Last month we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary in Sardinia. Sardinia is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Italy and France. It’s near Corsica, France. Sardinia is a big island and we flew into Olbia and chose to stay on the Northeastern side of the island in Porto Rotondo. This area is known as Costa Smeralda (The Emerald Coast). Costa Smeralda was developed in the 1960’s so everything is new and modern (for Italy) which has it’s good and bad points. The bathrooms were larger and more modern than on the mainland but we felt like we were in California or Florida. In the town of Porto Cervo, there were many high end stores like Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, etc, but I prefer local shops with unique Sardinian treasures. Our favorite town was Santa Teresa Gallura which is older and more traditional Italian than the other towns. Andy commented that he felt sorry for people who only visit Costa Smeralda and think that that is traditional Italy, because its not.

We stayed at a nice resort that had a pool and beach access. The view from our room was amazing. The weather was hot and sunny but there was always a nice breeze that saved us. We went to Sardina in June because it gets really crowded in July and August and we do not like crowds! The resort was only half full so it was nice. We really just wanted to relax and eat good food and we accomplished both!

The food in Sardinia was spectacular. We are rarely disappointed with the food in Italy! In the second picture Andy is looking at the wine list! We had an appertivo (pre-dinner drinks accompanied by some salty snacks) in Santa Teresa Gallura which was delicious. My Bloody Mary was served in the tomato can! The presentation was so unique! We also had the worst pizza that we have ever had. Ever. More on that later.

We took at boat cruise to the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park. The park is stunning. The water was so many different colors; it was amazing! The cruise was advertised as a luxury cruise and we paid more for the VIP section which was on the top deck and had less people. There were only 13 people in the VIP section and maybe a total of 100 people on the boat. The cruise was far from luxurious. The section we were in had these plastic pillow type lounge chairs (I should have gotten a picture but I did not) and no other seating. Well, these lounge chairs were fine for short people (like me) but if one is over 6 feet tall (like Andy), they were miserable. He ended up standing for the whole cruise. There also was not enough shade on the top deck so all of us got sunburned. The music played on the boat was rap music with very explicit language. I’m sure they did not know how offensive the music was to Americans. It was really bad. The lunch on the boat was pasta served in a conch shell. It was very unique but I kept thinking how was the shell sanitized? The boat dropped us off for an hour on the island La Maddalena so we could find a bathroom, water and a snack. This is where we had the worst pizza. Ever. The restaurant we stopped at didn’t have good Google ratings but I needed water. And I may have been a bit cranky about it. We split a pizza to snack on and it was burned and tasted like cardboard. I usually LOVE the pizza in Italy. This was not good. All in all, the boat cruise was fun and the scenery was gorgeous but I would not recommend this specific cruise. I’m working on my Trip Advisor review…

We both are going back to the US for a visit this summer (well, Andy already went) but we are not planning any other trips this summer. Our older dog, Lucas is getting harder and harder to leave. He is getting worse about thunder storms, fireworks and loud noises. He wears his thunder shirt a lot and now we are trying a calming pheromone collar on him. Our dog sitter is great with him though. While we were in Sardinia, she sat with him until 1 in the morning because of fireworks in the park. Sully is fine with loud noises but car rides are frightening for him. I can’t win.