Coastal Sardinia

Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sardinia with its app. 1.800 kilometres of coastline, is one of the most popular destinations for people who love aquatic sports and seaside holidays, not only for its natural beauty and geographical position but also for its history.
The many waves of invaders who plundered and settled in Sardinia during the thousands of years of Sardinian history, came from the sea.

For this reason the Sardinians, until recently, have never loved the sea and they built very few villages along the coast. The most important villages were built during the period of the Roman domination and before that under the Phoenician-Punic domination. Some examples are: Karalis (Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia), Nora, Tharros, Olbia and Turris Libissonis (Porto Torres) on the Northern coast of Sardinia.

During the last years of this 2nd millennium, the importance of both the sea and the coast has increased. This is due in part to the relatively recent discovery of tourism, which started at the end of the 1950's, and in part to the development of certain parts of the economy connected to the sea such as fishing and transport.

It is neither a coincidence nor a fashion that nowadays Sardinia is the preferred destination for many tourists. The sea around this large Mediterranean Island (second only to Sicily in size among all Mediterranean Islands) is among the most beautiful and transparent in all the world. In fact D.H. Lawrence in his famous book 'The Sea and Sardinia' wrote that Sardinia was a land like no other and the Sardinian writer, Marcello Serra entitled one of his famous books "Sardinia: Almost a Continent", in order to underline the uniqueness of the Sardinian landscapes and the large and deep differences among the Island's various regions which make Sardinia similar to a continent.

By sailing around the Island, the uniqueness of Sardinia can be appreciated. From the sea one can admire not only the long fine grained sandy beaches but also trachyte rocks, calcareous cliffs, granite rock faces and dark masses of schists. Sailing along the coast, especially if accompanied by the silence of a sailing boat, the unmistakable perfume of macchia Mediterranea (the Mediterranean shrub), which characterises almost all Sardinian landscapes, is ever present. The wind carries the aroma of myrtle, arbutus, rosemary and wild juniper and fills the cabin with sweet scented air.
These fragrances are an inducement to stop at one of the many landing places along the coast of the Island, not only for a stopover, but also for an excursion inland to see a Nuraghe or simply to make friends with the local people.