Walking Tour in Sardinia

Discovering Cagliari and heading east to Santa Maria Navarrese

An elephant on the tower? You’ll have the answer to this by the end of the tour. During a four-hour guided walk around Cagliari, and a visit to the fabulous archaeological museum, you’ll learn about the town’s structure and the mark left by successive civilizations – Roman, Pisan, Aragonese and Piedmontese.

High up in the town in an ancient citadel, Castello, watch flamingos take off from two large ponds. After a tour of Cagliari by Ape, the classic Italian three-wheeler, we will wander through San Benedetto, Europe’s largest covered market, to see and sample the fish, meat, cheese, wine, bread and cakes on offer. After a light lunch in the market, we set off from Cagliari in a private minibus driving through inland Sardinia to the east coast and Santa Maria Navarrese.

From Cala Sisine to Cala Luna
with transfer to S. Maria Navarrese by boat or jeep

From the campsite, you head for the left slope of Cala Sisine bay to climb back up to the cliff’s edge, glimpsing the sea through juniper bushes. Then Bacu Lopiro – an astonishing natural hole 20 metres in diameter  ̶  you have to take a picture! At Cala Luna (Moon Bay), there’s a beachside café, where you can relax with a drink before returning to S. Maria Navarrese by boat. The 45-minute boat trip is superb: you’ll look back at the whole coast, including the bays you walked across during your Ogliastra experience. If sea conditions do not allow transfer by boat, return by jeep or alternative means will be organised.

Santa Maria Navarrese to Cabras through the town of Ulassai

This is a transfer day (2.5 hrs) from the east coast passing through central Sardinia to the west coast. Our first stop is the Stazione dell’Arte, a converted railway station at Ulassai dedicated to the work of native artist Maria Lai, known for installations such as Sewing up the world and Capturing the wind. Maria’s works were exhibited at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Then our walking tour in Sardinia continues westwards across central Sardinia up to Cabras in the Gulf of Oristano. The gulf is enclosed to the north by Cape San Marco, on the Sinis Peninsula, and to the south by Cape Frasca and is dotted with massive ponds, including the Stagno di Cabras and Stagno di Mistras. The Stagno di Cabras has a surface area of 2,200 hectares and has been privately owned since 1982. Today the ponds comprise some of the most important wetlands in Europe and have been declared a European Community Interest Zone. The wetlands have another quality: the special intensity of the light.

The Phoenix Path to Sinis Peninsula and Tharros

Learning about and tasting bottarga

We are now on the west coast and start walking again. A local guide will lead us along the Phoenix Path that follows the coast overlooking the Gulf of Oristano to your left and the Cabras Ponds on your right, traversing fish farms and ending at the Sinis Peninsula at Cape San Marco.

On the way back, we will stop at the Tower of San Giovanni. From the 50-metre vantage point you will see, to your right, the ‘live sea’, exposed to the wind, and to your left the ‘dead sea’, protected from the wind – and Tharros, a city founded by the Phoenicians in around 800 AD, on what was then a Roman site. From the tower, the guide will tell you about Tharros. Further inland, the sand dunes give way to Cabras Ponds, a swampy ecosystem among the largest and most flourishing in Europe, and home to the greater flamingo.

We return to Cabras by minibus to visit Cabras Pond at the Pontis Consortium and learn the secret to catching grey mullet and producing bottarga. Bottarga is smoked grey or red roe from mullet, tuna and even swordfish. Sardinia is where bottarga has always been produced, and Cabras is the mecca of mullet bottarga. Even though it’s becoming known in North America, the product is still by far an unknown delight. A tasting concludes the day.

Sheep-milking competition and visit to the Giants

We start our last day with a visit to the farm of Marcolino, who is a shepherd in Su Prano, a few kilometres from Cabras. Marcolino, a real cultural ambassador for this rural area, will school you in the art of sheep milking. You’ll then take part in a milking competition; the best-performing milkers will receive a medal crafted by a local artist. After all that milking, Marcolino will demonstrate how to make cheese and ricotta. And what better way to end your farm visit than with a cheese and wine tasting? The wine is a vernaccia di Oristano, a staple in the life and customs of this area, and the whole of Sardinia.

‘Prehistoric cyber men? Sardinia’s lost warriors rise from the dust. It’s the only group of sculpted life-sized warriors ever found in Europe.’ That’s how The Independent described the giants of Mont’e Pram at the Cabras Archaeological Museum where we will be taken on a guided tour. On display are a collection of six male statues (three boxers, two archers and a warrior) 2 to 2.5 metres in height, and four models of nuraghe, the megalithic edifices unique to Sardinia. The giants are ancient stone sculptures created by the Nuragic civilisation in Sardinia. Fragmented into numerous pieces, they were found by accident in March 1974, in farmland near Mont’e Prama. After a light lunch, we will reach Oristano in the afternoon by mini-van, and then take the train to Cagliari – Elmas Airport (1 hr, 15 mins). This is the end of your walking tour in Sardinia!