Sardinia

We were in Sardinia for one full week, June 22nd-29th. After a 4-hour drive to Italy’s west coast, a 7-hour ferry ride to Olbia, and another 1.5-hour drive, we arrived at our rental house in Isola Rossa, Sardinia on the Northern Coast. Isola Rossa means red island, which was just off the coast of the little town. The town had a few small stores, mostly beach gear and markets, plus a few restaurants, a small harbor and sandy beach. The beach there was just “meh,” as the water was sort of rough and not a shallow beach. We found no shortage of beautiful sandy beaches all over the island that were warm and shallow for the kids. Overall, the island landscape was scrubby brush and the coastline ranged from sandy white beaches to rocky cliffs. It was still a little cold for beach season, and a few days were downright cold and windy. We wished we had maybe waited until July or August when the weather and water would have been warmer. But it was a fun trip and still warm enough most days for the beach, the Sardinian food was amazing, the company of the R family was perfect, and we are glad we saw the island. One really windy and chilly day, we drove into Alghero, a spanish style walled city, to sightsee.

One day when we’d had enough of the beach, we drove about an hour to the west coast to see the Grotta di Nettuno. We hiked down 656 steps to the cave entrance at sea level. The other option was take a boat from Alghero, which was a farther drive, cost money, and then you had to traverse a wood plank from the boat into the cave entrance, while the boat captain did his best to steady the boat in the moving water and waves. I’ll take the 656 steps down and back up any day, and twice on Sunday over that boat dismount! I didn’t take many pictures inside the cave because low light plus iPhone camera equals not so great photography. But if you’ve ever been in a cavern with stalactites and stalagmites, it pretty much looked like that.