sardinia VI: alghero & fertilia

  
Stephen said Alghero's old town reminded him of Disneyland, and I guess he's not wrong. Some of the streets off the main tourist drag were a little less crowded and a little more atmospheric, though. Plus we saw a spaghetti-eating dog, a.k.a. the essence of Italy.

We didn't find anywhere appealing to eat in or out of old-town Alghero, so we headed back to Fertilia, where we were staying (at Hostal de l'Alguer, basic but perfectly fine and the staff was super friendly) and got excellent roasted vegetables and pizza for dinner. Have you ever had onion pizza? It was delicious.

sardinia V: arcipelago di la maddalena

  
We got up bright and early on our second-to-last day in Sardinia and booked it from Cannigione up to Palau, where we drove right on to a ferry to La Maddalena, largest town of the Arcipelago di la Maddalena and jumping-off point for boat tours to the other, smaller islands. Unfortunately when we got there it was too windy and the water was too choppy for the boats to be going out, so we had to DIY an island tour of the two drivable islands instead (Isola Maddalena and Isola Caprera). There's a causeway from Isola Maddalena over to Isola Caprera, and I was glad we went -- at the bottom of Isola Caprera there's a narrow isthmus with views of the bay on both sides. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. (That's me in the top picture, swimming on the northern side of said isthmus. I wasn't going to let a little wind get in the way of being in the water, though once I got in I sure didn't want to get out and face cool wind and blowing sand.)

Possibly the greatest part of the town of La Maddalena, beyond the wonderful old houses and storefronts: pistachio amaretti cookies. Look at that green! We got them at Pasticceria Manunta on Via Amendola 27, opposite where all the day-trip boats are docked, and were kicking ourselves for having only bought two when we could have had dozens.

sardinia IV: cala gonone to cannigione

  
Highly recommended: renting a car and roadtripping through Sardinia. From the top: the view from our hotel in Cala Gonone (Villa Gustui Maris, highly recommended); some doorways and flowers in Cala Gonone; the beach at Cala di Cartoe; the beach at Cala Orsalla di Dorgali; the beach at San Giovanni; and the water at Cannigione. San Giovanni was probably the worst beach we went to in Sardinia, and by "worst" I still mean "better than anything remotely close to Frankfurt". (I occasionally think I might be living in the wrong country.)

sardinia III: road goats

On the way out of Cala Gonone, Stephen and I had to make way for goats. I nearly died of the amazingness.

sardinia II: the blue crescent

Did you know places that look like this existed in Europe? I sure didn't. The Cala Gonone area is stunning. We barely made it onto a day-long boat tour (just five minutes before the scheduled take-off! though, being in sunny laid-back Cala Gonone, no one actually took off right at eleven a.m.) and were so glad we did -- it was the best weather and most perfect day of the trip. Since we didn't bring food along, we were forced to eat Italian chipwiches off a snack-bar boat, in between snorkeling and swimming in grottos and sunning ourselves on fabulous beaches. Oh, the hardship.

sardinia I: chia

Stephen and I spent five days in Sardinia recently, and can we talk for a minute about how excellent that place is? Of course we can. We hopped off the plane and immediately booked it down the coast to Chia (pronounced Kia), where we hit up our first two beaches: unnamed Chia-area beach down a road marked "Al Mare" (yes please) and Su Porto. We had to drive halfway across the island in the evening but I'm all for going back -- the area is so excellent and you can dive amongst Roman ruins nearby. So cool.