Porto Cervo is the main town along the Costa Smerelda, the Emerald Coast of Sardinia. It was created by Prince Karim Aga Khan in the 1960s as a playground for the rich and famous. We went before the season and found a sleepy village just waiting for the beautiful people to arrive. They had to make do with us.
The town is truly gorgeous and it is easy to imagine why it is so popular with the yachting set.
The architecture is unique and spectacular in its rocky setting.
The coastline is stunning.
As you can imagine the shopping centre is amazing. It really is one of the prettiest places I have ever shopped in, not that I bought much, it was just fun to be there.
We found the most beautiful shop in the world. Click here to see it. We also spotted the loveliest church in the world and you can see it here.
We stuck our noses into the Sheraton hotel foyer.
It would be fun to stay there! We asked for a restaurant recommendation and they sent us to Il Pomodoro for lunch.
After lunch we had another wander, and tried without success to ride on the little train that takes tourists around the town. We were given wrong directions several times, eventually found the correct place only to be fobbed off by attendants who couldn’t have given a toss whether we bought a ticket or not. Sometimes you wonder why people are involved in the tourist industry at all. Give the tour train a big swerve and just walk around this gorgeous place.
Porto Cervo doesn’t really represent the rest of Sardinia. The island is mostly unspoiled, with heavenly rocky coastlines and a rugged mountainous interior, dotted with ancient villages and really ancient Nuraghe, thousands of years old. Click here to see the few we found on our travels, there are thousands more.
You should go there to see both the new and gorgeous and the ancient and fascinating. Look in the Sardinia category for more.