His administration fell after a year, but he returned in 2019 and has been mayor for seven years.
Bacoli's town council owns over a quarter of the 13 sq km land, 60% of which is coastal.
Villa Ferretti, a 19th-century villa with Roman ruins, fell into the hands of the Camorra clan Pariante, who closed public beach access.
Seized by the Anti-Mafia Investigation Division in 1995, it was transferred to the municipality in 2003.
In 2016, the council turned the beach and garden into a public park with an outdoor theater, leasing the villa to the University of Naples Federico II.
Della Ragione's vision is to give the city back to its citizens, rejecting patronage.
He says the “public good” in southern Italy is often seen as a cake to be divided among friends, voters, and relatives.
Miseno beach in Bacoli is another flashpoint.
It's a half-mile curving finger of sand, but access is blocked by military resorts: navy, air force, army, coastguard, and Guardia di Finanza.
Together, they occupy about 100,000 sq meters of sand for exclusive use.
Finding an alleyway between installations leads to clear water and views of Procida, Ischia, and Capri.
The military presence is purely commercial: deck chairs and economics.
In military lidos, a piece (deck chair or parasol) costs only €3 with free parking, undercutting non-military lidos that charge €7 to €10.
Managers are local lads, not uniformed personnel, offering subsidized coffee and meals.
The free beach at Miseno is deliberately grotty, with wet wipes and straws in the sand. Private operators argue that public beaches are inevitably dirty.
