Sardinian Honeymoon

Sardinia. Second largest island in the Mediterranean (after Sicily). An autonomous region of Italy.

"Tell me something I don't know." I hear you say... ok then, how about:
Sardinia was called Ichnusa (the Latinised form of the Greek Hyknousa). 'Ichnusa' is now the local beer. There are around 7,000 nuraghi (an ancient megalithic edifice from 1900-730BC) scattered all over the island. And there's 1,849 km of coastline, mainly high and rocky with many outstanding headlands, with 67.9% of the island amusingly referred to as 'hilly'. As we would discover...

Honeymoon. We knew we wouldn't see that much of Sardinia due to its size. Once we discovered the 'hills' our horizons became even less far fetched as we only touched on the South West corner, around PULA (as marked on the map, right).

Villa Del Borgo*
An elegant hotel, our honeymoon retreat, just 3km south of Pula, proved a great choice and the junior suite tucked away from the main building with its private pool was idyllic. As luck would have it, being early season, we had the pool to ourselves for the first 4 days. Just us and all the song birds. Twittering sweet nothings... !

Pula
The nearby town of Pula revealed itself by degrees, on each visit we found something new and enjoyable. Its restaurants all offered the local speciality seafood pasta dishes of alla campidanese (spicy sausage and tomato) or alla bottarga (mullet roe - or fish eggs as the menu put it). The town grew on us which was nicely unexpected. While the beaches at Chia, just 15km south, are not to be missed. 

Chia
This is a beautiful part of not only Sardinia, but the world. Glorious white sandy beaches and inviting crystal seas that out of the main summer season are uncrowded and lovely.

Our favourite was near the Torre de Chia which provided shelter from the wind and on top of the fantastic views from the Tower there was a tiny beach bar. (See photos below) called Chiosco-Bar 'Su Portu'. 

We spent many an enjoyable end of the day accompanied by an ice cream or a beer listening to the excellent music the owner played. 

While this was one of the many lovely beaches in an area that offers more than just grains of passing sand, the drive around the coast and the scenery was breathtaking.

The first time we took the winding road it was unexpected, finding ourselves there without planning it. So the second time was full of expectation as we pulled off the main S195 sign-posted Chia, it said 26 km to Porto di Teulada. What it didn't say was prepare yourself for one of the most scenic drives ever. Twisting back and forth the road climbs and descends around the coastline in and out of hills covered in macchia shrubland (macchia is 'thicket' in English - which sounds far less attractive), these shrubs appear in so many colours in the spring it's just beautiful. Occasionally the view would open up as mountains and bays and beaches just stretched away into the distance.

You can't take your eye off the road for a second and maximum concentration is necessary. Far better to do the drive a second time, as we did.

Last night in Pula

* Our holiday was booked through Sardinian Places, part of Serenity Holidays. Included B&B accommodation, hire-car for the whole stay and flights from London Stansted to Cagliari. The rep met us at the airport and showed us the way to the hotel. Everything was very smooth and went without a hitch. It was just us that got hitched!

Torre de Chia - beach bar - Chiosco-Bar 'Su Portu'

View from the tower

Junior Suite 306 - with private pool