Sardinian Splendour

Italy’s Mediterranean paradise offers stunning nature, fresh cuisine and a delicious variety of wines

By Robert Camuto -- Wine Spectator Oct. 31, 2012

If you were holding a cool glass of Vermentino and standing on a white-sand beach with an endless view of clear, turquoise sea, you'd be forgiven for not wanting to leave. Costa Smeralda, Sardinia's "Emerald Coast"—a 34-mile-long stretch of prime Mediterranean coastline developed in the 1960s by Prince Aga Khan—remains one of the world's most luxurious destinations, with suites costing up to $15,000 a night in high season and yachts the size of aircraft carriers a not-uncommon sight.

What you should really do if you're in Sardinia, however, is travel across the island to take in the region's equally magnificent natural treasures, from its pastoral, low-mountainous interior to its awe-inspiring 1,100 miles of coastline, which includes dramatic cliffs and caves as well as hundreds of wild, secluded beaches.

The region's natural beauty would be enough to monopolize your vacation plans, but the island offers still more, in the form of some of Italy's most deliciously fresh cuisines and one of the country's most diverse selections of wines, which remain bargain-priced at the island's restaurants.

Sardinia is the Mediterranean's second largest island, lying northwest of its big sister, Sicily, and just south of France's Corsica. Spend a week touring Sardinia, and you're likely to wonder why it isn't better known to Americans. The most common answer to that question is an expression that is popular in the Sardinian language still spoken among the locals. Its literal translation is "a hundred heads, a hundred caps." In other words, the unfailingly friendly and hospitable Sardinians are too independent-minded to master collective tourism or wine promotion. Read the full article in the Wine Spectator