Bay of Orosei

Sardinia is the best beach destination in all of Italy, but the coves in the Gulf of Orosei definitely take the cake. We're not talking about long, sandy beaches here, but rather small coves (many of them with pebble beaches) hidden among the cliffs. However, the color of the water in this part of the coast is absolutely incredible. The intense sapphire blue is like nothing I've ever seen before. Part of the charm of many of the coves is the lack of easy access. You either go hiking for a few hours over terrain which isn't marked on the map, or you go by boat from Cala Gonone or rent a zodiac boat (gommone, in Italian).

We stayed a week in Sardinia, taking our car all around the island. Going by car is certainly the best (and possibly the only) was to get around Sardinia. We started to see, though, that in the East there wasn't an output and we were climbing more and more up the island. Suddenly, we began to see animals walking leisurely along the road, cows, horses, pigs ... estrechita the Carretara is very steep, but the views are breathtaking! Also there was no one, we were alone with the animals and stopped the car on the roadside to take in the views. The Park is a natural area that includes the mountains that form the massif and surrounding marine Gennargentu Gulf of Orosei, with its dramatic cliffs and caves of limestone origin.

The mouth of the Gulf faces eastward and has a width of about 33 kilometres. In the Gulf, there are no villages except the Orisei marina and a small modern tourist settlement in cala Gonone. The Gulf is divided into two morphologically different areas. The northern part, extending to Cape Black, is a small stretch of coastline formed by pine forests, long sandy beaches and coastal dunes. The southern and largest part consists of a 40 kilometre stretch of land extending to the end of Monte Santo, the trailing edge of the supramonte plateau, also known as marine supramonte. This second section is characterized by impressive limestone bastions of secular forests consisting of rich and varied Mediterranean colour.