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Thousands of kilometres of coastline designed by a bold but divine hand and, to welcome you ashore, a network of marinas, landings and tourist ports. That's not all... just behind the ports, lies the other Sardinia, where the great soul of the island resides, guarding ancient traditions and thousands of years of culture. It’s a pity to set foot on land without visiting places marked by prehistoric times, with nuraghi, domus de Janas and sacred wells or stopping off at the little villages and hamlets where customs and traditions with an ancient flavour still exist. You can meet the local people, join the local festivals and celebrations and purchase some of the excellent artistic handicrafts and food and wine products, right there where they are produced. Why not eat at one of the numerous tables, from award-winning restaurants offering innovative flavours mixed with tradition, to lunch in a barn, with roast meats, rivers of Cannonau wine and a nice glass of myrtle liqueur at the end of your meal.

Then you can set off again towards another port along ever-changing stretches of coastline, where the marine environment is a magnificent sight. You might also choose to moor in the heart of oases and marine parks with their Caribbean waters, thinking you are on the other side of the world, while you are really in the middle of the Mediterranean, just a stone's throw from home.

As well as extraordinary biological vitality, you will see Sardinia’s ancient history written on its seabed by the tides that once washed, discovered and again submerged the coastline during the geological eras. The rocks and the monoliths, canyons and little caves, once shaped by the rain and wind, are now submerged and covered by an extravagant marine texture, where octopuses and cuttlefish play hide and seek with divers. The same fate befell the beach rocks, the paving of the fossil beaches, which can be found at shallow depths and are fantastic to swim over wearing your mask. They too have been in and out of the sea, trapping the signs of marine and terrestrial life in their comings and goings. Now they look like ancient Roman roads where Mediterranean fish chase each other.

Do you want to learn diving techniques from scratch, improve your scuba level and do some great diving? Sardinia is the right place for your ‘sea baptism’, for obtaining international course licenses and for partaking in the most exciting diving in the Mediterranean; in challenging locations such as the Grotte di Nereo cave system in Alghero. Here, a single dive would not be enough if you want to fully enjoy the magnificent sights and in those technically simple but never trivial dives, rare and elsewhere unrepeatable, like at the immense ‘città delle nacchere’ in Golfo Aranci the noble creatures of the sea in danger of extinction.

An Island in the middle of the Mediterranean could only have extraordinary seabeds like these. They are unique and special and every stretch of the underwater world tells its own story, according to its ancient geological, biological and human history. It is an exceptional gym for moving around in the other dimension of the sea. And enjoying yourself like crazy.

Magnificent natural settings and scenery of incredible charm, but what really makes the Maddalena Archipelago unique is that each of its islands has its own air, its own atmosphere. There is the delicate one to look at from afar, the most intimate one where you can feel a bit like a hero, the scintillating one to be experienced day and night, the craggy ones where history and the waves have been heavy-handed, and the Caribbean ones, envied by the whole world. Even if some of the islands are very small and uninhabited, they seduce like no other place and these small lands contain all the "charisma and symptomatic mystery" inherited from their mother Sardinia. Just like her, they too have been inhabited since the dawn of time. When history first began, the ‘obsidian way’ passed through here and, until the decline of the Roman Empire, also the granite of Gallura. They were abandoned for a long time. Monks arrived in the Middle Ages, later joined, little by little, by families of Corsican shepherds and fishermen from Ponza, starting a new story of men and women with the sea in their hearts, who made the community that had settled at La Maddalena great, always defending and never violating the islands of the archipelago, which reached us with the mysterious purity of places that have barely been touched.

Buttes, aiguilles and rocky peaks are the silent witnesses of a geological era during which they incorporated fossils, schists, limestone and dolomite rocks from the Cambrian period. They burst powerfully into the Sardinian landscapes and are so full of energy accumulated over hundreds of millions of years that they were already perceived and considered places of worship in the Nuragic age, a sentiment resulting from the cosmic occurrences considered divine and supernatural. Much of that magical aura and that transcendental solitude will reach you as you walk the paths that lead to their feet. Here are some of them - destinations for unusual excursions.

As soon as you set foot in Sardinia, your senses reawaken: dazzling light, infinite shades of blue and green, African multicolour sunsets, night skies with an oriental flavour and the wild scent of the earth and the briny sea air that pervade the island. Your gaze will be magnetically attracted by the happy outcome of a tormented and interminable geological life that left a legacy of ancient rocky mountains and lunar landscapes alternating with intricate woods and natural monuments, surrounded by a coastline so captivating that it looks like it has been catapulted here from other worlds. A generous island of positive energy, all to be captured.

Transparent waters wash kilometres and kilometres of free coastline, with landscapes made up of inlets, reefs, coves and an infinity of beaches. A short walk will take you to some of them and you will never find yourself elbow to elbow with neighbouring beach umbrellas even in mid-August. You will find others set among fantastic reefs, close to cool pine forests, soft sand dunes and natural oases inhabited by pink flamingos. Each speaks its own language: there are precious, delicate ones that it will seem an insult to walk on, while others are so wild that you will feel the thrill of being the first to set foot on them and sometimes their past experience comes before their beauty. You could experience a different one (or more than one) every day, but a lifetime of holidays in Sardinia would not be enough to discover the vastness of its sea.

They have nothing to do with the revised and reinterpreted traditions... the masks of Sardinia and their rituals linked to Carnival have their roots in the mists of time. While elsewhere the period preceding the awakening of nature is experienced as a moment of unanimous joy, the climate of the ‘carnivals’ here is bittersweet, just like it was originally: primordial fears, the power of Nature, death and the Afterlife, the divine and the supernatural. The masks are made of wood, carved by highly skilled ‘masters’. They have also maintained their superstitious symbolism intact and it is said that it is good luck to have one in your home. You can find them in the artistic handicraft shops and in the little shops of sos maistos in Mamoiada, Orani, Oristano and Ottana, some of the most famous places that have preserved and handed down their ancient use intact.

Bright sunny days will remain impressed on your mind, a comforting warmth even in winter, autumns and springs to frame and ‘experience’ intensely and summers that seem never-ending. You will feel at home, thanks to the authentic welcome, deeply rooted in the traditions of the people who populate the coastal villages. You will share their daily lifestyle, which has helped make the Sardinians a people of legendary centenarians. Every glimpse of the seaside villages is a photograph to add to the album of the most emotion-filled memories, and that’s just the beginning. Then there’s the habit of eating good food in these locations, an incomparable mixture of sea and land, outdoor activity, healthy and scented with Mediterranean essences. On foot and by bike, along the paths outside the walls, where enchanting coastal landscapes enshrine mysterious archaeological legacies and fascinating medieval ruins and where, without realising, your gaze will soon be lost on the horizon.

In the evening, a few artificial lights emerge in immense spaces, peaceful and silent, beyond the coasts. They indicate a few small towns and, above all, the numerous little villages that exude authentic charm, ancient traditions and original cultures. Don't expect a spectacular wow effect, like when faced with the unparalleled beauty of the Sardinian sea, as these places have a discreet and reserved charm that cannot be grasped at first glance by a passing visitor. You have to stop for a first-hand experience of how ‘life in the past' found solid roots in the alleys and in the people who live there, thus remaining as it was originally. It is imprinted on the stones of the houses, in daily gestures, in the expressions of pure humanity on the faces of the people you will meet in the Island’s inland villages, which are part of the ‘club dei borghi più belli d’Italia’ (association of the most beautiful villages in Italy).