Your property in Sardinia
Luxurious villas with large gardens and swimming pools with uninterrupted sea views regularly feature among the high-end property in Sardinia.
The popular Porto Cervo area in the north-east of the island is part of the Costa Smeralda, an area first developed in the 1950s by the Prince Aga Khan, who together with five investors bought 12,000 hectares and developed it in an environmentally sustainable way, before such a concept was common place.
Porto Cervo, and the nearby Porto Rotondo, offer large properties with magnificent views across the Tyrrhenian Sea to the mainland, while some of the golf courses in the area have splendid apartments on offer.
Inside Sardinia
The culturally rich and stunning island of Sardinia, which boasts almost 2,000 kilometres of pristine coastline, is famed for its beaches, its wild countryside, its history and its passionate inhabitants.
Although technically part of Italy, Sardinia retains a distinct identity thanks to its distance from the mainland, with ancient traditions, local recipes and its Sardinian dialect alive and well today.
In its peaceful towns and villages, ancient architecture hints at the island’s past while numerous festivals re-enact religious and pagan rituals. Arguably the main draw of Sicily though is its rugged natural beauty, with a quarter of the island being dedicated as a national park or protected reserve, providing truly unspoiled nature to explore across picturesque beaches in Costa Smeralda, coast paths in Cala Luna or forests in Gola Su Gorrupu.
And surrounded by sea, the island is a haven for water sports such as diving, sailing and windsurfing.
Landscape
Whether it’s beaches, forests or mountains, Sardinia offers it all in a truly stunning way.
The beaches of the Costa Smeralda juxtapose brilliant white sand with a deep turquoise sea, while the interior of the island offers a range of hills and mountains to explore, where tiny rural hamlets lay hidden away.
Off Sardinia’s coast lay some smaller islands, with the likes of Isola dell’Asinara being home to blue-eyed albino donkeys and other unexpected wildlife.
Education
Cagliari’s Chatterbox was the first English nursery and primary school with a bilingual curriculum in Sardinia, while in the north of the island, the International School in Olbia is also an English-language school.
For further education, the University of Sassari is among the top 30 universities in Italy, while the University of Cagliari is also well-regarded.
Activities and Entertainment
Sardinia is bursting with historical sites to explore, from the ruins of the 3rd Century Tempio di Antas Roman temple, to its thousands of Bronze Age towers and settlements known as nuraghi, and Sassari’s 18th Century baroque cathedral.
The island is peerless when it comes to natural beauty, with breathtaking beaches straddling the Costa Smeralda, national parks and nature reserves like those in Stintino, Isola dell’Asinara and Acripelago di la Maddalena, through to the heady heights of its loftiest peak, Punta la Marmora, which challenges hikers and cyclists alike.
Little excuse is needed for a festival in Sardinia, with religious and pagan events alongside various other celebrations, including S’Ardia, often dubbed as Sardinia’s most dangerous horse race, through to Cavalcata Sarda, one of the island’s most high-profile events complete with costumed procession, singing and dancing.
Art and Culture
For a small island, Sardinia possesses a wealth of museums charting everything from archaeological artefacts, to Sardinian folklore, local art and rural traditions.
The vibrant island also has a lively arts scene, with several notable galleries, while its love of sport is exhibited at events like the Extreme Fun Games event in San Teodoro, a four-day festival of kitesurfing, windsurfing and stand-up paddleboarding in the self-proclaimed beach sports capital of Sardinia.
Music is popular on the island, with the Narcao Blues Festival in Sulcis and Berchidda’s Time in Jazz event among the most popular.
Food and Drink
As an island, seafood dominates menus in Sardinia, with seafood fregola (a Sardinian pasta made of semolina), spaghetti with sea urchin, and octopus salad being extremely popular meals.
But it offers a wealth of different dishes, with roasted suckling pig, gnocchi-like malloreddus alla campidanese, and pecora in cappotto mutton stew, among the most popular traditional meals. Sardinia also excels in its sweet treats, with deep-fried semolina seadas, or pardulas – small pies filled with ricotta, saffron and lemon – frequently savoured by locals.
Sardinia produces some exceptional wine, with the white Vermentino di Gallura achieving the highest rank – DCOG – in the four-tier Italian classification system. Other popular wines such as Torbato, from Alghero, and Malvasia di Bosa, a red from Vernaccia on the island’s west coast are very highly regarded.
Accessibility
Sardinia has three international airports, including Olbia Airport within the Costa Smeralda area, providing frequent flights to mainland Italy and other European destinations in summer and a reduced service in winter.
Ferrie also connect the island to the mainland, with Olbia being one of the busiest ports on the island.
Exploring the island is possible by public transport, but its rural nature can make having a car extremely useful.