Staring at a wall full of bandits was not exactly what I had in mind when contemplating a beach holiday in Sardinia. But it turns out that Italy’s second-biggest island is famous for its brigands. And who could resist a Museum of Banditry, something I had never before come across?
The museum (£3.50; museodiaggius.it) was in the former courthouse in Aggius, a small town in northern Sardinia with winding cobbled streets empty of people yet an unsettling sense of being watched. This was the epicentre of Sardinian banditry for about 300 years.
Inside, we were confronted by dozens of black-and-white photos of what looked like baddies from wanted posters in westerns. A glass cabinet housed a collection of confiscated muskets with the longest barrels I have ever seen, while handwritten ledgers carried police reports with delicious details, including a line referring to a bandit’s “soft body, little beard and feminine voice”.
Much of this banditry seemed more like resistance to occupation, as it took place from the mid-16th century, when the island was under Spanish rule, to the mid-19th century, under the House of Savoy, and often involved a refusal to pay taxes.
Aggius was the epicentre of Sardinian banditry for about 300 years
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One display case, however, was dedicated to a particularly ruthless deaf-mute outlaw, Il Muto di Gallura, who had been involved in a local feud so bloody that it left more than 70 people dead. He, like others, hid out among the granite rock formations that surround Aggius, known as the Valley of the Moon. Today the valley attracts Buddhist monks from far and wide who believe the giant stones harness telluric energy and magnetic forces, giving it magic powers.
It wasn’t just bandits and moon rocks that were a revelation on our first visit to Sardinia but also its white sands and crystalline turquoise waters, for which it gets called “the Maldives of Europe”.
Sardinia, it turns out, is nothing like mainland Italy, which is perhaps not surprising given it is nearer to Tunis than Rome. Fiercely autonomous, it has its own language, Sarda, while everywhere we went we saw the island’s somewhat alarming white flag with a red cross and the bandaged heads of four Moors. And while Italy recently elected its first female prime minister, from the far right, Sardinia last year elected its first woman as president, but from the left.
My husband and I had come to the island for a friend’s wedding in the capital, Cagliari, but having never been to Sardinia before, we decided to make a holiday of it.
Christina and her husband on Sardinia
We left a chilly, grey Heathrow early one July morning to emerge three hours later into the bright blue skies and skin-caressing sunshine of Olbia in the north. There was something satisfying about ignoring the turn-off for Costa Smeralda, aka the Emerald Coast, developed by the late Aga Khan and beloved of celebs, footballers and megayachts, and driving our rental car an hour further to the much wilder Gallura.
• Read our full guide to Sardinia
We were headed to the largely untouched coastline facing the Maddalena archipelago, a national park of 62 islands with about 300 beaches and numerous rare plants. It seems we were just in time — so many other tourists have discovered the archipelago in the past year that there is talk of limiting visitor numbers.
Our destination was Valle dell’Erica, an award-winning five-star resort that sprawls along the coast and hillside. It covers an area so vast that a fleet of golf buggies chugs around narrow lanes lined with azalea bushes to ferry guests between restaurants, pools and beaches.
Valle dell’Erica has a homely feel, despite its vast size
We would have needed more than our four days there to fully explore, but we did our best, swimming and sunbathing at various coves and beaches. We also spent an afternoon at the resort’s Thalasso spa, which really is to die for, sampling the four seawater pools with their massage jets and varying temperatures, including one complete with underwater exercise bikes, and dramatically located amid granite rocks. One evening we tried a sound bath on the beach and lay on the sand listening to waves lapping and the low vibration of a gong over our bodies, interspersed with the occasional rustle of a rainstick. I don’t know if it achieved anything but it was definitely a pretty nice way to pass an hour.
On other evenings we’d sit on the terrace of our lovely, spacious room watching the sun go down over the sea as we sipped chilled local vermentino and crunched on pane carasau, a cracker-like flatbread, while making the biggest decision of the day — where to go for dinner.
We sampled four of the seven restaurants, which range from large buffet-style operations serving everything from fresh pasta to local fish to a tiny romanticspot with just five tables on the beach. Our favourite was Li Ciusoni on the hillside, where we looked out over hundreds of stars while tucking into an array of wonderful local meats and cheeses, followed by delicious pasta made in front of us by the owner’s sister-in-law, and suckling pig — an unexpected local speciality.
The weird thing about Sardinia, reflected in its food, is that for all its incredible coastline and spectacular beaches, its population is inland-facing, having endured waves of invasions by all the usual suspects — Romans, Phoenicians, Arabs, Vandals, Barbarians, Visigoths — and spending almost four centuries under Spanish rule. Even Napoleon tried to invade. His very first taste of battle was as part of the revolutionary French army that tried to take Maddalena in 1793 and was forced to retreat.
The hotel has seven restaurants to choose from
Apart from various ruins, the invasions left behind a hardened population for whom age-old cultural traditions survive, partly owing to the relative isolation of much of Sardinia. The island has nearly twice as many sheep as people.
