SARDINIA Adventure - Adrenaline - Wild

Sardinia is renowned for its crystal-clear waters, breathtaking beaches, rich history, and exquisite cuisine. It is highly appreciated by motorcyclists for its winding and well-maintained roads.

The Barbagia is the wildest area of the island and the least touristy part of Sardinia.

Sardinia is a region rich in cultural facets: the island is also known for its linguistic diversity. In Sardinia, not only Italian and Sardinian are spoken, but also dialects of Corsican, Catalan, and Ligurian origin.

The oldest city in Italy from an urban planning perspective was founded by the Phoenicians: the ancient Sulki, now known as Sant’Antioco. This revelation came with the discovery of an ancient amphora, definitively dated to 800 BC, which testifies to the oldest settlement, predating the cities of Cagliari and ancient Nora. To put it into perspective, when Sulki was the main and fundamental landing point in the Mediterranean, with its trade connections to the East, Rome had not yet been founded.

The longest-living village in the world is in Sardinia, specifically in the province of Nuoro, and it’s Perdasdefogu, with one centenarian for every 222 inhabitants. This record is also listed in the Guinness World Records, and we have already explored the secrets of Sardinian centenarians in this article. It’s a great opportunity to visit this area personally, as well as all the places within the Blue Zone between Barbagia and Ogliastra, and learn about the habits of the oldest people on the planet.

The largest natural desert in Europe is located precisely in Costa Verde, the southwestern area of the island, in the town of Piscinas: a breathtaking landscape, a dazzling yellow-ochre desert that spans 5 square kilometers, created over the centuries by the Mistral wind with natural sand dunes, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, reaching heights of 60 meters.

The oldest tree in Italy is located in Sardinia and is called S’Ozzastru. It is a wild olive tree, and not only is it the oldest tree in Italy, but it is also among the top 10 oldest trees in the world, ranking seventh, behind trees found in California, Nevada, Wales, Turkey, and Iran. It is estimated to be between 3000 and 4000 years old and is the patriarch of the millennium-old olive trees of Europe. S’Ozzastru is the Sardinian name and means "the patriarch olive tree of all olive trees" in Italian. Declared a natural monument in 1991, it has a "smaller brother" just a few meters away, which is only 2000 years old.

The deepest canyon in Italy is in Sardinia, in the Supramonte region between Orgosolo and Urzulei. It's called Gola di Gorropu. With walls reaching up to 500 meters high and a width of just 4 meters at its narrowest points, the Gola di Gorropu is one of the deepest canyons in all of Europe and is home to the Gorropu eagle, also known as the Nuragic eagle.

In Sardinia, there are no toll roads.

It is rare to encounter police patrols or Carabinieri. On state or provincial roads, checks are almost nonexistent. On multi-lane roads for fast connections, speed checks are more frequent during the summer months.