Sardinia
Italy
April 5th - 11th, 2026
This is the blog post about the first part of a three week trip through Italy (with a short detour to Corsica). Rosie and I spend Easter Sunday with my family in Germany, and then flew directly from Munich to Cagliari, which is less than a two hour flight. We stayed at a wonderful hotel, the Palazzo Tirso, which is a converted palazzo located right on the harbor front. Although we arrived late in the afternoon, Rosie figured out a short sunset hike we could do right near Cagliari. It took us out onto a small peninsula called Sella del Diavolo (the Devil's Saddle) and ended at the Torre del Poetto, which is a beautiful ruined 16th century Genoese watch tower overlooking the deep blue waters of Cagliari bay.
We started our sightseeing the next morning with private guided walking tour of the city. Cagliari is the capital, largest city and economic hub of Sardinia. Located on the southern tip of the island, the metropolitan area is home to around 400,000 people. Cagliari bay serves as a deep natural harbour and is also home to the largest colony of flamingoes in Europe.
The city's origins go back to the Phoenicians, who founded a small settlement here around 800 BC. During the next centuries the city was expanded significantly and became an important strategic harbor. After the First Punic War the city fell under the control of Rome, and continued to flourish as the administrative capital of the Roman province of Sardinia et Corsica. Our city walk took us first to the monumental staircase of the Bastione San Remy, which was built in 1899, and then continued through narrow streets lined with colorful flower pots.
The most historical part of Cagliari is the Castello district, which is the medieval fortified citadel located high above the rest of the city on a steep limestone cliff. If you don't want to walk up the steep streets, you can also take this impressive multi-level elevator.
From up here we had beautiful views of the whole city.
Cagliari Cathedral is a Romanesque style church originally built in the 13th century, but extensively renovated in baroque style in the 17th and 18th century.
The highlights of the interiors are the baroque crypt, which contains 179 niches each holding a relic of the martyrs of Cagliari, and the finely carved 12th century pulpit, which was originally sculpted for Pisa Cathedral, but transferred to Cagliari in the 13th century.
The impressive city walls, towers and city gates in Castello were mainly built by the Pisans in the 13th century, when Sardinia was under the control of the Republic of Pisa. The Torre dell'Elefante is one of the two huge and well preserved entrance gates, constructed in 1307.
In the afternoon we decided to drive 40 minutes along the coast to the southwest of the city in order to visit a fascinating archaeological site. Situated on a narrow peninsula overlooked by a 16th century Genoese watch tower, the ancient ruins of Nora are the remains of the oldest city in Sardinia. Founded by Phoenician settlers around the 9th century BC, the Carthaginians expanded the settlement significantly over the next centuries, but it was under the Romans that Nora developed into a large and prosperous city.
Today, a significant portion of the ancient city lies underwater, as the peninsula gradually subsided into the Mediterranean. The parts of the city that remain above ground are quite well preserved. You can walk though the ruins and see the foundations of temples, houses and public baths and some beautiful mosaic floors.
The small Roman theater looks directly out over the sea. The whole site was abandoned around the 11th century AD, most likely due to a combination of coastal erosion and Arab raids.
We returned back to Cagliari in the late afternoon. After visiting the archeological museum, we found a perfect dinner spot on a terrace, where we could watch the spectacular sunset of the city and the bay.
Most tourists to Sardinia tend to skip Cagliari and head straight for the beaches, which is a shame, because it is a genuinely fascinating and beautiful city, that is definitely worth spending a day or two in.
The next morning I had booked us a half-day trip on Viator to what would turn out to be my highlight of Sardinia - the incredible ruins of Su Nuraxi.
The most intriguing part of Sardinia's long and varied history, is the mysterious prehistoric Nuragic culture, which is a bronze age civilization that existed and flourished only here on Sardinia (and nowhere else in the Mediterranean) from around 1,800 to 500 BCE. The Nuragic people built thousands of stone tower-fortresses, called Nuraghi, all over the island. Nuraghi typically involve a circular central structure. surrounded by smaller buildings. They used very sophisticated construction techniques moving huge stones, but since they had no written language, not much is known about the purpose of these mysterious structures, and they have no parallels anywhere in the world.
