For foodies
Where to eat well in Sardinia
11 towns
Towns holding at least one place a guide put its name to. The ones several guides agree on come first.
Carloforte
Province: Sud Sardegna · 10 m
A Ligurian-speaking fishing town on the Isola di San Pietro, founded in 1738 by coral fishers returning from Tunisian Tabarka.
Alghero
Province: Sassari · 7 m
The Catalan city of northwest Sardinia, repopulated by Peter IV of Aragon in 1354.
Oliena
Province: Nuoro · 380 m
A Supramonte village at the foot of the massif's highest peak, source of Cannonau Nepente, base camp for Tiscali and the Lanaitto valley.
Palau
Province: Sassari · 5 m
The Gallura port with a weather-shaped granite bear on the headland that gave the town its emblem.
Santa Teresa Gallura
Province: Sassari · 44 m
The northernmost town in Sardinia, founded in 1808 on a Turin-style grid above the Strait of Bonifacio and 11 kilometers from Corsica.
Mamoiada
Province: Nuoro · 644 m
The Barbagia village where the Mamuthones come out on January 17, twelve men in black sheepskins carrying thirty kilos of cowbells.
Castelsardo
Province: Sassari · 114 m
A Doria sea fortress at 114 meters above the Gulf of Asinara, Genoese from 1100, Aragonese from 1448, Savoyard from the 1700s.
Dorgali
Province: Nuoro · 387 m
A Supramonte town at 387 meters, with a coastal frazione, a Nuragic village hidden in a sinkhole, and a limestone gorge cut through the massif to the south.
Fonni
Province: Nuoro · 1,000 m
The highest village in Sardinia at 1,000 meters on the Gennargentu, with ski lifts climbing above the town and the Madonna dei Martiri sanctuary at its edge.
Oristano
Province: Oristano · 5 m
The old capital of the Giudicato di Arborea, city of Eleonora and the Carta de Logu, host of Sa Sartiglia equestrian joust at Carnival.
Santu Lussurgiu
Province: Oristano · 503 m
A Montiferru village at 503 meters where the Carnival horse race runs through a steep stone street and saddlery has been made since 1923.
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From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Arquà Petrarca
Province: Padova
The Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
Samugheo
Province: Oristano
Sardinia's textile-weaving capital: a 2,757-resident Mandrolisai borgo where the MURATS regional textile museum, the Tessingiu woven-art biennale, and an active community of weavers on traditional looms keep a knot-stitch tradition alive.
Salò
Province: Brescia
On the deepest gulf of the lake, with the longest waterfront promenade and the cathedral of the Riviera di Salò.
Matelica
Province: Macerata
A Verdicchio town at 354 meters in the upper Esino valley, with a Roman marble globe in its archaeological museum.
Montecarlo
Province: Lucca
A walled hill village at 163 meters above the Lucca plain, founded by Emperor Charles IV in 1333 and named for him, surrounded by twenty wineries.