Our hotel had a giant breakfast spread prepared for us every morning. There was way too much to eat, and there were different things every morning.
As if that spread wasn’t enough, there was a hot dessert served with breakfast.
Lisa with her giant cappuccino from breakfast
There are almost too many beaches to choose from in Sardinia. We came to this one first, which turned out to be just rocks
We lucked out with our next attempt. We had a nice relaxing final day on the beach
There is a path that leads from spiaggia rena bianca (the main beach in town), up to a tower built in the 1500s. We decided to check it out during our last evening
Coming out of the rocks towards the sea
We had a nice view of the sea from the trail
At the base of the tower
The tower, built in the 1500s
You can pay a small entrance fee to go to the top of the tower, so of course we did that.
On the top of the tower
The view from the top of the tower
Santa Teresa Gallura from the top of the tower
The buildings in the town were super colorful. We really enjoyed our stay in Santa Teresa Gallura – it was nice and low key. We also didn’t encounter any other Americans while we were there (or anywhere in Sardinia). Lisa’s Italian definitely came in handy.
For dinner, we had reservations at an agriturismo. This was a first for us, and the only regret we had was not doing it sooner and more often. It was an amazing experience. The one we went to was away from town
More views at the agriturismo. Agriturismos are all over Italy – they are small farms that serve food grown/cooked at the location. Some have B&B-like accommodations also
The main dish at this agriturismo is roasted suckling pig. This is the outdoor oven they use to cook them
We were the first guests to arrive. It quickly filled up and was completely full by the time dinner started
The starter was a meat and cheese board with local ingredients. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into at this point, so we dove in and ate it all. We didn’t realize there were 6 more courses coming
After another course of various roasted vegetables, the homemade gnocci came out. This was turning out to be an amazing meal
The Zuppa Cuata. We had it the previous day at lunch. It’s a sardinian dish from this region that is similar to lasagna, but instead of pasta, bread is used. It’s soooo good
I think it was around this point that we were completely stuffed, and realized we were in trouble. There were still more courses coming out. This is another sardinian dish we had the previous day at lunch. Sweet lemon ricotta ravioli. Once we had it, we couldn’t believe it wasn’t available everywhere
After the ravioli, we both had to take a break and walk around outside. We were beyond stuffed at this point, but the roasted suckling pig came out next. Of course we had to eat it (or part of it at least). It had been cooking right behind us in the big outdoor oven the entire time.
Lisa’s face sums up perfectly how we felt at this point. So. Much. Food. We had our choice of desserts, and went with the local specialty, la seadas. It’s a cheese-filled fried pastry. We know better next time to pace ourselves. I think we both agreed that this was one of the best meals we’d ever had. It was super-affordable too. All about as local as you can get, and homemade right there. Our next trip to Italy will be filled with visits to agriturismos.
