Renowned for the luminously white sands and at the same time unspoilt by mass tourism, Sardinia is without any doubt the most beautifull island of the Mediterranean.
Pink flamingos that have colonized the marshes of the whole of Sardinia, the ruins of the ancient city of Nora which snorkelers can partly visit underwater, the incredible sights of the hinterland… Sardinia is an island but almost a continent in itself.
Size wise the second largest island in the Mediterranean, it measures 24,089 sq.Km, and is located between 38°51'52" and 41°15'42" Lat. North and 8°8' and 9°50'Long.
Being an autonomous region of Italy, it is divided in 4 provinces – Cagliari, Nuoro, Oristano and Sassari - and numereous regions which has led to a wide range of uses, traditions and dialects.
Because of its geographic situation in the middle of the Mediterranean, a word that by the way allready means “In the middle of the earth”, Sardinia has always represented the colonizers’ destination.
An overview of all successive colonisers would take a full page alone. There are traces of human settlements everywhere, dating back from as far as the Neolithic Age.
The history of Sardinia may be an ancient one and an interesting one for history lovers, the geology is ancient into extremes: its rocks date back to the Early Palaeozoic (300 million years); as a consequence, the island does not have high peaks, since its mountains have been levelled by long processes of erosion. The landscape is dominated by a rocky tableland of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt (locally known as "giare" or "gollei"), sandstone or limestone (called "tonneri" or "tacchi"), which range between 300 and 1,000 Mt. in height.
The landscape is characterized by mountain chains, massifs and tablelands. Numerous ponds and some artificial lakes now soften the rough view. The coasts are full of beaches as well as cliffs, all surrounded by the blue water of the Sardinian Sea.
Among the mountain ranges, we should mention the Gennargentu - in the centre of the island - with its highest peak of 1,834 Mt.; Mount Limbara in the north (1,362 Mt.) and Mount Rasu, the highest mountain in the "Marghine" range, which lies diagonally for 40 km also in the north.
The climate allows to have a very long summer, from April to November. The average temperature in July is 23.9°C while in January it is 11.1°C; humidity is in the region of 70% (annual average).
The island is swept by many winds - firstly by the mistral, a wind from the north west, which is fresh and piercing in the winter, and during the summer months mitigates the heat, making the air drier and more breathable. |
