The two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, do not only share outstanding landscapes and a unique cultural richness. As for many other peripheral regions of central-southern Italy, the postwar economic miracle assumed here the form of state-driven, heavy industrialization. Petrochemical plants, oil refineries and metallurgical industries gradually took over the coast, clearing out ancient rural and fishers' communities with the promise of modernity and long-lasting growth. In the span of a few decades, then, restructurings and closures have dramatically revealed the socio-economic fragility and environmental impact of such a development model.