They must be doing something right, though, as the islanders live long lives. Sardinia is known as one of the world’s blue zones because of its unusually high percentage of centenarians. Asked the secret, one 102-year-old woman told me: “Put family first. Take a walk. Laugh with friends. And drink a glass or two of red wine daily.”
“Family” is the word used to characterise Valle dell’Erica by the Delphina group, the local family company that owns the resort and six others on the island. It feels homely despite the size, the staff are super-friendly, and if I still had young children I would have appreciated the kids’ club, which even takes them on an overnight Treasure Island experience.
“Romance” is the word Delphina assigns to its smaller sister resort, Capo D’Orso, so one day we headed over there, half an hour’s drive east along the coast and jumped in a boat to explore the Maddalena archipelago.
Cala Corsara on Spargi
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First the skipper, Giovanni, took us to Spargi Island and stopped to swim at coves, including Cala Soraya named after Princess Soraya, wife of the Shah of Iran, who loved swimming here in the 1960s. It was easy to see why — the water was a fabulous turquoise and so clear and warm.
• 24 of the best things to do in Sardinia
At the next beach, Cala Corsara, we were told to hide any food as wild boars might board the boat. I thought they were joking until we spotted a family of boars running along the beach. Apparently there are so many they recently closed the island for a cull.
We stopped for cappuccinos and doughnuts in La Maddalena, the main town on the main island, a colourful and buzzy spot that looked like a fun place to stay. Across a bridge is the little island of Caprera, where we swam at another pristine cove. This was the last resting place of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the general who united a divided Italy and clearly had good taste in beaches.
How did we not know about this place, we kept asking ourselves. We will definitely go back, probably to the more sophisticated Capo D’Orso, smaller and more manageable yet with lots of shady spots to curl up with books and a terrace restaurantwhere we enjoyed an unbelievable lunch of amberjack fish washed down with local rosé.
La Maddalena is the main town in the Maddalena archipelago
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A perfect day ended with sunset at the northernmost tip of Sardinia, Capo Testa. We walked to the lighthouse on a promontory through more of those granite rocks, this time worn into strange formations by centuries of winds over the Mediterranean. The Romans so prized this granite for their columns that they set up a small mining town to extract it and ship it to their capital.
Weirdly, it seems that not all Sardinians want to stay in Sardinia. While we were there we read they were having to import shepherds from Kyrgyzstan as so many local youngsters head for the mainland.
From bandits to beaches, we were sorry to leave Gallura. But we had a wedding to get to.
Christina Lamb was a guest of Delphina Hotels and Resorts (delphinahotels.co.uk), which has half-board doubles at Capo d’Orso from £172pp (hotelcapodorso.com) and at Valle dell’Erica from £146pp (hotelvalledellerica.com). Fly to Olbia
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Three more great Sardinian hotels
By Siobhan Grogan
Palazzo Doglio
Palazzo Doglio is situated in the heart of Cagliari
City chic in Cagliari
This five-star property might be in the heart of Cagliari, but it feels more like a self-contained resort than a city-centre hotel. It’s built around an expansive cobbled courtyard with a grandiose fountain and is surrounded by boutiques and restaurants, including a pizzeria, tapas bar, pastry shop and the fine-dining Osteria del Forte. Rooms are traditionally decorated in rich shades of grey, brown and peacock blue with Carrara marble bathrooms. The old town and the swish boutiques of Via Giuseppe Garibaldi are within strolling distance, while Poetto beach is ten minutes by car.
Details Seven nights’ room only from £840pp, including flights (ba.com)
La Villa del Re
La Villa del Re is the perfect place for a relaxing escape
CHRISTOS DRAZOS
Adults-only beachfront luxury
With panoramic sea views from its infinity pool, an Italian restaurant spilling onto a sun-soaked patio and a private sandy beach steps from your door, this child-free spot in Costa Rei ticks a lot of boxes. All 50 rooms here have simple decor in shades of cream, with wooden floors, carved headboards and billowing white voile curtains shading floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s an open-air gym, bikes and pedal boats to use, plus regular boat excursions. The hotel can also arrange quad-biking, horse riding, sailing lessons and wine tastings.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £2,259, including flights and car hire (sardinianplaces.co.uk)
• 17 of the best hotels in Sardinia
Is Cheas
Guests can stay in the cone-shaped garden suites
West-coast wine retreat
Surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, Is Cheas is a tranquil boutique hotel and solar-powered wine farm on the west coast of the island. Choose between cosy rooms in the main farmhouse or one of 12 cone-shaped suites in the garden, all with stone walls, a thatched roof and private pool. There’s also a communal freshwater pool, treatment room for massages and an excellent restaurant serving four-course dinners. The chef hosts cooking classes and the hotel owner offers tours of his vineyard and tastings of the farm’s wine.
Details Half-board doubles from £192 (ischeas.com). Fly to Cagliari
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