Secret Sardinia: 10 Places the Costa Smeralda Won't Show You

The Sardinia of the guidebooks is the coast. But Sardinians live inland, and inland is vast, silent and ancient. Five thousand nuraghi, fifty inland villages, an industrial-mining archaeology unique in Italy, and stretches of coast still reachable only on foot. Here are ten places.

1. Su Nuraxi in Barumini and its surroundings

Su Nuraxi (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the most-visited nuraghe — and also the most imposing. A short drive away, and far less known, lie the nuragic complex of Genna Maria and the sacred well of Santa Vittoria di Serri. A full afternoon of archaeology.

2. Barbagia and Orgosolo

Orgosolo, with its political murals from '68 and its pastoral traditions, is the gateway to Barbagia. The province of Nuoro is Sardinia at its most deeply rooted: Mamoiada with its Carnival masks (the Mamuthones and Issohadores), Fonni — the highest village on the island — and Ollolai, a town of wool and looms.

3. The Supramonte of Baunei and Cala Goloritzé

The coast of the Gulf of Orosei conceals the wildest coves in Italy. Cala Goloritzé, reached after an hour and a half on a steep trail; Cala Mariolu; Cala Sisine. In the evening you head back to Baunei or Santa Maria Navarrese. No roads, no cars.

4. The mining coast of Sulcis

The Iglesiente and Sulcis (south-west) hold an industrial archaeology unlike anything else in Italy: the Grande Miniera di Serbariu, mining-era Iglesias, the beach of Masua with its Pan di Zucchero stack. Buggerru, with its history as the site of Italy's first general strike (1904). Twentieth-century Sardinia.

5. San Salvatore di Sinis and the ghost village

San Salvatore di Sinis is a shrine-village abandoned eleven months a year and repopulated only for the feast of San Salvatore. Whitewashed houses, early-Christian hypogea beneath the church, a distinctly Western-film atmosphere. A stone's throw away, the beach of Is Aruttas glitters with "grains of rice" (white quartz).

6. Alghero, and everything around it

Alghero is only "secret" if you don't count the Spanish tourists. But its hinterland is almost pristine: the Nuraghe Palmavera, the Grotta di Nettuno (descend to it from Capo Caccia via the Escala del Cabirol), and the Catalan-speaking villages of Villanova Monteleone and Tinnura, the latter animated by murals.

7. Bosa and the Temo valley

Bosa may be the most photogenic town in Sardinia: painted houses along the Temo river, the Malaspina castle, an old tanning industry from the nineteenth century. The coastal road from Bosa to Alghero ranks among the most spectacular in the Mediterranean — take it early, before the traffic.

8. The Giara di Gesturi and the wild horses

The Giara di Gesturi is a basalt plateau where the wild Giara ponies still roam — the island's only native breed. A one-of-a-kind ecosystem of paulis (seasonal pools) and cork oaks. Silence.

9. Cagliari beyond the Poetto

The Marina quarter, the Castello, and above all the basilica of San Saturnino (a fifth-century early-Christian church) are the Cagliari the commuters know. Poetto beach is convenient, but the old town preserves an Arab-Catalan atmosphere intact.

10. The Sardinia of wool and ritual bread

Not a single place, but a thread. Samugheo for its rugs, Ittiri for its pani di sapa (breads made with grape must), Aggius with its Banditry Museum, Osilo for its masks. An ethnographic route through the interior stands up to any coastal tour.

How to plan it

Sardinia is enormous: 300 kilometres end to end. Choose a side. If you have a week: north (Alghero + Bosa + Sassari + the Corsair Coast), east (Baunei + Supramonte + Cala Gonone), south (Cagliari + Sinis + Sulcis), or inland (Barbagia + Barumini + Nuoro). Don't try to do everything.

When to go?

May–June and September to mid-October. July and August are punishingly hot and the coastal roads clogged. April is glorious for the interior (Barbagia is in bloom).