 From 1946 through 1961 the island was home to the Accademia Aeronautica, the Italian Air Force Academy, which has since moved to a hilltop campus on the mainland.Nisida is divided now between a naval headquarters belonging to the Italian Navy and a juvenile detention facility.The surprisingly extensive connections between the island and Britain may begin in the 7th century with Hadrian or Adrian of Canterbury, abbot of Christchurch, Dorset.