You have to visit Cagliari because it’s worth it. Cagliari is friendly, diverse, naughty, lively but also very safe.

We arrived at night and the first thing we did was to go to the B&B directly and the out to the dinner, and is there where Cagliari conquest the emotions, the “Via Sardenya” has a restaurant at every step, the majority have terrace in the Mediterranean style. Mamma mia! What a racket!

When we speak about about “Via Sardenya” we refer also to the surrounding streets until the port. There are a lots of offers were you can final restaurants and bars for all budgets.

In front of the port is “Via Roma”, with beautiful porticos, and it’s the perfect place for the last “gelato” (ice-cream) before coming back to sleep.

By the way, our lodgings in Cagliari were in a wonderful place as they a ten minutes from the “Via Sardenya”. We stayed in the attic room, very spacious with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and hall with all the finishing you would expect, including a fidge. As you know heart rises, so the attic was very hot however torus, in agust in the south the temperature didn’t rise above 30º C (we were very lucky!)

The girl from de B&B, Erika, gave us a lot of good advice about restaurant, places to visit and also gave us a  city map with hand written notes about where to go.

The flamingos of the salt marshes and the “Poetto” beach.

Cagliari has something for everyone, a lively city center and a very long urban beach, the “Poetto” beach, and a N.P (salt marshes) only four kilometers from the city center, the salt marshes of Molentargius.

The “Poetto beach” is a blast from the past with its 1950s out floor, which includes natural spas, sailing clubs in the first line of the beach and rooms of chalets on the opposite side and 3 lanes for sports in the center (sporting motorway) one pavement for walkers and two for cyclist (in both directions)

All of which add to the feel of this incredible place a large beach without any high–rise development.

The beach ends in the “sella del Diavolo” (saddle of the Devil) is a mountain that separates the two beaches in Cagliary, “Poetto” and “  Calamosca”.

In the “ Poetto” beach you can also find many beach bars close to the shore, and all of them in the sand, and we have lunch in one of them “Fico d’India” where we ate for the first time “Spaghetti con vongole and botarga”  (with clams and botarga) and by the way is the best.

The botarga are eggs of mújol, in Valencia, mújol is called “Llisa” and it’s a fish that fishermen catch on the shore.

In Sardinia the “botarga” is a delicacy, tasting of the Mediterranean, complimented well in a seafood pasta.

If you come to Sardinia there’s no doubt that you most taste this popular and tasty dish from the south of Sardinia.

The salt marshes of Montegius were a big surprise as it’s so close to the city center. You can only visit the park with guides using a all terrain minibus for fifteen people however the guides recommended that we hire bicycles to cross the N.P to the beach (extremely good advice)… in truth, it was fantastic! This activity is highly recommended if you are travelling with kids.

We had a fun time cycling across the long beach and stopping to swim when we “over-heated”.

At 17:00 we started from educational center and crossed the park with an Italian guide who told us all about the park we didn’t understand very well because we don’t speak Italian.

But never mind, we could enjoyed the sunset with the flamingos gliding across the water with its pink hue and the suns reflection which made a trip worthwhile.

If you are wondering where the name “Montelargius” came from, it got its name from the word “Molenti” (Sardinian word for donkey) that was the only form transport for extracting the salt to sell later for humans consumption.

The “bastione” of Saint-Rery, Palazzo Square and the towers. The historical center of Cagliari is the neighborhood of “Castelo”, situated on a rock which in the past was used for a fort to defend from pirates.

Actually, you can go up to the top using either the left or if you are feeling fit you can climb the steps.

The “bastione” of Saint-Rery is a classically styled building with a lot of steps, a triumphant arch and hugh terrace which offers fantastic views of the city.

From here you can see the point, the “Devil’s saddle” on the beach the marshes… a perfect panoramic views.

Panoramic views of Cagliari

The steps that you climb take pun to the neighborhood of “Castello” but don’t think you will find a castle because there isn’t one! The name really confuses us.

There is however a very pretty historical center with its main square “Piazza Palazzo”

Piazza Palazzo

In this square you can find the Santa Maria cathedral (Duomo in Italian) and two palaces, one of them was the old town hall.

It’s a place must you see, with its grandiose design. The cathedral is beautiful inside and outside, we was surprised with the crypts and the polychromed sculptures.

The towers of “Elefante” and “San Pancracio” were both constructed to defend the area from pirates.

The peculiarity of the towers is that they were built from limestone with an open interior leaving the wooden structure bare.

In the case of “Elefante” tower it got its have from due to its very tall elephant sculpture of 10 meters.

It’s possible to climb the tower however, we didn’t do it but people say it has better panoramic views than Saint Pery.

We didn’t have time to see everything in Cagliari, such as S.Benedetto market, the Roman amphitheater… but we made a note to remember these places for our next visit, because we will come back.