With its wild mountain landscapes, Sardinia is a world apart from mainland Italy – and its busy capital, Cagliari, is no exception, said Dana Facaros in The Sunday Times.
When I first visited in the 1980s, the city was in a poor state, but it has “blossomed” since and now feels “vibrant” and “friendly” – ideal for a short break. Rising steeply to a crowning citadel at the head of a vast bay (the Golfo degli Angeli), it struck D.H. Lawrence, visiting in 1921, as “jewel-like”, “strange and rather wonderful”. One of Italy’s longest beaches, the “gorgeous” Poetto, stretches out immediately to the east, its white sands bordering wetlands where flamingos gather.
And in the city proper, there’s much to explore, including “buzzing” piazzas and good museums. The defensive walls around the city’s highest hilltop enclose a whole neighbourhood of winding streets and crumbling palazzi. This is Castello, where restaurants such as the legendary Pani e Casu serve traditional Sardinian dishes including porceddu (suckling pig slow-cooked with dandelion), and fregula (tiny toasted pasta balls) with clams.
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The district is also home to the National Archaeological Museum, which includes finds from the island’s nuraghe, stone towers dating back as far as 1800BC that are the world’s tallest megalithic constructions bar the pyramids. Among them are the Giants of Mont’e Prama – mysterious sculptures of warriors – and wonderful little “cartoon-character bronzes” including archers, bakers, “deer-headed boats and a guy selling doughnuts”.
The city has one of Europe’s biggest covered markets and some lovely shops, including Antica Cappelleria Martello (a hat shop founded in 1888) and Su Trobasciu, a traditional weavers’ cooperative.
And there are some great places to visit nearby, including more lovely beaches (all with gin-clear waters) and two great archaeological sites. Barumini is a “mighty” complex of nuraghe, while Nora is a Phoenician city in a beautiful coastal setting, founded in the 8th century BC and later occupied by Carthaginians and Romans.
