The idea of Paolo Riccardi was to write a book upon leaving the Costa Smeralda, of which he had been the Director General for twenty-three years. A lawyer from Sassari and an immensely popular figure (details to follow), Riccardi was the hard-working Kissinger to the 49th Imam of the Ismailites; he was a manager brimming with enthusiasm who did not know the first thing about stock options, who throughout the Eighties successfully cultivated even the most difficult relationships between the Costa Smeralda Consortium and all of the regional and national institutions. A ´Stone-sick´ Sardinian, the Bravehearted lawyer (Riccardi is two meters tall) arrived at the court of the Aga Khan, his Sardinian court in the Pitrizza region, with a reputation as a peacemaker in family and company disputes in a family-centric, pre-industrial Sardinia. His is a biased, generous chronicle, but with notable moments of self-criticism. It is an unedited piece of Sardinian history.