GO ITALY:What does Sardinia have to offer? Small, often deserted beaches, stunning scenery, delicious food and friendly people, writes an impressed Carol Coulter
ANYONE WHO SAW the 1976 film Padre padronewill remember the stark mountainous landscape of Sardinia, as well as the harsh life endured by its hero, the shepherd boy who spends his winters on the mountains with only the sheep for company.
The landscape is still there, and there are still small huts, generally now abandoned, to be seen on the mountains, but around the coast the island is developing a tourist industry, though it remains unspoiled.
The introduction of flights from Dublin to Alghero, in the northwest of the island, has made Sardinia accessible to Irish visitors who would previously have had to travel through an English or European airport, or to Italy and then take a ferry.
There are buses, and a train bisects the island from north to south in the summer, but if you want to explore you really need a car. Cagliari, the capital, in the south, is almost 200km from Alghero, so unless you have plenty of time or want to spend a lot of time in the car it is more realistic to explore the northern end of the island.
Alghero is a busy tourist centre, with its attractive medieval centre of winding streets and alleys, busy port and substantial hotels on the seafront.
It is a stop-off point for cruises as well as having an airport within easy reach, so, unsurprisingly, the streets are mainly made up of shops, cafes and restaurants catering for tourists.
Don't expect theme parks or slot-machine arcades, and if you have teenagers they are unlikely to find many nightclubs, at least on this side of the island. What Sardinia does have are loads of small, often deserted beaches, stunning scenery, delicious food and friendly people.
Travelling with another family, we had rented two apartments near Castelsardo, a medieval fortress town about 100km east of Alghero.
Castelsardo is built around the large medieval castello situated high on a hill overlooking the small harbour, with views along the coast of Sardinia and across to Corsica on a clear day.
It lies at the centre of a network of lanes and alleys, where the servants and suppliers would have lived, and which are still occupied. It is worth paying the inflated prices in the large cafe at the top just to enjoy the view.
Our apartments were in a purpose-built building of five apartments surrounded by a large garden of vines, fruit trees and vegetables in the middle of farmland near a village called La Caccia. The season had hardly begun at the beginning of June, and we were the only occupants of the apartments apart from the owners, a Belgian-Sardinian couple in their 60s.
This allowed for the development of a closer relationship than might otherwise be the case. Our landlords brought us baskets of lemons, peaches and apricots, and one afternoon the man of the house, who spoke no English, brought us into a cellar in the yard, where we were introduced to his wine, produced from his own grapes. We were not allowed to leave until we had accepted a large bottle.
Later that week we were invited to a party to celebrate his 65th birthday. On the appointed evening we were directed to the end of the garden, where a long table was set up and about 30 people had gathered in a scene that resembled one of the television advertisements that extol the Italian way of life.
After a selection of local anti-pasti, we were introduced to the traditional Sardinian fare of suckling pig and grilled lamb. Despite living on an island, Sardinians are meat-eaters, and, although fish is widely available, traditional food comes from the land - including, if you feel like it, donkey meat.
This was washed down by copious quantities of Giovanni's wine, and after dessert and cake his home-made grappa was produced. To our surprise, we all woke up with clear heads the next day, perhaps because of the organic nature of all the food and drink consumed.
There is something of Connemara-in-the-Mediterranean ab-out Sardinia. The landscape is dominated by wild, jagged mountains in the centre, where small, single-storey dwellings are scattered, many abandoned. Clouds often sit low on the mountains, while the coastal areas generally bask in sunshine.
The roads will also remind Irish people of the west of Ireland. Often narrow and winding, they are signposted badly, and a good map is essential - or, if you are into technology, a satnav. To make matters worse, signposts sometimes have the names of towns on roads going in two different directions. We eventually worked out that one way will indicate a bypass of smaller towns or villages while the other will take you through them.
Our village of La Caccia was rather like some Irish coastal towns a decade ago, when tax incentives were leading to the mushrooming of holiday complexes. It had at least two such developments in the course of completion, as well as a dozen or so new houses and apartments. For now, however, most of the tourist accommodation around it and Valledoria is in the many large and well-equipped campsites.
Farther east along the coast the town of Santa Teresa marks the beginning of the more sophisticated eastern side of the island, containing the fashionable resort of the Costa Smeralda, frequented, apparently, by celebrities of various kinds.
