Sardinia

David’s mama has a ton of vacation days built up, so she decided to take July off of work and spend some time in Italy.  She convinced us (it wasn’t tough!) to meet her for a long weekend in Sardinia.  So Friday morning we flew into Alghero to relax on the beach for a few days and eat lots of delicious Italian food!

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily.  It was ruled by the Spanish for hundreds of years, and joined Italy in the late 1800’s, so its culture is both Italian and Catalan.  We spent the weekend in Alghero, on the northwest coast.  The city is surrounded by white sandy beaches and crystal clear water.  The old town, with its narrow pedestrian lanes, is enclosed behind sea walls and ancient towers.

After we checked into our hotel on Friday morning, the dei Pini on Bombarde Beach, we headed down to the water.  We were assigned specific beach chairs and umbrellas for the entire weekend and every morning, the lifeguards would prepare them for us.  The hotel also hosted water aerobics classes and even Pilates.  And trust me, I needed those classes after eating as much as I did.

A breakfast buffet was included in our room rate and I definitely ate breakfast like I was on holiday.  My breakfasts consisted of chocolate cake, amaretto cookies, apricot pie, panna cotta (Italian custard), and powdered sugar croissants. 

I did get some fruit in my diet – you can spot a glass of orange juice and bowl of pears in the top of the picture!

We quickly fell into a routine of lying on the beach under the 100 degree sun for about half an hour, getting too hot to stand it, and then running into the water.  After cooling off, swimming around the reef with the fishes, and lounging on the lifeguard boat, we’d go back to the beach chairs and read for another 30 minutes or so before running into the water again to cool off.  The water was so clear and clean, we could see more than 10 feet down to the fish swimming along the bottom.  The colors went from light green (very shallow) to teal (where the reefs were) to blue (deeper parts of the sea).

I spent hours dozing on the that raft and working on my tan (and reliving my glory days as a lifeguard). 

On Friday evening, we had dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant, Sa Mandra.

Sa Mandra is not just a restaurant – it’s a whole experience.  Out near the airport, in the middle of nowhere, Sa Mandra is a farm / recreated village that houses a large restaurant serving local produce and meat.

After arriving, we were escorted to a small yard where the staff was offering wine, prosciutto, olives, and roasted pecorino cheese with the local bread.  The bread was like an Indian poppadum, a large crisp covered in olive oil.

Then we had a family-style dinner of all-we-could-eat antipasti, followed by a first pasta course, a second course of suckling pig and roasted lamb with innards (I avoided the lungs and heart), and finally, a dessert sampler with biscotti, fruit, and sugared marzipan.

Unfortunately water aerobics was cancelled the next morning, but I swam some laps to make myself feel better.  We also hiked up around the cove to get a better view of Alghero along the coast.

That afternoon, we took a cab into the old town to walk along the cobblestoned streets behind the sea wall. 

We had dinner at Ristorante O, run by Master Chef Eoghain O’Neill.  At first, I was a bit weary of eating a traditional Sardinian dinner at an Irishman’s restaurant, but the chef has lived all over the world, trained under some amazing people like Gordon Ramsay, and his food did not disappoint!

We had a bottle of white wine to go with our lobster sampler, melon with prosciutto, and trilogy of sea bass.  They also brought us an amuse bouche of cauliflower gazpacho and spicy duck.  For our mains, I had black risotto with lobster, David had lobster farfalle pasta, and Karen had steamed sea bass.  Then they brought us a palate cleanser of pineapple and eucalyptus before our dessert.  Karen had a trio of traditional seadas, ricotto cheese fritters with honey (very similar to Mexican sopapillas).  I had a trio of crème brulee (pistachio, cardamom, and passion fruit) and David had lemon tart with a shot of limoncello.  Each dish was beautiful and scrumptious.  Don’t be fooled by the name, Ristorante O was a really pretty location overlooking the harbor with food to match the view!

View of Alghero across the bay

Our flight out on Sunday wasn’t until 6:00, so we were able to hang out on the beach all day again.  Even though check-out was earlier that morning, the hotel offered a ‘courtesy room’ where we could shower and get dressed before flying.  That is a really smart idea, and the first time we’ve seen that at a hotel.  In the past, we’ve either boarded the plane covered in sand and saltwater, or avoided the beach altogether.

Sardinia was absolutely stunning and we had such a relaxing weekend hanging out on the beach.  It was nice to have nothing planned, no schedule to follow.  The only things we had to worry about were packing the sunscreen and some good books to read!