Events For Sardinia - Sardegna
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	'INSIDER TIPS'
	Sard Cuisine Traditional delicacies include 'pane carasau' a light, crispy, bread delicious served with olive oil, sprinkled with herbs. A speciality is spit-roasted suckling pig with garlic and rosemary potatoes, (porceddu) and grilled lamb, beef and kid goat. Spaghetti alla bottarga is pasta with mullet or tuna eggs, known as 'Sardinian caviar' and fish and seafood is excellent around the coast, such as sea bass, tuna, squid, octopus and lobster (aragosta) - is a great favourite, especially around Alghero. Sardinia also produces some excellent wines: look out for reds from the local Cannonau grape and for whites Vermentino and Vernaccia. Good dessert wines include Moscato and Malvasia and Mirto is a speciality, made from Sardinian myrtle berries. The local firewater, (rather like grappa) is called su fil'e ferru, meaning rod of iron-beware, it's around 40 per cent proof.

Whether it's sun, sand and sea, the wild landscapes, or tastes and traditions of the interior, this 'small continent' is like a Mediterranean Eden full of seductive charms.

The second largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily has some of Europe's best beaches spread over a coastline of almost 2,000km (1,250 miles), lapped by warm, crystal clear Caribbean-blue seas. Inland, the unspoiled landscape is mountainous, rugged and carpeted with a thick mantle of aromatic macchia (Mediterranean maquis).This is untamed land, perfect for hiking and extreme mountain biking. 

All around are the archaeological sites, for which Sardinia is so famous. Circular nuraghi (stone ruins) rise up on grassy hillocks as testimony to the unique prehistoric villages built by the Nuraghic civilisation. Nuraghe Su Nuraxi in Barumini is described by UNESCO as the finest, most complete example of this prehistoric architecture. Like a beehive, the huge, central tower is surrounded by a honeycomb of the remains of the complex of buildings, estimated to date back to 1500 BC.

The capital, Cágliari, known as the city of water and light, has an enviable setting overlooking its gulf, the Bay of Angels. It's a tantalising pot pourri of ancient and modern whose historic heart is the Castello quarter, cradled by ancient ramparts which enclose beautiful architectural gems and historical treasures. Beneath the ramparts, the Marina quarter is the perfect place for strolling and dining in the labyrinthine streets behind the Via Roma.

Inland in Nuoro province, you find the heartland of Sardinia's traditions. Orgosolo, a town once infamous for its bandits, is now famous for its murals which adorn every street and make it an open-air art museum.  Political, satirical, folkloric comic, or downright brutalist - including murders, kidnappings and sheep rustlings - no subject escapes these artists' palettes. Every year on 15^th August the Festa dell'Assunta - one of Sardinia's most colourful and spectacular processions, is staged here.

Nearby, the Golfo di Orosei is spectacularly unspoiled where holm oak forest and limestone cliffs plunge down to the sea and the coastline is indented with coves and grottoes. The beaches around here have to be seen to be believed. Some are accessible only by boat or by hiking down mule tracks, but crescents of softest white sands lapped by crystal aquamarine waters, such as the exquisite Cala Luna beach are the prize.

But, for many, the Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast) is the reason that Sardinia is so famous. In the 1950s the fabulously wealthy Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and his fellow yachties were spellbound by the beauty of the crystalline emerald-green sea and romantic little coves and created a paradise to enjoy their own slice of la dolce vita. It's famously a playground for heads of state, billionaires, glitterati and paparazzi where only the sea out sparkles the precious jewels on display. But with more than 80 sandy beaches, people-watching, window-gazing and enjoying an aperitivo at Porto Cervo's Piazzetta, there's something for everyone -regardless of the depth of your pockets.

Seven dreamy islands make up the Arcipélago della Maddalena, characterised by fantastical pinkish-ochre granite rock formations.The only inhabited island is La Maddalena itself from where there's a causeway to pine-covered La Caprera, the former home and burial site of the revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi (often likened to an Italian Che Guevara). Perfect for walking or biking around and taking a boat trip to see the other islands, including Spargi and Budelli with its glorious pink beach, Spiaggia Rosa.