Why Sardinia and where did this place come from - Costa Smeralda?
Sardinia is the second largest among the Mediterranean islands. This island is simply fabulously beautiful, and the sea here is the cleanest in Italy. 1850 kilometers of beaches is a quarter of all the beaches in Italy, and the best!
In the word "Sardinia" there is nothing fishy. Locals say that Sardinia is called so because the nephew of Hercules himself - Sardus - somehow entered this island ... ... Descendants - sardine islanders - came from him. But even the ancient Greeks called the island of Ihnuz ("human footprint"), and the Romans - Sandalion. From above, Sardinia is really similar in shape to a giant foot, the imprint of which was left on the surface of the sea by some giant. According to one of the local legends, this piece of land is a trace of the Creator's foot on Earth. Being on the island, you gradually begin to unconditionally believe in it ...
It is believed that the resort history of Sardinia began 50 years ago with Sheikh Karim Aga Khan IV, who had a boat breakdown right near the northern shores of the island. The sheikh stepped on a virgin coast from a tourist point of view and saw green olive groves, mountains and a sea of rare emerald color. And under your feet - completely white sand! The sand in Sardinia is special, heavy and elastic, never sticks and does not clog into anything.
And then he realized what needs to be done. ... On the Cote d'Azur, the sheikh thought, it became cramped. And luxury, it does not endure fuss. What is the difference between just a boutique and a very expensive boutique? In the number of items per square meter. The Sheikh decided to build five luxury hotels (no more), several boutiques (indecently expensive) and, of course, restaurants. Everything else was created long before the appearance of Karim Aga Khan IV by nature itself.
He bought this land and came up with her name - Costa Smeralda - Emerald Coast. He built hotels in a true Sardinian style and brought coziness and simplicity inherent in this style to a state of breathtaking and absolute luxury.
Today, Costa Smeralda is 14 square miles in the north of Sardinia near the city of Olbia. Its territory on both sides is designated by two large granite blocks; all signs on the coast roads are made of the same stone. Now control of the Costa Smeralda (Esmeralda coast) has passed from the hands of the Aga Khan to the hands of the American hotel owner Tom Barrack. According to the Italian newspaper Corrtere Della Sera, "many are nostalgic for" his "coast and ask Aga Khan to return."
Half-closed club
Holidays in Sardinia are premium and luxury, so it’s expensive. In Sardinia, they will take a lot of money for everything, but they will do it and present it so that you pay exactly as much as it costs, and not a cent more.
It attracts the chosenness of society. Traditionally, the heirs of ancient dynasties and special "blue" blood come here. No more than a thousand people arrive here a week, including those who rent yachts.
Those we used to call VIP only crave publicity first. Then they begin to seek solitude. There are many villas owned by celebrities - La Certosa Silvio Berlusconi, Karim Aga Khan, Rustam Tariko, Naomi Campbell and rumored to be Vladimir Putin.
In Sardinia, Princess Diana met with Dodi Al Fayed, here Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant spent their honeymoon. Regular guests of Sardinia - Tina Turner and Tom Cruise, Adriano Celentano and Madonna ... Presidents come here, the Italian and international financial, political and sports elite, and the whole world elite come here. In general, celebrities come to Sardinia not as exhibits, but as vacationers, and do not what is expected of them, but what their soul desires.
The legendary Billionatre club, known throughout the world and becoming the epitome of luxury (owned by the Italian millionaire, Renault F1 team boss and friend Naomi Campbell, Flavio Briatore), and Porto Crevo designer shops, reminiscent of a fishing village, which, in fact, was created specifically for boutiques (this place can be easily compared with the Milan Monte Napoleone), as if magnet attracted by huge yachts plowing the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the vessels are so large that their visit to the most popular bays of Sardinia is regulated by a special electronic marking system and taxed. “Being rich is not a crime,” Flavio Briatore likes to say.
The days spent in Sardinia are always filled with bright and unforgettable events: international regattas, sports competitions and colorful holiday processions. On the open area of the Cula di Volpe hotel (Lady Diana stopped here before her fateful trip to France), concerts of pop stars take place, and in the parking lot there is an exhibition of luxury cars. In Piazza Maria Luigia, the Forte Village Hotel in the south of the island hosts concerts of classical or pop music stars, fashion shows, jewelry exhibitions every evening ...
Excursions in Sardinia - the concept is very conditional and means, as a rule, trips around the island or boat trips. The roads in Sardinia are surprisingly light. Here and there are picturesque villages and "agritourism" inns, where you can have a bite of goat cheese, fresh vegetables and barbecue skewers, order a glass of myrtle liqueur! Nowhere else in the world do they do it anymore, only in Sardinia.
A trip to the central part of the island will allow you to see the unique structures of Nuragi Barumini - a symbol of prehistoric Sardinia. These fortress and watch towers, built of giant stones in the form of truncated cones, have been standing here for more than 25 centuries. The mystery of the origin of nurag has not yet been solved.
In the northeast of the island there is the medieval town of Alghero, surrounded by seven-tower ramparts. Narrow streets, ruins of the fortress, the charm of antiquity. A steamboat runs from Alghero to an important garden attraction - the "Neptune Cave" with stalactites. But, of course, the most striking and impressive can be a boat trip to the French island of Corsica. Fans of a healthy holiday will surely enjoy the Forte Village resort complex, which consists of eight hotels surrounded by tropical gardens. In principle, you can’t even go beyond it. There are clubs, shops, restaurants, tennis courts, a beauty center with a phyto-bar, and a unique thalassotherapy center with five pools surrounded by exotic plants.
The Forte Village Resort has developed a one-of-a-kind "health route" that offers consistent swimming in six pools with a temperature difference of + 20 ° C to + 38 ° C and different salinity levels.
Sardinian cuisine
The main "feature" of the Sardinian cuisine, wherever food is cooked - in a rustic oven or electric oven, is to preserve all the advantages of natural products. The most typical dishes are Porceddu - a piglet seasoned with myrtle and baked underground in a pit of hot stones or fried on a spit, over an open fire, in which fragrant wood (juniper or rosemary) is added. In addition, it is Taccola - a partridge prepared in the same way, Malloredus - dumpling pasta in a sauce with sheep's cheese, and Sosripi - a whipped protein dessert with bitter almonds.
Sardis primarily consider themselves shepherds, so a wide assortment of dishes from lamb and sheep cheeses are presented here. Sardinian bread is excellently suited to various types of cheeses (there are more than a hundred of its types).
The “King of the Sea” of Sardinia - boiled lobster in the sauce of its own caviar and another delicacy - pasta with sea urchins (and only females filled with caviar are eaten) can be tasted everywhere.
The beauty of Sardinia is that when traveling on a yacht, you can stop and go to one restaurant, then to another, each time finding something new for yourself, or, on the contrary, trying traditional dishes prepared in the most unexpected ways.
In Palau, at La Taverna Restaurant, which is located right in the port, the cuisine is just crazy. The main dish is Buybes, an amazing fish soup cooked in the Italian manner. Moreover, the waiter insistently advises not to take anything else: "You ordered soup!" And indeed, the bybes is the first, second, salad and dessert. This amazing dish is made from fish, seafood, tomatoes and spices. It should be washed down with cold wine, and snack - with thin Sardinian cakes fried in olive oil.
In Alghero there is a completely wonderful restaurant, a large crab hangs at its entrance. They cook San Pietro fish, which is very difficult to catch, because it is found exclusively in the depths. It may be difficult to catch, but there is a sheer pleasure. In the Persatore restaurant, which stands directly on the water, overlooking the same old port of Porto Cervo, anyone can share the remains of their meal with the fish. As a result, by the end of the tourist season, the fish become thick to indecent.
Many, indulging in a vacation on the island of Sardinia, prefer to dine in uninhabited places (agriturismo). Here the owner of the restaurant is both the cook and the waiter, and all products are grown independently. Relaxation in luxury style here is no longer the subject of Show off, and more and more takes on the character of personal pleasure. Otherwise, relaxing in Sardinia is simply impossible ...
