SARDINIA

Isolated in the center of the Western Mediterranean, distant from any continental coast, Sardinia is an island-continent of absolute beauty and an ancient civilization that holds secrets still only partially revealed to the world. It is the land of the most beautiful sea in Europe —the Costa Smeralda with its emerald and turquoise waters, the wild Ogliastra, the Sulcis of Sant'Antioco, and the Gulf of Orosei with its coves accessible only by sea or on foot—and at the same time of the nuraghi, the stone towers that the Nuragic civilization built four thousand years ago in extraordinary numbers: over six thousand still visible, testimony to a mysterious and powerful culture. It is the land of the Barbagia centenarians, of crispy carasau bread and aged Sardinian pecorino cheese, of the polyphonic cantu a tenore, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of a language and an identity unlike any other in Italy.

beaches

Sardinia's beaches are considered among the most beautiful in the world for the quality of their waters—crystalline, with white sandy bottoms that create Caribbean-like reflections—and for the variety of their coastal environments. The Costa Smeralda in the northeast, with Porto Cervo, Cala di Volpe, and Capriccioli, is a destination for the international elite; but Sardinia's true beauty lies in its lesser-known beaches: Cala Goloritzé in Ogliastra, reachable only on foot or by boat, with its arch of white rock falling onto the purest sand, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; La Pelosa Beach in Stintino with its Aragonese tower; Is Arutas Beach with its pink-white quartz grains like tiny gemstones; Chia with its golden sand dunes and turquoise waters; and Villasimius with Lake Notteri where pink flamingos gaze out over the sea. The Gulf of Orosei, with the coves of Luna, Sisine, Biriola, and Mariolu, is one of the most spectacular coastlines in the Mediterranean.

Landscapes

Barbagia is the wild heart of Sardinia: the Gennargentu Plateau, with Punta La Marmora, the island's highest peak at 1.834 meters, is home to the Gennargentu National Park, where the Sardinian deer—a small endemic subspecies—and the mouflon, the island's symbol, graze among holm oaks and downy oaks. The Barbagia villages of Orgosolo with its political murals, Mamoiada with its Mamuthones masks, Oliena at the foot of the limestone Supramonte, and Fonni, Sardinia's highest town, preserve ancient traditions that are still alive. The Gorropu Gorges—the deepest in Europe with vertical walls 500 meters high—the Tiscali Canyon with its Nuragic city hidden in a cave, and the holm oak forests of the Montes Forest complete a hinterland of rare power. The Fordongianus thermal baths, the Cagliari salt pans with their flamingos, the Sinis lagoons, and the Asinara protected area, a former penal colony now a national park, are other chapters in an island that never ceases to amaze.