Southern Sardinia

With a 2-week stay in Chia we were able to tour the surroundings from Cagliari to Carbonia, with a trip to Villasimius. The beaches around Chia are each more exciting than the last, and the beach that morning was always more beautiful than the one seen the day before. All the beaches, with shallow, white-and-blue and crystal-clear water, are worth a visit, but among those that thrilled us most I remember: Su Giudeu, Cala Cipolla, Tuaredda, Is Arenas Biancas (with dunes up to 20 m high from which to launch yourself in fantastic leaps) and Porto Pino, which however we strongly advise against for anyone going in August (there's no room even to walk). In the Villasimius area we made a quick trip to Campo Longu beach and I must say that here too the dream is guaranteed.

The whole Chia area and the southern coast have kept their beauty still "au naturel", with large protected areas and tourism mostly by locals, who love and respect their own land. This part of Sardinia, however, is not "just beaches"; there is something you don't expect that deserves a visit, and it's the province of Carbonia-Iglesias, which offers an inland area and a coast dotted with mining sites and former mines, today open to visitors, offering a different but equally interesting point of view on life on this island. We visited the "mine-museum" of Carbonia (the great Serbariu mine), which includes the coal museum, and the Monteponi Mine near Iglesias. In both there is a guided tour of the mines, with helmet and lights, and you can, even if only faintly, imagine what the life of the many miners who worked there was like.

The whole coast from Nebida to Masua to Porto Flavia is a succession of "mining archaeology findings" that by now have become one with nature, creating unique and breathtaking views. In short, this is the Sardinia that thrilled us!!! Hilary