Su Nuraxi, located about an hour north of Cagliari, is one of the largest and the best preserved of all the Nuraghi in Sardinia. It was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1997. The central tower of Su Nuraxi was constructed around 1500 BC. It started as a single massive stone tower, which was extended and widened into a complex of several connected towers over the following centuries.
There was a sizeable village surrounding the towers, which probably housed several hundred people. The whole complex remained buried for millennia and was only rediscovered in the 1950s.
Su Nuraxi was an absolutely extraordinary sight. I was blown away by the sheer scale and sophistication of the architecture and by the size of the huge boulders, that had been assembled without mortar.
The Nuragic people also produced highly valued bronze weapons and traded with other societies across the Mediterranean, including the Egyptians. They also created incredibly detailed and sophisticated bronze figurines, like this one. We had visited the National Archeological Museum in Cagliari the previous day, which contains an amazing collection of Nuragic artefacts and we learned a lot about the Nuraghi and their little known history.
When Phoenician traders began establishing settlements along the coast around 900 BCE, the Nuragic people were pushed slowly into the mountainous interior, and their civilization more or less disappeared around 500 BCE. Their only heritage remain the thousands of Nuraghi structures across the island. Seeing Su Nuraxi and learning about this fascinating bronze age civilization was truly an incredible experience, which by itself would make a trip to Sardinia worthwhile.
After being dropped off back in Cagliari, we picked up our luggage and car and headed north along the east coast. We spent the next three nights in a beautiful beachside resort called Lanthia Resort in the town of Santa Maria Navarrese.
The eastern part of Sardinia is the most mountainous region, and we did not come here for the beach, but for the hiking. We chose two of the most iconic hikes in all of Sardinia. The first one took us high up into the mountains. It was about a one hour drive and the hike started at an altitude of more than 1000 meters on the top of Silana Pass.
The trail took us downhill along many switchbacks into the valley. We had some great views over the lush green landscape along the way.
At the bottom of the valley, we entered one of the deepest and narrowest canyons in all of Europe - the spectacular Gorropu Gorge. You have to pay an entrance fee (they only take cash) before you can enter the canyon. The hike into the canyon involves a bit of scrambling over and under some large boulders. The incredible 500 meter high vertical canyon walls seem to close in on you the further you go inside the gorge.
It was an amazing site, and well worth the long and exhausting hike back up to the trail head. We had a well deserved cold beer at the café on top before driving back to Santa Maria Navarrese.
And if Gorropu Gorge wasn't spectacular enough, our hike the next day would take us to what was voted in 2025 to be the number one beach in the world. Cala Goloritze is a small beach, that can only be reached by hiking down 500 meters. Because of its beauty and small size, they restrict the daily number of visitors to 250 people. It wasn't a problem in April to buy tickets online the day before, but during the summer season you probably have to buy them much further in advance. The trail takes you down into a valley, and if you are lucky you come across wild pigs and goats, which live in this mountains.
After about a 1.5 hour hike we crossed over a ridge and suddenly had this view, which was one of the clearest and bluest waters I had ever seen.
This truly amazing little beach is nestled in among enormous boulders and this huge spire towering over it.
We spent a couple of hours here, and even went into the water, but not for very long. It was freezing, a rather unpleasant 15 degrees or so.
While lying on the beach we suddenly noticed people clinging to the huge spire above the beach. Apparently this is a very popular climbing spot.
The next day we had along drive up north to catch a ferry to Corsica. But broke up the drive by visiting what is known to be the most beautiful church on the island. A few kilometers outside of the town of Sassari, standing alone in an almost empty valley surrounded by gentle green hills, the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity of Saccargia is a striking and beautiful Romanesque building.
Built in 1116 in Pisan style with alternating bands of black basalt and white limestone, the tall and elegant bell tower dominates the surrounding landscape. The church's interior contains remarkably well preserved medieval frescoes, dating back to the late 12th century.
After spending three days in Corsica we returned to Sardinia for one night. It was Rosie's birthday, so we stayed at a specially beautiful resort near the town of Porto Cervo. On the way there we visited one interesting site, called Roccia dell’Orso, or Bear Rock, which from afar looks like a bear. We climbed up to the rock to enjoy the great view of landscape and sea below.
We left Sardinia on a EasyJet flight from Olbia Airport to Milan Malpensa the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment