On The Road: Sardinia

Inland from the sparkling shores and spangling yachts of northern Sardinia’s glitzy Emerald Coast are mountains fragrant with wild herbs and kitchens serving deep-fried cheese ravioli and succulent suckling pig

- Lucy Gillmore

The sky is a bleached-denim blue, the sun as dazzling as a playboy’s medallion as we flip-flop along the jetty to our boat. The Relais Villa del Golfo’s luxury sailing yacht, along with its chino-clad captain, is ours for the day – so far, so chi-chi. 

The north coast of Sardinia is famously flashy. This is not the low-key luxury of private hideaway-peppered Italian islands such as Pantelleria and Panarea. Ever since the Aga Khan spotted the potential of this wild, untrammelled stretch of coastline from his yacht in the late 1950s, and went on a monumental building spree, bling has been king. Among its rocky coves, sugary sand and languorous seas Prince Karim Aga Khan IV created an exclusive playground and renamed this jewel-like enclave the Costa Smeralda, or Emerald Coast. 

Its hub, Porto Cervo, a pseudo terracotta-trimmed fishing village, is a kind of Sardinian Bicester-on-Sea. Pedestrianised streets form a necklace strung with wallet-draining restaurants and designer boutiques – Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada – while its marina is packed like sardines in a tin with gaudy super-yachts. Princess Margaret, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot and Peter Sellers once partied here. Today, you might still glimpse Hollywood A-listers, icons of Formula One, ageing rock stars and a Russian oligarch or two. 

The Costa Smeralda slinks seductively along the shore for a mere 34 miles, however. Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily. Dip inland, or wind your way further around the coast, and you’ll find another, more authentic, side to the island. In the region of Gallura, around Arzachena, a sprawling archaeological park is littered with Neolithic remains and Bronze-Age Nuragic settlements.