Santa Teresa, however, was mercifully empty in June of anyone even pretending to be a celebrity. It is a lovely town, surrounded by the sea and laid out on a grid plan. It also contains the best pizza restaurant we found in Sardinia, the Pizza Papa Satan, with excellent bread and olive oil to nibble on while you select from its generous menu of pastas, pizzas and salads.
Apart from restaurants serving pizzas, most focused on either meat or fish. The island is dotted with agriturismos, which are farms serving traditional meat-based meals.
Our most memorable eating experience was in a place called Cala Sarraina, recommended by the apartment letting agent. Finding it was an adventure in itself, as it involved following detailed instructions that took us along the road to Santa Teresa, about five kilometres past a new gated resort of hundreds of villas, called Costa Paradiso, and then down a boreen signposted for Cala Sarraina. After three kilometres the road came to an end at a small secluded beach and a bar-cum-restaurant serving freshly caught fish.
Before we left we spent a weekend in another medieval town, called Bosa, south of Alghero. It has much less tourist development than Alghero. Many of the tall buildings on its narrow, steep, winding streets are derelict; others are under restoration as apartments and B&Bs.
The tiny shops in the historic centre, very few of which are aimed at tourists, are hidden behind what look like people's front doors and sell food, clothing and kitchen utensils.
Restaurants serve excellent fish at reasonable prices, and people are very friendly. Just two kilometres away is Bosa Marina, a beach resort frequented by surfers and young families, with a strip of hotels and pizza restaurants.
We discovered there is a bus from Alghero Airport to Bosa that costs just €7, and were already dreaming of a return visit for a weekend as we left.Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Dublin to Alghero every Friday and Monday.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go in northern Sardinia
Where to stay
• Hotel Riviera, Lungomare Anglona 1, Castelsardo, 00-39-79-470143, www.hotelriviera.net. This three-star hotel overlooks the harbour in Castelsardo. It is worth paying the €15 supplement to get a room at the front with a balcony.
• Hotel San Francesco, Via Ambrogio Machin 2, Alghero, 00-39-79-980330, www.sanfrancescohotel.com. This is a cool, clean, three-star hotel in the heart of the historic centre of Alghero, which was once a convent. There are lots of restaurants nearby.
• Corte Fiorita Albergo Diffuso, Via Lungo Temo de Gasperi 45, Bosa, 00-39-785-377058, www.albergo-diffuso.it. This is a collection of three historic houses in different parts of the old town of Bosa that have been restored and turned into picturesque yet comfortable small hotels. If possible book into Le Palme, on the riverside, where breakfast is served for all three.
• You can rent villas and apartments can be rented through www.villarenters.com. Ours was the La Caccia apartment, near the town of Villadoria.
Where to eat
• Borgo Sant'Ignazio, Via Sant'Ignazio 33, Bosa, 00-39-785-374129. This restaurant lurks in a restored house in one of the hilly lanes that make up the old town. It is linked to the Albergo Diffuso, and serves excellent, reasonably priced local food in a friendly atmosphere.
• Al Refettorio, Carrero del Proxo (Vicolo Adami) 47, Alghero, 00-39-799-731126. Lamb with olives, baked fish and steak were all on the menu, and all pronounced excellent by their consumers in this trattoria in the middle of Alghero.
• Fofo is the restaurant attached to the Hotel Riviera (see above), and it serves excellent fish in a relaxed atmosphere. Try one of the local white wines. Our favourite was the Terre Bianche.
Where to go
• The Castle in Castelsardo. This contains a museum of local handicrafts, and from the top of the castle the views are magnificent.
• Capo Testa, a cape beyond the town of Santa Teresa, is a headland of fantastic rock formations, with little beaches on either side.
• Cala Sarraina. This is one of the best beaches on the north coast, accessed by a one-track road. It branches off the main Castelsardo-Santa Teresa road, about five kilometres from the entrance to the Costa Paradiso resort.
• The nuraghein Maiori is one of the largest and best-preserved of these prehistoric monuments, round-tower-like structures with chambers inside them. This one is near the inland granite town of Tempio Pausania, about two kilometres north of the town on the Palau side.
• The Cattedrale dell'Immacolata in Bosa, close to the river, has an impressive rococo interior behind an austere exterior and is well worth a visit.