, widely known as an affluent summer colony and vacation desitination. The island is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Area, and lies between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. As a private island, Figure Eight can only be reached by boat or via a guarded causeway swing bridge — the only private bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in the Southeast. The island has been a destination for celebrities and politicians, including former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Edwards, — and a
Gorgona Agricultural Penal Colony the lands remained under the control of the Carthusians until the 1770s when the order sold its lands to the Grand Duke of Tuscany (the future Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor) who turned the island into a fishing village and attempted to repopulate it. Following the unification of Italy in the mid-19th century, the island came under the control of the Kingdom of Italy which converted the former monastery lands into an experimental agricultural penal colony in 1869. Located across the Ligurian Sea from the Italian port city of Livorno, Gorgona island is considered "impossible" to escape from which has