With a feast of fine sand beaches punctuating a ragged and rocky coast, a photogenic cluster of offshore islets and outcrops, and a mountainous interior where the lie of the land is lunar stark, this is the only region of Italy with no motorways and that tells you a lot about Sardinias pace of life. Prepare to wind-down to the local tempo.  

Just as Sardinias calendar is littered with flamboyant festivals; religious, local and folkloric, its landscape is littered with relics of a chequered past, from Carthaginian and Roman ruins to Genoan fortifications, Spanish Baroque churches, Pisan city-state towers and several thousand nuraghi stone constructions built by the islands earliest inhabitants circa 1500BC. Almost equidistant from the coasts of Italy and Tunisia, the island has a character unique to itself. Its strategic position in the middle of the Mediterranean invited invasion by all the usual suspects, each leaving reminders of their time on the island and not only in the tangible form of architecture. The Sardinian language is little changed from Latin, though a strong dialect around Alghero is unmistakably Catalan. When DH Lawrence visited, he pronounced the island lost between Europe and Africa and belonging to nowhere. 

Even the abundant wildlife seems an exotic mix of rare and prolific breeds. Cranes and cormorants and great pink clouds of flamingos flock to the calm lagoons of Cagliari. Wild goats and moufflon mountain sheep share the Gennargentu (silver gate) peaks with small mammals and large birds of prey. And the waters around the islands shores form a smorgasbord of marine life, from lobster and red mullet to octopus and clams.

In Sardinia today, the immediate and lasting impression is one of colour. The sea, deep blue off the rocks and crags, turns to turquoise in the shallows and is crystal clear where wavelets accompany it to the shore. Hundreds of beaches of fine sand come in shades of pale gold and soft white. There are lush plains of verdant vegetation, tall cliffs of steely silver granite, mellowed pastels of colour-washed houses, and splashes of bright blooms from the richest red peonies to the multi-toned pinks of oleander. All conspire to create a place of inspiration and relaxation.