Sardinia

Sardinia was full of surprises for us. We were both looking forward to seeing a part of Italy that neither one of knew very much about. The island was full of surprises for us starting with the geography. I expected a very rugged island with difficult drives. The coastline is very rugged and a lot of the beaches are surrounded by steep cliffs and mountains, but the center of the island is a broad and relatively flat plain.

Driving in Sardinia turned out to be very easy. The island has a very good network of free high speed roads, one of which runs along the entire spine of the island. The quality of the roads were generally good, and the traffic volumes were low. In many ways Sardinia was one of the easiest places to drive in Europe. Totally unexpected.

The people are a little more reserved when you first meet them than in other parts of Italy, but when you break thru the initial greetings they are charming, helpful, and good fun with a dry sense of humor. We really enjoyed the people.

The food is also something like the people. It is not flashy on the surface, but the tastes are wonderful and unique. After our lunch on the last day in Sardinia Ton said that the island was 100% on meals, meaning we did not have a bad meal there, high praise from Ton. We learned about a couple of new wines that we will be looking for in the future that are unique to Sardinia.

Sardinia is not a place to look for history. If you are looking for Roman ruins this is not the place to come, but if you are a beach bum, or like hiking in the mountains, or trying new tastes that are unique to a specific area, then you will love Sardinia.