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For them, Sardinia is like a sprawling park, a happy island of natural oases and protected reserves, in endless landscapes where there is no sign announcing them as such. The island's few inhabitants leave plenty of room for the tenacity of nature, full of a lively spirit, and an ideal habitat for many wild creatures. Animals that without the confines of the sea would have wandered far from their land, losing their special traits and perhaps the freedom to live as they know best. Horses, donkeys, mouflon, deer, eagles and griffon vultures have always been here, while others come here for the winter and are struck by 'mal di Sardegna' (the feeling of nostalgia of those who have visited Sardinia and want to go back) and never leave. Like the flamingos that nest in the wetlands behind the beaches, colouring the island's lagoon landscapes with pink.

Places shrouded in legends and mystery, an ancestral world that speaks through huge stones. This is the atmosphere you will experience at Pranu Mutteddu in Goni and Bir'e Concas in Sorgono, in the green heart of the island, where there are hundreds of menhirs: solitary, in pairs, in a circle or in long rows symbolising ritual pathways, perhaps oriented based on celestial phenomena. Magic, sacredness and magnetic power, as in the famous Stonehenge, but here the menhirs are older and greater in number.

Plunged 'like a knife' into the ground, the perdas fittas (or 'driven stones' in Sardinian) rise up towards the sky surrounded by a fairytale landscape: centuries-old oak woods, meadows of cyclamen and wild orchids, lavender and myrtle bushes that perfume the air. The sky also plays its part, the sun filtering through the lush nature and making the huge, elongated, tapered stones glow with a soft light. They are refuges of the soul, sensory places that spark the imagination: is it all real or is it a fairy tale told by nature?

1. What is the current situation?

 The Italian government has taken measures for restarting, that is a gradual and complete return to normality after the most restrictive phases of the health emergency due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The so called "phase 3" does not provide for any limitations to personal freedom, with respect for social distancing in both outdoor and indoor places. Accommodation facilities and all shops are open, with specific rules related to physical distancing, sanitization and other dispositions according to the decrees issued by the national governement and the Ordinances of the Sardinia Region President.

2. Is it possible to travel to and from Sardinia?

All national air and sea connections to and from Sardinia are open. The International connections with the European Union countries, United Kingdom, the states of Schengen agreement, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are active too.

In Sardinian airports and ports, passengers will be subjected to body temperature measurement.

For detailed information about urban and suburban public transport, you can refer to the web pages of TrenItalia-Sardegna, Arst and public transport companies in the main cities (Ctm-Cagliari, Atp-Sassari, Atp-Nuoro, Aspo-Olbia).

The sea breezes and swell of the waves create a rich spray of salts and mineral ions that envelop the island's coasts in healthy air, best breathed in slowly and deeply. Extraordinarily beautiful, healthy and brimming with precious elements, it then blows past ever-changing seascapes, small islands, bays, sandy, quartz and coral beaches and fantastic cliff terraces. They all become exclusive beauty farms by the sea with no time limits or regulations, offering the best of natural wellness, water, sun, stones, shells, rocks and sand at no cost. These are the welcoming outdoor gyms that are always open for those who want to recharge their batteries and empty their minds. Generous but fragile, they only ask to be respected so that they remain a precious reserve of well-being, forever and for all.

'The Islands of cinema' is a network of four festivals in the lesser islands of Sardinia. In mid-July Tavolara turns into an immense cinema with a starry vault of Una Notte in Italia. Established in 1991 to focus on filmmaking and creativity in Italian cinema, it is now a traditional event at national level. In thirty years, the best Italian actors have walked on this unique red carpet surrounded by the waters of the spectacular marine reserve of Tavolara-Capo Coda Cavallo. Meeting and interaction between the public, artists and experts already starts on board the boats that reach the island leaving from Porto San Paolo near San Teodoro and a little south of Olbia. It starts on Tuesday 16 July in La Peschiera (San Teodoro). Two days later the festival takes place in the seaside square of Porto San Paolo. From Friday 19 July until Sunday the shows are staged in the immense hall under the stars of Tavolara.

By day, places of “boundless spaces and superhuman silences” seemingly disconnected from performances and live shows. By evening, however, music takes over the infinite stages provided by nature and history. Summer in Sardinia also means an irresistible combination of breathtaking locations and great national and international artists. Each year, a lineup captivates and excites an ever-growing audience, offering shows and concerts for all tastes and ages. From refined Italian songwriting to international pop, from rock to hip hop and dance music.

