Sardegna

This past Spring my friend Angela said she wanted to take a "real" holiday this August and spend a significant amount of time in Italy. Without hesitation my reaction was "done and done".  A couple reasons ... first, Angela is Italian and if anyone knows how to do it, she does. Secondly, upon moving here in July two years ago I quickly learned that several mainland European countries literally shut down in August ... the entire month ... like turn the AC off, lock the doors, close the office holiday  ... for a month.

Startling indeed ... totally brilliant!  To be honest even my 10 day jaunt was met with a bit of a raised eyebrow from the southern European folk, like "haven't you learned YET how to holiday?". Guilt-free holidaying is superb.  And the inbox was delightfully easy to manage since everyone else was doing the same.

So, we decided on Sardegna (Sardinia in American).  That's the big island the boot kicks into the Mediterranean :-). It was to be a girls trip ... big house, people can come and go as they please.  Most of the time we were five or six, a couple nights we were seven, but despite flying in from different ends of the world we certainly had the single, successful woman thing in common.

Judging by the 400 photos I took, the majority of this trip was about turquoise waters, sun-tanning, good food and wine, and {not in photos} girl talk.  Precisely what was needed.

Kara and I hit three locations on the island.  First night we went down to Cala Ganone to see the East Coast, and woke up to meet Amy to take a boat ride along the coast to visit the beautiful Cala Luna beach complete with steers sipping out of the pond between us and the lovely canteen.

Then, up north to Porto Cervo to meet up with the clan in our three bedroom house (complete with stunning blue pool ... and its own kids!! .. yes, that is sarcasm).  Seriously though, the house was beautiful.  Patio, grill, locally made rugs, quiet, and on most nights pleasantly breezy.  Seven nights.

When I mentioned to my aforementioned co-workers about going to Porto Cervo they snidely commented about me being over-paid, as the area is known as being the port for the most exquisite yachts around the world ... like Monaco or Nice.  Google images of this location bring up move stars and the like.  Meh.  Ok, yes, there were some big boats someone more interested in that arena may drool at, but that really was the least of my interest.

We had a couple cars, so we drove around from beach to beach to beach.  The area is quite secluded, so it was necessary to do the research to find the best places to go.  Most beaches are on small, cliff-side roads with the only indication of their presence being a group of cars parked along the way.

The highlight of the trip for me was chartering a sail boat to take us out amongst the smaller islands offshore.  There you could truly experience the undisturbed waters, glowing brilliantly, so clear our crew was literally inspired to conduct a full synchronized swimming routine while chiming the words to "So, Call Me Maybe".

For the last two nights we headed straight West to Alghero.  I larger, historic port town with winding cobblestone streets lined with coral jewellers and gelato shops.  We stayed at a small hotel, from which we wandered to find delicious restaurants perched on the city wall overlooking the most amazing sunsets of the trip. Known for its lobster and red wines, we partook in the local luxuries.

There were so many memorable moments, like the stressful manipulation of the car onto the ferry to cross to the Maggalena island, Amy's wind-surfing adventure, grilling amazing seabass at the house, swimming challenging distances to see schools of fish circle a distant boulder, fur coats for thousands of dollars at a street market, the ladies plunging off a 20ft cliff into the sea, crispy local white Vermentino wines, clubbing it on a beach at sunset, lobster, fresh fish, salami, Pecorino, bread, cookies, nutella ...

I could go on and on.  Laughing, hugs, new friends, best tan ever ... {so freaking happy right now}.

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