Sardinia
Sardinia is an island region and is the second-biggest island in Italy. Most (over 80 per cent) of its territory is hills or mountains and the coast is often rocky or with cliffs, although there are many beautiful unspoiled beaches.
Sardinia is an enchanting region with very different types of landscape, ranging from unspoilt wild areas to prehistoric heritage sites and Roman ruins.
There are many sites with ruins from ancient civilisations, like the ‘nuraghi’ (round towers made of stone, unique to this island), built 3500 years ago (there are about 7000 of these on the island). There are also many ruins dating to an era before the ‘nuraghe’.
The largest and better known protected areas in Sardinia are the Gennargentu National Park and the natural reserve of Caprera Island. Most tourists choose to take their holidays on the Costa Smeralda (‘emerald coast’) to the north east of Gallura. In this area there is a high concentration of tourist villages and hotels. The most famous and popular destinations of the Costa Smeralda are Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo.
A very important element of Sardinian cooking is the famous the “pane carasau”, also called music paper; famous wines are Vermentino di Gallura and Vernaccia di Oristano, and the most famous liqueur is Mirto.
Provinces: Cagliari, Nuoro, Oristano, Sassari