Frue, burrida, civraxiu, fregula, malloreddusu, casizolu, pani frattau, filindeu, tzilicca... no ad hoc recipes to amaze the palate, simple and refined notes, delicate and at the same time robust flavours of the sea and the land skilfully blended, fragrances of special seasonings, from extra virgin oils to wild herbs. This is a cuisine where ancient acts and rituals are repeated, celebrating the mastery of traditional cuisine and expressing the art of young chefs capable of conveying the soul of their land through dishes rooted in memory and history, never the same from one place to another. In Sardinia, nothing is the same: wherever you go, traditions, culture and even language are incredibly different. Even the most popular 'non-sweet' dessert goes by many names: in Nuoro you have to order a sevada, in Cagliari a seada, elsewhere a sebada, seatta, or sabada (a deep-fried dumpling with cheese and honey). Each time it will seem like a dessert with new nuances, because the type of cheese, sheep or cow's milk, cooked or raw, and the type of honey added when cooked, delicate in the south, more sour in other areas, will be different.

Sardinia is a cradle surrounded by the sea where, eight thousand years ago, a mysterious and original civilisation began, open to innovations and cultural influences, brought by sea from one side of the ancient Mediterranean to the other. The Sardinians built nuraghi with boat moorings on the coast, joined together to monitor the sea and connected to those built inland. The island's location is strategic: it is a lively crossroads on the trade routes frequented by seafaring peoples, including the advanced and peaceful Phoenicians who made their base in Sardinia. They founded what were to be the most beautiful, cultured and rich cities of their time, Sulci, Bithia, Nora, Tharros and Karaly. Goods, ideas and knowledge moved freely between the Phoenician cities and the Nuragic villages until the imperialist peoples thirsting for new domains landed.

It blends with the setting of granite rocks and Mediterranean scrub and is reflected in the clear blue waters, where it has been watching over the stretch of sea between the uncontaminated island of Spargi and Sardinia for two centuries. The Talmone military battery stands on Punta Don Diego, next to the beach of the same name and near Cala Trana, in the territory of Palau: it is an integral part of a defence system built at the end of the 18th century on the extreme northern coast of the Island, after the conquest of the Maddalena Archipelago by the Savoys. It consists of around fifty forts, small forts and batteries, scattered throughout the present-day national park. A place of great historical value, protagonist in events of war during the Unification of Italy and the world wars. The numerous guns that looked out from its underground battlements defended the borders of two kingdoms, Sardinia and Italy, becoming strategically important after the Unification of Italy, especially when the royal fleet took up residence in the Maddalena base.

From the watchtower of Talmone, the adjacent canal between the mainland and Spargi was kept in the line of fire and was the scene of epic naval battles during the Second World War. Then, in 1947, the Treaty of Paris compelled Italy to dismantle the base and discontinue the military batteries. More than half a century of abandonment followed, until 2002, when the maritime artillery site was entrusted under concession for 25 years by the Sardinia Region to the Fondo Ambiente Italiano - FAI (Italian National Trust), which, thanks to careful restyling and redevelopment interventions - still in progress - guarantees its opening and visits open to the public.

After parking your car in the locality of Costa Serena, you will come to the military fortification, by taking an easy albeit bumpy path towards Punta Sardegna, surrounded by greenery, with the scents of juniper, laurel and myrtle and granite sculptures carved by the northwesterly wind, and moving above beaches and marvellous coves. Your half-hour walk will be rewarded with the quietness of a former military shelter by the sea.

The naval battery, a sort of ‘ship on land’ perfectly located in the rugged and spectacular Gallura landscape, takes us back in time and tells us about military works and secrets, discreet traces left by man in uncontaminated nature, the hard life of soldiers and the long and solitary hours spent gazing at the sea. You will see the basement glacises where cannons were positioned, with the ammunition depots alongside them, then a turret that served as a gun laying station and lastly, about 70 metres from the shooting stations, the barracks, its numerous splendidly-restored rooms and original bright colours. Inside the dormitories that accommodated 70 sailors stationed at Punta Don Diego, were the guards’ quarters, the command office, the canteen and the caboose. At the top, on the right, there is an observatory. The armed batteries are on the sea, with a lookout equipped with machine guns, and in the vegetation you will see the armoury entirely dug out of the granite rock, while, beyond the battery, a coastal path reaches another lookout camouflaged between the granite rocks. In fact, the most evident feature is the perfect integration between the complex and the environment, in which it is totally camouflaged and hidden from the enemy.

It may have prehistoric origins, but it has been celebrated since the dawn of time and resembles traditional Anglo-Saxon festivals. It is the night at the end of October when the realms of light and darkness come together and allow the souls of the dead, having opened the gates of purgatory, to return to the places they once belonged to and to wander among the living. The suspended souls include the Janas as told in popular island legends and oral tradition. They are small spirits balanced between earth and sky, with persuasive voices and enchanting beauty, fairies or witches depending on the places where they are summoned. The live in domus de Janas, tombs dug into the rock, the symbol of a cultural facies that spread throughout Sardinia between the 4th and 3rd millennium BC.