Cala Gonone, Sardinia, Italy

The June bank holiday has brought us back to Italy for the third time since we moved to Dublin now almost 20 months ago...my time flies. This trip is different however, as we are off of mainland Italy on the beautiful island of Sardinia, a rugged landscape in the heart of the Mediterranean, boasting relaxation and the some of the most beautiful beaches and glowing blue waters in the world. Below is the beautiful village of Cala Gonone.

Our base for the 3 nights is Cala Gonone, a small fishing village that doesn't cater to the mega-yachting type that the Emerald Coast does about 2 hours up the coast, but a village that caters to many Sardinian's and Italians looking for a peaceful escape along with those in the know of these amazing beaches you are about to experience. We did the trip with our friends Katie and Rob, who have been good friends during our time in Dublin; this was also a trip celebrating their move back home to New York as their stint in Dublin is coming to a end later this month. Erin is especially sad as Katie and Erin got each other through the dark Dublin evenings waiting for the hubby's to get done with work. We arrived on Friday night near sunset and had a great dinner at the restaurant on the roof of our hotel, eating fish that was brought in by the fisherman earlier that day...it was dee-licious, especially washed down with some fresh Sardinian wine!

The following morning we woke up to an amazing morning with only a few clouds in the sky and the sun shimmering off the waters, bringing an amazing glow to the shallow waters near the shore. We rented a dingy for the day from one of the boat vendors and immediately set out to explore the beaches and confirm the rumors of these beautiful beaches only accessible by boat (or seriously strenuous hikes over mountains...we choose the more relaxing route). Erin was our boat captain and did a great job, especially as our first stop was to navigate the caves below and park inside to check out the grotto which boasted some pretty sweet stalactites and several kilometers of hiking into the caves. We made it in unscathed...good work Er!

There is the captain herself, with the beautiful cliffs and waters setting an unforgettable background.

Below was our first stop of the day, as we were driving along and spotted waters that honestly looked fake with about 10 feet of deserted pebble beach between the two hundred foot cliff and the idyllic blue waters.

Following a refreshing dip at the first beach, we went all the way down past several other beaches. Cala Luna is a popular beach that has the shape of a crescent moon (Luna is moon in Italian), next was Cala Sisine, set among two rock ridges whose high walls give the place a mountain-like atmosphere, Further on was Cala Mariolu where the seabed is incredibly transparent and two creeks are separated by a white rock promontory. Below is the coast line looking back at all the beaches.

It was really really hard to not stop at these, but we wanted to survey all the beaches before we choose the best one to settle in to. The last beach is Cala Goloritzè whose main characteristics are a small natural rock arch and a 400 foot high rock. This was the one. There were actually climbers scaling the rock, amazing but a little too extreme for me.......so we stuck to the water and found a nice rock to jump off. Please take note there was no photo-editing on this, just a filter to minimize the glare on the water. Pretty beautiful!Staying cool in the blue water. I didn't realize my colorful trunks would be drowned out by the amazingly blue water. This was without question the most beautiful beach I have ever been to, with just the white pebbles, the crystal electric blue water, with the natural rock arch and rock peak defining the landscape, we were very close to heaven. The beach itself was worth a flight to Alghero and drive across the island.

After all the swimming we returned back to the town and tooled around for a while, trying to find a place to have a nice dinner. The answer came to us when we went to a cute little spot and asked the host (and owner) if he had a menu and he laughed and said the fisherman catch different things everyday, so there is no menu. That was the place! It tuned out to be a great dinner on the terrace with the sounds of the ocean just down the hill from the restaurant. We washed down our fresh fish with a special local Sardinian wine called Noriolo, it was perfect!The next morning we were ready to do it all over again but the weather wasn't cooperating with us, with the overcast not creating the shimmering waters of the day before. So we hit the road and went to a couple small villages more inland. Below are the streets of Oliena, a cute town that has a wine coop where locals bring their grapes and make their own wine. Unfortunately it wasn't open on Sunday (not much was!). We then went on to Nouro, let's just advise not to go to Nouro, the town that is basically on a mountain has nice scenery, don't get us wrong, but driving in the town is more of a death wish than a relaxing excursion. We quickly went back to the hotel and had a good pizza before hanging out on the hotel terrace all day reading with an occasional coffee or gelato. Around 6pm we started our evening with a nice bottle of Prosecco.
The following day was a little nicer than the first, but after breakfast we said goodbye to Cala Gonone and made our way past Oresei and to Bidderosa beach, a welcoming beach that reminded us of a more beautiful Asseteague (Maryland) with beautiful white sands with dunes and rugged landscape setting the backdrop. We had about an hour of sunshine at the beach so Erin and I took advantage and did some body surfing in the cool waters.
We left the beach when the dark clouds rolled in and made our way to Alghero, a medieval fortified town that was really nice to walk in around and through. We had a last pizza dinner and walked around before saying goodbye to Sardinia, a trip we will never forget!