Beach Bums

Sardinia is an island near the Mediterranean coast of Italy. It's a popular beach spot for Europeans. It was under Spanish rule for a few hundred years, so while it has an Italian feel to it, there is also a lot of Spanish influence as well. I have become pretty tired of getting nickel and dimed by RyanAir, but they offered good times and somewhat decent fares to fly to Alghero, a small town on the West coast of the island. It was so hot, but we loaded up on sun screen and took to the beaches for the weekend.

WIA: We wandered around Thursday night and stopped in at Angedras, which looked nice and had an enviable location along the city wall looking out to the sea. We got a perfect table, right on the edge of the restaurant, with the perfect view of the sunset and also up close and personal for some fantastic people watching. We started with culurgiones, a Sardinia specialty of ravioli stuffed with potato and mint. I can't exactly remember the next dish, but I think it was lobster meat mixed with tomatoes. I will never forget the main course though. We travel a lot, but we still have moments where we make, as Jenn calls them, "rookie mistakes." This was one of those moments. We ordered the lobster served Catalan style with tomatoes and onions. We asked for just one that we would share. We insisted that he not bring too large of a lobster. When he showed us the lobster, it looked fine and not too big, but in retrospect, we probably should have asked. The menu listed the lobster at 10 EUR per 100 grams. We discussed before the bill came what we thought our total bill would be and for some reason, the math never registered with either of us. Maybe we were distracted by the ambiance and the beautiful sunset. It turns out, Jenn and I shared a 1.2 kilo lobster, which is roughly a 2.6 pounder. To save you the effort of doing the math, that is a 120 EUR lobster. We were in shock, but we knew it wasn't worth trying to argue or clarify, because it was our mistake. At least the lobster was good. We learn from these lessons. I will always remember that 120 EUR lobster just as I have never forgotten the 15 EUR slice of pizza from Venice.
We snacked on the beach for lunch the next day and ate dinner at the Michelin starred, but definitely not hoity-toity Andreina. It had a very comfortable feel and the food was excellent. The highlight for me was the tagliolini with a pecorino crust, which the waiter mixed over a huge block of pecorino cheese. It was rich, creamy, and delicious.

Dinner the last night was pizza at Dona Isabel, which was recommended to us by our friend, Charles. Sometimes a simple meal like pizza especially when made with good ingredients, goes a very long way. We had a very tasty paella lunch (which we had to order a day in advance) on the beach at La Conchiglia on the last day.

It wasn't the best paella we had tasted, but it was pretty good. The setting was great though, with our table literally in the sand and the water 20 feet or so away.

WID: If we had had more time, we would have explored more of the island, but since we were only there for the weekend, we stayed in and around Alghero. We spent the first day at the very crowded La Pelosa beach at the Northwestern point of the island. The white sand beaches were nice, but the real gem was the crystal clear blue water. It was like a swimming pool. There were tons of people, which made it a little less relaxing, but we did have a good day.
We started out the second day at Neptune's Grotto, a stalactite cave not too far from the town center. There was a long walk up and down and the inside felt kind of like scenes from the Goonies. It was cool.

We then went to Le Bombarde beach, which is another white sand beach with clear blue water. Sardinia has no shortage of them.

On the last day, we walked about two miles to Maria Pia beach and hung out there for the day. The highlight was walking back to town since we walked through the beautiful clear water almost the entire way back.

WIS: The Villa Mosca is a small B and B with an excellent location, 10 minutes walking distance from the center of town. It's an old, but grand residence that has been updated to accommodate a few guests. We could kind of see the sea from our room, which was simple and very comfortable for us. The breakfast wasn't overly exciting. Our favorite part about staying there was having drinks and sitting out at watching the sunset over the sea each night.

WAM: Alghero isn't known for being the best part of Sardinia, but the water was just as nice as some of the best beaches I've been to in the world. I wouldn't mind going back to see the Emerald Coast on the East coast of the island because it's supposed to be even better.

WTF: After two years, we still both feel pretty conservative at the beach when most women are wearing barely anything. Regardless of age, women only wore bikinis, and tops were optional. Jenn literally was the only person wearing a one piece.

To see more pictures, click here.