Once we completed the AV1, we traded in the trails of the Dolomites for the beaches of Sardegna.  We found a house in Porto Rotondo (located on the eastern shore of Sardegna and just south of the Emerald Coast) to rent for nearly a week.   The house was bigger than we needed, but simple and was just a short walk to the port and the darling little town.  It also had a washing machine which was a most welcome amenity after our nine days of hiking.  

Porto Rotondo That first night we arrived (Friday) we decided that we didn't want to drive anywhere the next day and to just take it easy.   It was a perfect plan.  We slept in, purchased a few basics at the local market (for an outrageous amount), and chose to visit a beach that was within walking distance.  This was Lee's first swim in the Mediterranean and he loves it just as much as I do!  It always makes me happy when that happens, our odds of returning go up!  Unfortunately the sun was a scorcher that day (the European heatwave continued) and despite our efforts, we both got pretty crispy.  I can't believe we made that rookie mistake of day one in Sardegna! 

Before we left California, we had planned two boat outings for our week in Sardegna, one to the Arcipelago of the Maddalena and the other to the Gulf of Orosei.  One was for the Sunday and the other was for a Tuesday and I somehow mixed the two up.  Fortunately when we were headed north on the Sunday I realized we were supposed to have headed south, but the distance was too far for us to make it in time.  

The company was very willing to postpone our day in the Gulf and we were then left to decide what we wanted to do with our day.  We ended up deciding we wanted to go to the National Park Asinara Island to rent and ride bikes.  The Island is off of the northwest corner of Sardegna and I figured if we were heading there, we should check out some of the "don't miss" tourist stops on the way.  It was a bad call.  By choosing to stop by the "elephant rock", the trip to the Asinara Island took twice as long and by the time we made it to Stintino to catch the ferry, it was lunch time and no ferries were headed over until 2:15pm.  

Our bike ride on the Isola dell'Asinara

Since we had traveled all that way, we decided we'd still head over, even though it meant we would only have a couple of hours to explore before catching the last ferry back at 5pm.   I don't think we really realized how big of an island it was (both Sardegna and Asinara) and we didn't get but a glimpse of it during our time there.  We did manage to rent the last two bikes, however.  I had to convince the guy that they weren't "children's bikes" and we could ride them.  Mine  ended up being a piece of crap and I couldn't shift, but it was still fun for us to be out there together and to ride up to where we could catch a view of the turquoise beaches.   Not knowing just how best to manage our time, we ended up returning in the direction of the ferry and stopping at what was supposed to be a beautiful beach on the island.  We enjoyed getting in the water to cool off, but weren't super impressed.   Alghero City Walls Once we got back to the "mainland" we opted to drive to Alghero.  We had also read that sunset from the Alghero sea walls was a must - so if we were on that side of the island, we should go.  It took us about an hour to drive there, and despite the parking hassles, we still managed to arrive for sunset.  We walked along the seawalls and the historic center of town.  We found Alghero really quite pretty - and really liked the Catalon influence.   Before making the long trip back to Porto Rotondo, we ate dinner at a highly recommended place, La Botteghina.  The restaurant specializes in Sardinian dishes and was delicious.  We also had a terrific waitress.  We had a tasty plate of salumi and cheese - which included some of the best pecorino and ricotta.  I order culgoriones (or something like that) which was a high end stuffed pasta, similar to ravioli but different.  Delicious.  Lee had "gnocchetti" which was a pasta with pecorino and sausage.  And after a dessert of seardas (sweet empenanda with cheese) we headed back.  It was a late night and we had an early morning the next day... not as restful as we would have planned.

Orosei Gulf Monday ended up being the rescheduled Gulf of Orosei day. While it was awesome and definitely a highlight of the week, it was so hard for us to get up just six hours after getting back from Alghero.  The drive to Cala Gonone took about two hours and at 10am, 12 of us tourists hopped on a Gommone.  It's an inflatable motorized boat that could make great time down the coast as well as to pop into little caves and beaches that are part of the national park coastline. The first half of the day we hugged the coastline as we motored south.  Lee and I couldn't believe how turquoise blue the waters were; even from within one of the caves we were able to swim in. 

Pools of Venus

Around lunchtime, Antonio (our driver) stopped at Cala Briola, a beautiful beach made of small white stones for an hour.  The stones hurt the feet but we loved not getting covered in sand.  From there we continued south and paused at the Pools of Venice, deeply turquoise and crystal clear waters, for a quick swim.   It was another HOT day, so we welcomed any and all chances to jump in the water and sought shade any place we could.   The last stop we made before turning around and going north was Cala Galoritze - a UNESCO world heritage sight.   The beach itself is only accessible on foot through the national park.  We were only able to view it from a ways off in the boat.  Our first stop on the way back north was Cala dei Gabbioni.  This ended up being our favorite beach.  The beach was at the base of a large rock formation that provided much needed shade while also substantial beach for sunning oneself.  This beach also had the clean, beautiful stones instead of sand and the water just can't be described.   We stayed here for two hours but we could have stayed much, much longer.  If we could go back to Sardegna again, I would definitely stay closer to this part of the island.   

Cala dei Gabbioni

Our boat made one last stop on our way back to Cala Gonone - and that was at Cala Luna.  Here we had the opportunity to spend one last hour on the beach with 2,000 other Italians.   This was a sandy beach, packed with people without an inch of space to lay your towel.  We had to do as the Italians do and cozy up with the person next to you -- there is no personal space on an Italian beach.   Despite the final crowd, we still loved our day on the Gommone.  We pulled into Cala Gonone around 5:45pm, found a gelateria and headed back to Porto Rotondo.  By the time we got home and showered, it was LATE and in true southern Italian style, dined at 10pm.

An excellent first few days in Sardegna.  Pictures of our entire time in Sardegna are here.